VBS

Last week Grafton attended his 3rd year of VBS at our church. This year was extra-special because his cousins, Levi & Drew, also attended and we even carpooled with them some of the days.

The theme was "FIESTA: Where the kids are fired up about Jesus" and Grafton spent his week worshipping, doing arts and crafts, playing games, and hearing Bible Stories. Of course, when I asked him what his favorite part was he replied, "snacks".

On the Monday and Friday of that week I met friends for breakfast and went shopping afterwards (to a boutique on Monday and Target on Friday) with some of them... On Friday we met at Chik-Fil-A and Deklan seemed a little lost without his big brother around.

This summer I'm having my own version of VBS by attending our summer Women's Bible Study. It's nice change because we meet in smaller groups in homes instead of a large group at our church building.

Our Bible Study theme is "Aspects of Friendship" where we learn about different parts of friendship and even have cute object lessons. For example, in the picture below we took a string of yarn and said something encouraging to another girl who sat across the room while passing the yarn to them. By the end of the activity, we were all connected!

I love that our family gets to spend our summer growing closer the Lord as we prepare for the business that the following months will bring.

Living in the Country

Even though we technically live in a suburb, with all of the wildlife we've seen lately, it feels more like the country around here and we love it!

A couple of weeks ago the boys & I were trying to catch a lizard... We could hear some rustling in a bush and stood outside of it with our nets while our dog Sophie dug in there. It was very surprising when a baby rabbit is what hopped out of it!

It ran right into my net (with Grafton chasing behind it) so we kept it for about 3 hours until Vince got home and could see it.

Shortly after Vince met our temporary pet we released him back to the bush where we found him.

The following week I was coming back from Bible Study late one evening and while backing into the garage my headlights shone right on a toad! We haven't seen a toad around here in over 5 years.

I caught him with a Tupperware dish and we kept him in a Rubbermaid out in the garage. The boys held him some the next day and that night we released him at the same place where I had found him the evening before.

I wonder what interesting wildlife we'll catch this week!

Cousin's Breakfast

It's a tradition every year that on Black Friday my two sisters, two cousins and myself spend the day shopping. However, we decided that only one outing a year is simply not enough!

So, on Memorial Day morning we met at Paradise Bakery for breakfast. We were having unusually beautiful weather so we sat outside for 3 hours and talked and laughed.

We unanimously agreed that our kids should also be making more memories together. As a result, we're planning a pool party soon!

A Birthday & A Graduation

A couple of weeks ago it hit me that time is going by way too fast! When I was pregnant with Grafton someone once told me, "The days are long but the years are short." Outside of the Bible, I think this is the truest thing I've ever heard!

On Wednesday, May 11th my oldest son turned 5. We had a little party for him a few days prior, so on his actual birthday Vince, Deklan and I took him to the mall. We went straight to the Lego Store where he picked out a couple of sets from the Atlantis series and then we headed to the Disney Store that had just opened that very day.

When we arrived Vince mentioned it was his 5th Birthday, and a few minutes later the lights and music in the store changed and this is what they did for him....

It makes me love Disney even more!

The next day was Grafton's preschool graduation!

After the graduation ceremony the kids did some fun activities in the classroom and then spent the remainder of the time outside for water day.

As we were leaving I started having a good cry (a 5th birthday and a preschool graduation is just too much for a mom in one week). We gave Grafton's teacher a good hug goodbye and I thanked her for being so wonderful all year.

Afterwards his entire class met at Peter Piper Pizza. I was thankful his teacher came and joined us too, so she could see I had pulled myself together.

We had such a nice time at lunch, that we're all going to meet again in June and July.... I guess I have a really hard time saying good-bye!