Lots of Reasons To Celebrate

We started out last week with a blessing in the form of lots of veggies thanks to a friend's overflowing garden.  Corn, Potatoes, Tomatoes and Carrots filled our house and refrigerator.  The girls and I set to work canning and preserving.  Thanks to the generosity of this individual, we were able to can and freeze a whole lot of food!  The girls got in on the fun on Wednesday morning, once I was ready to tackle the corn.  Each of the girls thought it necessary to try an ear, even though it was not yet cooked, and even Sadie helped herself to an ear!

I baited them a little to get some help, two garbage bags plus 4 reusable shopping bags filled with corn was quite the task.  For each ear, I promised a coin.  Ezri jumped all over that deal and did over 30 ears all by herself!  

Wednesday afternoon, we got the chance to hang out with "aunt" Becci, as she had the day off.  We decided to spend some time together at Aunt Nancy's pool.  Though it was not very hot that day, nor the water super warm, we did have a good time together.  We were visited by a  very sweet stray puppy that adopted us for the day and also made a rather interesting discovery in the kiddie pool.  A "Giant Water Bug" (at least, that's what my Google searching has brought me to determine) had made itself at home in the little pool, and gave us opportunity to observe and wonder for a while.  Between 3-4 inches in length, this thing was huge!  And a fast swimmer!

 The girls were amused by it and the puppy for quite some time after we finished swimming.

 We finished our afternoon with some ice cream and then dinner together.  What a fun day!

Friday brought our 11th Wedding Anniversary!  We took a few moments to ponder how quickly the time had gone, share a few laughs, and then it was off to a very busy day of crossing paths with meetings and life pulling us in separate directions much of the day.

Friday night, the girls and I were back at Aunt Nancy's to swim.  A hot week, with temps in the high 80's and low 90's, we were ready to swim and cool off.  The girls know they can always talk Aunt Nancy into a snack, so pretty soon out came the ice cream, which Tierney thoroughly enjoyed!

 We ended the evening, the girls and I with Aunt Nancy, Uncle Ryan and Tara, watching three deer come in under the apple tree for a snack.  It was so much fun to watch this with the girls, who were quite in awe of the whole situation.

 Well, two of them were, anyway... Tierney finally got too tired to watch and just went to sleep.

 Saturday morning, we headed to church to help prepare for the free carnival the church was hosting.  Alex and the guys were already hard at work preparing food when the girls and I got there.  After helping with some set-up, we ate lunch before the crowds arrived.

 A very hot, full sun day, with temperatures in the low 90,s, and the event taking place on the blacktop parking lot, it was so hot we had to take breaks for water and shade almost every 30 minutes!  But, the girls had a great time (even with hot feet on the inflatables).

 After the carnival was over, and clean-up complete, we packed up our hot, sweaty kids (and ourselves) and headed to Grandville for Chinese food in honor of Becci's birthday.

Another hot day on Sunday, we were soon heading back to Aunt Nancy's pool with our friends to enjoy some fun in the water together.

 After a while of playing with Andy, Jay & Becci, we send a little guilt trip to our friends Tony and Kathy via text message.  They soon joined us and more fun ensued!

 Of course, Alora was onto the trail of the food and snacking throughout the day...

 It was a full, but very fulfilling weekend.  We are so very blessed!