The Launch 2012

The youth group kicked off their new school year with The Launch last night. E had a fantastic time eating supper, playing games, and being challenged from God's Word!

photo: via Breaking Point 

I am so thankful that she has a great group of friends who love the Lord and desire to have a closer walk with Christ.

Summer Fun...Go Kart

Scot surprised the kids with a "new to us" go kart.

The kids have been wanting one since we moved here and have all this space to drive on!

Music by Moonlight 2012

Our local park has a series of nights throughout the summer that bring music to the park. 

photos thanks to my friend, Leah

We went to the park a little early and let the kids play on the playground. We also did a a few Geo-caches in the park. Then as the sun was going down, we enjoyed a picnic while listening to patriotic music by a local Army band.

Learning to Sew

 S took sewing lessons this week. This is something she has been wanting to do for a little while and when her friend mentioned she was doing it, it seemed like the perfect time to sign her up for lessons!

This is the pin cushion she made on the first day!

Our friend Sherry teaches the class so that made the week even more fun! This is S in the skirt she made in class!

Geocaching...Summer Fun!

Spending time with friends is the best way to spend our summers!

We went geocaching with the T family early one morning before it got too hot. This is the kids in front of our local KK peanut. There was a geocache there (which was MIA) and also a breakfast treat!!!! Fun times...oh how I love summer!

Seed Spitting contest

What is summer without a seed spitting contest?

(B is the 2nd from the right)

On Wednesday night, the RA/GA classes had a watermelon seed spitting contest. The funny thing is a girl won!!!!

Rewired 2012

For camp this year, E went to Rewired with our church. This is an event where they stay at our church from Sunday to Thursday. During the day, the participated in local community projects and at night, they gathered with dozens of other church youth groups and had an amazing time of worship.

Photo  via Breaking Point

She had an amazing experience and is already looking forward to next year!

Patriotic Picnic

Every year our small town holds a Patriotic concert on the square. It is such a wonderful evening sharing a picnic with friends while listening to a local orchestra play patriotic songs. I just love our small town!!!!

Camp 2012

E is going "away" to camp this week. It is actually only 5 minutes from our house! Our small town church is participating in a camp that connects other church youth groups together through large city wide ministries throughout the day and collective worship each night. This is her first year participating and she could not be more excited.

I will share more pictures when she returns later in the week!

The Summer Camp Play

Some of our friends were in a play on the final day of summer camp at a local theater company. We went to see them and I am so glad that we did! 

The play was so cute and very cleverly written.

Both of our friends, did an outstanding job!

Summer 2012 is....

wearing your bathing suit ALL day long whether you are in the pool or not!!!!

Blueberries

We met the nicest man at our small town's Blueberry Festival on Saturday. He graciously said we could go a pick as many blueberries as we would like from his bushes because he had gotten all he wanted. We jumped at the opportunity and went together as a family to pick us some blueberries!

There were so many left on the bushes, it was amazing! We picked a five gallon bucket full plus a small basket that we shared with some friends.

The berries were perfect so sweet and delicious.

We frozen 4 gallon size bags and about 17 or so quart size bags. What a blessing it was for us to be able to put up so many bags to use through out the year!

Summer is 2012....

spending the day playing cowboys with cousins!

Summer 2012 is....

building model airplanes!

Summer 2012 is.....

spending the day with good friends!!!!

Family Lake Trip 2011

Our family spent a few days at the lake and we had the BEST time!

The kids loved fishing even though the water was waaay down due to lack of rain in our area.

 my niece, LB

 S fishing with her cousin, Philip

S and her daddy

They caught a few things, but the memories made with cousins, both big and little, are greater than any mess of fish caught!

We ended the weekend doing a little geo-caching with my cousins, Philip and Cara and of course, little Lincoln.  This was his first geo-cache :)

M the Surfer Girl

M has fallen in love with the movie Soul Surfer. She has only watched it a couple of times, but she "plays" surfing and sharks all the time. The other day, I caught her doing this in the pool. I asked what she was doing and she said learning to surf!

Notice the crazy waves? Well that was Scot and B making waves for her to surf on...hahhaa.

Sunflower Patch

We visited a little sunflower patch while at the park today. The kids thought it was SO cool! The sunflowers were just beautiful....although I am partial to the one in the first picture...it is the MOST beautiful one of all!

S's Fish

One of the many things that S loves to do at the beach is to try catch the little fish that typically swim next to the shoreline. While doing her typical shore activity, a much larger fish swam right next to her. She used her net and quickly caught it!

Can you believe how big this guy was? It was so cool for her to be able to catch something so BIG right at the shore with her little net!

E's First Camp Trip

Group picture of the youth that went to camp in IL.