June

Eliza always has a good time with her friend Declan and she loves swimming.

Hannah loves horses and was so excited to help out with, and ride them, at a friends house- thanks Shileys!

I love this picture!!

Hannah riding and Andrew working...we should move to a farm :)

They have cute baby ducks that Ethan loved holding and petting

Eliza's 4th birthday!

We went on another treasure hunt...my go to party activity

Staying with cousins in Kansas City.  The kids all had so much fun!

Eliza with her cousin Eliza (and they both have the nickname Ellie). Her mom is actually Daniel's cousin.

The last day in Kansas City we stayed in a hotel because Daniel had to work nearby the next day so his work paid for it. The kids (and cousins) played in the pool for over 4 hours- until after dark.

We woke up in the hotel on Eliza's birthday so I had a few balloons and presents that I set up (I found that American girl doll at a garage sale for $3.00! It had a hole in the stitching on the side but my sister in law sewed it up :).

While Daniel was working we went to our favorite farm in Kansas City.

Happy Birthday Eliza. We are so blessed to have her in our family!

Backyard swimming fun.

These sweet girls formed a service club and made cookies to give away.  Of course they had to sample the dough.

My only picture from Father's Day. I'm so grateful for Daniel and the wonderful husband and father he is! We went on a walk around the neighborhood.

Eliza never got a cake on her birthday because we were out of town so we finally made her purple frosting cake.

I love this picture.  His cap is tight so it was squeezing his eyes a little :). He loves swim team and is doing great.

Eliza and Ethan helped me make platform 9 3/4 for Hannah's Harry Potter party.

We made these spell books for each girl...

...and we made these wands...

...so they could practice the spells to do things such as keep the balloons in the air (say the spell, give the balloon a little tap with the wand, and up it goes)- kind-of cheesy but they had fun and they loved reading all the different spells (from a link on pinterest).

They went on a hunt to find all the lost horcruxes

They also made potions (sprite, juice, food coloring, and pop rocks)

Platform 9 3/4

It's often too hot to go outside during the day so we wait until night.

Ethan is getting good at reading.  His first real book he can read by himself is "Fred and Ted go Camping".

Hannah loves babies, especially cute baby Lydia.

Catching fireflies. We had been swimming and they got home and were cold with the air conditioning so they put on long sleeves but it was still over 90 degrees outside when this picture was taken.  Crazy kids.

Their school is doing a summer daily reading challenge and if they do the challenge each day in the week then they can go get their reward from somewhere in the community on Saturday.  This reward was obviously free ice cream.

Andrew had fun at scout camp

Making breakfast...and reading at the same time

Ethan with his friend Sam playing legos.

It is fun to watch Andrew swim at his meets but there is about 2 hours in between each time he swims so we took a break.

Back at the swim meet with their daddy.

We are constantly reworking the way we do scripture study to make it meaningful. This is working so far, they enjoy highlighting all references to Christ as we read.

Happy 8th Birthday Hannah! I'm grateful to have my Hannah. She is a wonderful sister and is fun to talk to and be with.

She wanted to go swimming/on water slides for her birthday.

Pizzookie instead of cake

Hannah and I went to the play "The Little Mermaid". It was really good.

Playing in the sand at the magic house.

Eliza has caught the "fear of storms" and is concerned here that there will be a storm.

Hannah getting her ears pierced.

Making slime

Happy Summer! It has been a pretty busy, sometimes stressful and sometimes fun, usually crazy, but overall a pretty good summer for us so far.