Late Nights

The theme of our week seems to have been late nights.  We sure had a lot of them!  This past weekend, we were able to help my cousin Liz celebrate her graduation from high school by helping out with the set up and organization of her party.  This translated in to a Friday night of preparing a pig for the pig roast and a full Saturday of set up and preparation.  Once the party started, I was busy making sure food stayed stocked for guests, and the girls were busy playing with new friends, which kept Daddy and the guys busy as well.

After the party ended at 9, it was clean up duty and several more hours passed.  The girls were able to watch and participate in some fireworks at dark and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  Needless to say, they were wore out, and before the night was over, they were sleeping in the arms of someone.

 

While visiting with Great Grandma before the party, Ezri was excited to get a bug box from her to take home.  That box sat empty for a few days before Daddy found a "lighting bug" in our house and stuck it in one night, after Ezri was asleep.  For 2 days after, Ezri was intrigued with her bug "Tim", often just watching him.  We discovered that he really liked orange slices one day. 

We finally convinced her that Tim needed to be outside with his family and friends, where he could fly around and that he would surely visit her when she was outside at night.  So, she let him out one afternoon. 

 

Tobi has been getting lots of extra love these days, and seems more interested in being around us, often following us outside and right back in, or around the yard.  He has even consented to being a pillow, which would not have happened before!

 

Our week nights were filled with Mega Kids Camp, a 4 day event put on by our church, with sport or other activities for kids preschool through 5th grade.  Alex and I helped out, Alex leading a group, doing MacGyver type activities while Alora and I helped out with Cheerleading (in which I have no experience). 

Ezri hung out with the preschool group. 



There was singing, dancing, sports and lots of other activity, including a juggler who came Thursday night.  We had fun, but it was SO HOT and we were all more than wore out by the end of each night.

 We are sure ready for this heat wave to break.  These upper 90's days with heat indexes above 100 have been miserable for everyone and made it difficult to accomplish much outside.  Daddy had to resort to machine work after dark.  We sure could use the rain too!  While our garden is looking good and we've been able to harvest some beans already (in addition to the black and red raspberries we have been enjoying), that is due to the water system we have built in to run twice daily.  I sure am grateful for that!

Fortunately, we have Aunt Nancy's pool nearby, and were able to put it to use Sunday evening and again Thursday morning.  Ezri is really getting brave and learning to swim better each time.  She now wants to swim without a vest, and is learning to keep her head above water and swim short distances.  It is so fun to watch her learn and improve each time we get into the pool

Alora also enjoys the water and wants to be out of her vest or floaty just as often, but most often to be held or to play on the steps.  Very brave herself, we have found her to step or jump off the steps and even the side of the pool, assuming someone will catch her as she goes in.  A little too brave!