Summer Fun in July

July has kept us super busy with soaking up as much summer fun as possible! The kids would love to go to the playground every day if they could! One day at one of our favorite parks, I took a chance to get some good shots of the kids in their natural element! Jacob, ever the two-year-old, rarely poses for photos-- but check this out!

Another summer favorite activity is the library story time and activities. We go to two different libraries-- one smaller, where they have almost daily activities for school-age kids, and another larger, where there is a better selection of books. Both have summer reading programs with prizes for reading certain amounts of books. We're reading almost every day anyway so why not get treats for doing it?

We were too busy and somehow missed strawberry-picking this year, but made it in time to do some cherry picking. The kids loved the cherries fresh from the trees, but we didn't know what else to do with them beyond just eating them!

We also celebrated the wedding of a couple from our small group at church. The kids always love a chance to get together with their friends and party!

Andrew Turns 8!

Andrew is our happy-go-lucky middle child who is active and energetic. He loves playing XBox and computer games, and when he isn't playing them, he loves watching videos about them or talking about them. He still loves dinosaurs and animals in general and recently got both an Animal Encyclopedia and a Dinosaur Encyclopedia, which he loves flipping through. He retains any facts that have to do with animals, but not so much his school work!

He says science is his favorite subject. He struggles with handwriting, but has a very creative mind for writing. He excels at math, and really doesn't care much for reading, unless its non-fiction. He has a few good friends at church, but unfortunately doesn't get many chances to spend time with them. He is super sensitive and hates when he feels like someone is laughing at him. He enjoys playing chess and Stratego with his dad, watching shows like Power Rangers or How to Train your Dragon, and he likes playing outside. 

His birthday party was a superhero theme with a few of his close friends.

He loved this bucket of dinosaurs. So much that two different friends got the same exact one for him! (We were able to take one back for something different.)

He loves pretending he's different superhero. This Batman belt will help!

Family Day at the Science Museum

This past Friday our family went to a really fun museum just a couple hours from home to enjoy a day together. I had been to this museum with the kids about 3 years ago but Brett had never been. We stopped for breakfast on the way at our favorite Vermont breakfast stop, and then made it to the museum to enjoy several hours of fun.

They had an exhibit about bubbles when we first arrived. You can see it was a hit!

They had lots of stations set up upstairs for different thinking/ logic games. We spent a little time, but moved on fairly quickly.

Andrew would have liked much more dinosaur stuff, but he did find a little on skeletons.

Another exhibit was about the science of wind. Leah took the opportunity to try out her model pose!

Jacob loved this little area where air could make the ping pong ball float.

Brett's been looking over this balcony for a long time with this guy!

The unique part of this museum is the outdoor water area. They have little fountains and rocks to climb on and get wet. So after our picnic lunch we spent some time in the water.

What a fun day we had learning & exploring together!

July 4th

For July 4th this year we decided to do something different, and last minute we decided to go to the Lake. We love Branbury, as it has plenty of grass area to sit and also plenty of sand for playing and building castles. The water is shallow a long way out, too. The kids have all really developed a love for swimming this summer!

Jacob has always been a fish and loves just sitting at the shore with as much of his body in the water as possible!

Leah is really working hard on going underwater and swimming and rarely likes to use a swim float.

Jacob found a little puddle someone had started digging and filled with water (well, mud!). We started digging it deeper till he was covered with the stuff! Some friends from church happened to be at the beach that day, too, so we got to play with them!

 Later we came home and enjoyed the All-American hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill!

Then, yesterday, we enjoyed a parade in a nearby town. It was a pretty good parade, and we joined some friends to hang out and watch! There was a few activities for kids, including a bounce house which we had to drag Jacob out of. The parade was definitely the highlight!

Operation Arctic VBS

This year's Summer Kids' Camp (a.k.a. Vacation Bible School) theme was Operation Arctic. I know, the last thing we want in Vermont in the middle of summer is an ice blast, but the kids really enjoyed it and it was a fun theme to prepare for. Here are some snapshots of our fun week. We had maybe 40 kids in attendance each night-- a huge number for our small community! I led a group around to the different stations-- no prep time but still got to build new relationships with some pretty fun kids.

Each year we have a penny war, boys vs. girls, to see who raises the most money for a charity. This year it got out of hand! Kids were even stealing from others to get more money! They turn their pennies into bricks or rolls and we do it based on weight. So Brett got his workout each night!

The weather proved to be pretty great all week. It wasn't too hot like years' past and I think it only rained one night.

Here is Leah's group from the week. I think her leader may have been the only one that took a photo!