black & white

Second trip to the lake

We took our second trip to Clear Lake and everyone had a blast! The weather was hot and sunny every day. The kids loved playing at the beach, swimming in the lake, goingon boat and jet ski rides, and playing with Gamma, Boppy, Uncle Steve, and Aunt Judy!

"Ummm..it's really windy. Are there things gonna fall off?"



Cheering on Daddy's back flip



Loving the water!

It was so warm that even Mama went swimming!

Kevin Skiing

Clayton being Clayton - with rope.

Passed out after lots of sun and water play

Dinner at Caruso's

Top bunk!

Playing racetrack with Aunt Judy

Laughing and loving life!

Slip'N'Slide

Daddy taking Caroline and Clayton on a jetski ride

Totally

This is my smiley boy with his favorite friend - Raffy!

 This picture is one of those wierd shots that captures how a person will look in a few years., He looks SO much older in this than he does in real life! (Thank God!)

 This is classic Clayton.

 Caroline posing next to my beautiful hydrangeas, pre-drought.  (They are now browning because of the crazy heat and lack of rain.)

Date Night!

We got to go out on a date night with Erica and Rick. It was great to get together, just the four of us, and have a wonderful dinner at The Hole in the Wall! Thanks BB and Aunt Joanie for babysitting the kiddos!

Power outage

We had a huge storm last week that knocked out power for over 600,000 Chicagoland residents.
We were very fortunate, and our outage only lasted about 18 hours.  It is amazing how dark it gets with only candlelight!


Candlelight Breakfast

 

A "rain walk" to see all the effects of last night's storm

Makenna is 8 weeks old!

Here's a picture of my little niece, Makenna. She just turned 8 weeks old. Isn't she darling????

Vacation Bible School - Fruit of the Spirit

I hosted a "Fruit of the Spirit" Vacation Bible School for 12 little girls this past Friday.

 I taught all 9 fruits from Galatians chapter 5, matching them all up to actual fruits.  The kids did a great job listening and participating!

 We had spoon races with plastic fruit.

We had pizza, fruit (of course!) and cross cookies.

The kids colored fruit tree coloring pages

 and painted paper plate watermelons with lime and strawberry "jello paint".

 All of the kids went home with posters that help them practice all the fruits of the spirit.  The cool thing is - a few parents have since told me that they've hung up their posters and their kids have really started practicing displaying their fruit! Yeah!

All in all, it went really well. I took away a few learnings from the experience that I can hopefully apply to make the next one even better.  (The main learning-  employing help! Two moms stayed and helped tremendously! Thank you Monica and Annette!)