Happy Father's Day!

Night at the Dome

It was a great night to go to the Twins game...for all the Twins fans anyway. We were so excited that the Braves were making one of their rare appearances at the Dome, but one could argue that they didn't show up. Even Ben's rally cap couldn't help bring them back to life. Oh well, at least we brought a few Twins fans with us. The Twins are going to start paying us to come pretty soon, because we seem to be their good luck charm!

Kidwatching

Summertime is magical. Granted, it affords extra time for sibling squabbles, but overall it is so good to let them relax and reconnect with each other. It gives me a chance to enjoy my truly favorite pastime: kidwatching. It's amazing to see what they do when given nothing but time. Make newspaper hats. Organize shells while eating popsicles. Pretend to be tigers. Have races with stuffed animals and a deck of cards. Drink out of the sprinkler. Sit on the end of the driveway (read TEST BOUNDARIES) in a wheelbarrow at sunset, waving to the cars that go by. Thank God for time to be kids...and more to the point, thank God for kids!

Stay tuned...the summer is young.

School's out!

Summer vacation has arrived. This morning at about 8:00 the kids started playing "Risk". Mac and cheese for lunch, playing outside with friends...so far so good! The kids have had an AWESOME year at school, with fantastic teachers (who let me volunteer a lot!) and really great friends. We are so blessed, and looking forward to more. But for now, let the games begin!

Oh, by the way, Ben's face still had the remaining face paint from yesterday's school picnic--he was painted as a tiger. Surprise, surprise!

What college students do when they come "home"

Our nephew Joey is staying with us until his parents come from Africa to spend several months in MN. Like every other college student, he enjoys catching up on sleep, talking on the phone, emailing, texting...and, of course, he brought a little laundry. It's great having him around! What I haven't gotten yet are the photos of him with the kids, but they LOVE having their cousin Joey around. It's just that they spend all morning wishing they could wake him up!

Go fly a kite!

Our big Memorial Day event was kite flying down at the park. I hate to admit it, but our kids had never flown kites before. They ran themselves silly trying to get those puppies to fly, and they were amazingly successful.

The first bouquet of the year!

Our garden and containers are blooming! And after a real rain this week, we are looking forward to more. I love having flowers on the counter, and Bethany loves to keep them coming!

Jailhouse Rock

Tonight Benjamin sang in the children's choir production of "Jailhouse Rock"! Boy did he have the moves down. :-) It was a blast! It was about kids at Camp Koinonia, who are stuck inside on a rainy day. The kids came in on the bus. Next year Bethany will join him. She can hardly wait!