Father's Day Weekend

The start of the weekend we had a fun Small Group pool party at Jeremy & Jesse's house. Well... we got some swimming in before the storms hit (the first weekend of the storms, that is!) I wanted to go in the basement but Jesse thought I was nuts! ;) Here are a few shots of the kids.

Kelsi & Karli

Ali & Kara

All the girls!

Seth & Nate (all the boys!)

This is when we should have been in the basement!

This isn't the best shot but I loved how Seth had Nate in a nose lock.

We ended up leaving soon after the storm went through because we knew our electric was out. Thankfully, our electric came on the next day around 10 a.m.

Father's Day - Rob did something fatherly! He and Nate went out and did some shooting. Then, who showed up??? The "City Slickers"! Our nephews, Jordan and Niall!!! They were all in heaven??

Niall was a natural!

Jordan....... not so much! :)

But that is okay because Jordan wants to be a youth pastor and Niall wants to be a cop!

This picture below, Jordan did nail that one! You can see it blasting apart in the sky! He was so proud.

Here are all three of the boys shooting against each other.

Then Rob got out the handgun. Scary! But look how cool my picture is!! You can see the smoke! Look at Niall's face, he is smiling!

The other kiddos!

This one couldn't handle the noise! :)

Then the cops came!!! Guess the neighbors didn't like the noise. :(

Just kidding. It was only Rob's cousin, Curtis.

Boys will be boys!!

Patio Update

Well, I'm sad to say the patio is not going to happen right now. :( I'm bummed!

Karli's tonsillectomy on July 19th is going to cost us a little more than we expected. So we are just trying to be wise with our money. Rob and I actually felt a little relieved when we made that decision. Money can be so stressful sometimes!!

We are trying to fix a water line that goes from the house to the shed. That has turned out to be a pain in the butt! With all this rain the hole has been full of water.

(Can you tell that Kelsi had been at Lorene's on this day??)

Just have to add to this blog what an awesome husband, father, son, and friend that Rob is!! He would drop anything to help anyone out. I love that about him!

These little monkeys love him, too! We had a fun Father's Day weekend, will post more on that later.

i heart faces!

Saturday I went to Chicago with my friend, Traci, for the first i heart faces Photo Walk. If you have never heard of i heart faces it is a photography site. Each week they have a photo challenge that anyone across the world can enter.

Well, this was their first organized walk in 20 other cities across America where other photographers were meeting and taking pictures of all sorts of things on their walks. Our Chicago group had about 12 (?). It was funny, 4 of us were teachers (2 others had been in education). All of us were amateurs, except Traci and our leader Randy. We met at the fountain there at Navy Pier and got acquainted. Then off we went! Snapping pictures....until it started to pour!! Luckily we had some shelter. We spent about 2 hours walking around and then the rain finally quit. By then we were famished! So we walked down to a market called Fox & Obel and had some yummy food.

I'm glad Traci talked me into going! I really went to learn more and have some fun! Here were some of the pictures I took.

I wasn't quite ready for this one, Traci! We were just checking out some lighting issues. :)

That's better!

Catchin' Up

School's out for the Summer!

The first week of summer vacation I usually have a hard time adjusting. I don't have a schedule or an agenda, somewhere to be, paperwork to do..... well I do.....but it just changes. I am just not quite sure how to manage my time! I'm much more efficient during the school year.

But this year is different! I think it had something to do with my group of first graders. They didn't suck the energy out of me this year! Really! Sometimes you just have a group that takes everything you have.

Not this year! They were a fun-loving group of kids that gave me plenty of hugs each day! They "filled up my bucket" so I have plenty for the summer!

So my first week off has been pretty productive! I have spring cleaned and now I am ready to work on landscaping! Soooooo happy (and thankful) it's summer!

I have neglected my blog but other things have been happening. Take a look!

Nate and Kelsi had their piano recital.

Kelsi played "Chinese Painting", without the music in front of her!

Nate played two pieces, "Pink Panther" and "The Ballade".

Kelsi finished 1st grade this year and Nate is moving on to 7th grade next year! (Karli has another year at the babysitter's :)

Now it's time to spend summer the right way, swimming!

Look out pond, here we come!