party foul

I am almost a bit too embarrassed to write this but well I just have to. We had a major party foul at the pool last night. We were all swimming, having a great time and then all of a sudden I see what looks like Emma puking. Oh no! She was swimming with in arms reach of Philip (thank God) so he grabbed her and retained most of the puke. I grabbed Ryan and the lifeguard and our good friend went to work cleaning up. They assured me that this happens "all the time" and it's no big deal. I offered to help clean it up.
So maybe that was why she didn't eat her dinner and said her tummy hurt. But I promise she didn't act sick! We did stay at the pool for a little bit longer and then ventured home. Unfortunately, she continued to throw up and even Peter threw up when we got home. I have no idea where they got this bug from but it's not supposed to happen in the summer!

famous!

So I have entered a new realm to my life. I have had a first. Those don't happen too often when you're 31, have 3 kids and drive a mini-van. Are you ready to find out what I'm building up to.....
I've just had my first photograph published in the paper.
Now of course my name isn't tied with the photo because the person who submitted it didn't offer my name to the correct sources but you can find it on my memory disk!!!

Ok so just maybe the more exciting part of this is that Philip had a wonderful interview with the Roxboro paper. They published his story (and my picture) of WikiWorship.

So here's my claim to fame. This is Philip along with a few members of his team.

1 VBS down

The kids were invited to attend a VBS at our friends church. My initial thought was "I don't think so". Then after a personal invitation I reconsidered. I am very thankful that I did because Peter and Emma had a blast. Ryan wasn't quite old enough for it this year. As I was talking with a friend about "VBS hopping" she said, "all the more exposures to the gospel message the better". She was right. I realized that VBS is a fun, safe and gospel centered activity that is great for summer time. I was also thankful for the kids to have the opportunity to interact with adults and children that they don't know that well. They seemed to adapt great to the new surrounding. As I was picking them up last night, I rounded the corner of the church to see Peter throwing a water balloon at the pastor!!! I think that meant he was having a great time and felt very comfortable!

Our church's VBS will be in 2 weeks. We have been invited to another VBS in 3 weeks. Again, initially I thought, "no thank you". After this experience, I think I will give it more thought.

Just trying to make a dollar

So Peter has his heart set on buying this $10.00 "Ben10" toy at Walmart. When he discovered it he had about 3 dollars to his wallet. We agreed that he could do some extra chores to earn some money towards the toy. The next day he washed my kitchen cabinet doors and the baseboards of the kitchen. He earned $2. The next day he helped Philip clean out the garage and vacuum the van. He (and Emma) earned $2.00. He is now about $3 short of his goal. I have run of out chores for him to complete that I'm willing to pay for so he gets the bright idea to open a restaurant in our home. He names the restaurant "Wild Hog" and puts several signs on our front door. Unfortunately, there were no customers that afternoon so the next morning he puts another sign on a tree in the front yard.
Philip gives him the idea of opening a Lemonade stand at the edge of our driveway. It takes Peter a good 4 hours of processing this idea before he agrees to it. So at 4pm on Tuesday, "Wild Hog" lemonade stand opens up!


We closed up shop after an hour and half. The kids racked in $12.00!!! Unbelievable! They were stoked and ready to have another one today.

Another trail

Peter was able to convince our trail blazing expert neighbor Austin to create a 3rd trail in our natural area. This one is different from the others because it has a slight hill! Ryan also enjoys the hill on his big wheel. Emma has a hard time with it because of her training wheels.

gardening

I can't remember if I posted that we started a garden in May. We are beginning to see the first fruits of our labor. Well, for the record I should clarify the "our" of that sentence. "Our" is referring to mostly Philip with a little help from Peter and Emma!-

Here's a squash and below is a tomato plant with some sunflowers in the background. !

Softball

Church softball is a huge deal here in Person County. This will be Philip's 3rd season playing! Friday night was our first game and it was a double header. It is really a fun time for the whole family. We have a great fan club of folks that fill the bleachers. There's lots of dirt, rocks and trash for the kids to play with. Lollipops, popcorn or candy are available for purchase.
Peter was taking some pictures and he actually captured some good ones!

This is Austin and Ashley. They are like two of our favorite people....don't they have great smiles!Number 14 is "Preacher". I still am not used to hearing people refer to Philip as "preacher" or "preach". You hear it a lot of the softball field. "Good hit Preacher". " Good try, Preach".
Ryan on the other hand enjoyed yelling, "Run fast daddy, run fast."
Emma realized halfway through the first game that her daddy wasn't doing a lot of playing. So she asked him, "Daddy, why aren't you playing". He replied, "I'm a bench rider". We are thankful that he rides the bench because the less playing time he has means the fewer chances of injuries, pulled muscles or sluggish Saturdays!!!

It's watermelon time!

On the way home from a play date at the park and a few errands, we stopped by this truck on the side of the road and bought our first watermelon of the year! Watermelon is just the best example of American summer time! We wasted no time and sliced it up to go with our lunch.

caught

in an after dinner snooze---- like father - like son!

having fun

We joined about 100 other youngsters this morning at the Library for the first of the summer reading programs. Today was the kick off with Fish the Magish. He is a humours magician. He did a good job of keeping all the kids and parents laughing while wowing us with his magic! He was great. Then we headed to our friends house for a little bit of fishing.

The fish weren't biting and it was getting close to lunch time so we packed up and headed home. After a nap, snack and a early dinner we then headed to another friend's lhouse at Hyco Lake. Philip and the kids were there yesterday for a canoe ride but they didn't go swimming. Tonight we did some lake swimming. It is admittedly not my favorite way of swimming but it was a beautiful night.

It's back to work for Philip and business as usual for us tomorrow!

tomato soup

It is the strangest thing but one of Peter's favorite foods is tomato soup. When we lived in Wilmington and had a huge garden, I discovered a yummy creamy tomato basil soup. I would make tons of it throughout the summer and freeze it. I made some our first summer in Roxboro because of the half and half it really made Peter sick. For some reason, it has taken me this long to find a tomato soup recipe that doesn't call for milk or cream. (For the record, I did start making another one but it had wild rice, carrots and celery in it and Peter didn't like it as much). Last week I found a recipe to try and we had it for dinner.
4 BOWLS for Peter.
2 BOWLS for Emma
1 for me (that was all that was left)
1 Ryan size bowl
1 teaspoonful for Philip b/c he was eating at church

Unbelievable- my kids ate this almost like they would eat ice cream. Needless to say, this recipe will not be lost. I told Peter we should make this on a weekly basis for lunch. He heartily agreed and suggested breakfast as well.

In case your interested in trying it out yourself, which I would recommend because it was very good. I ran it through the blender after simmering so it was smooth!

#3 and 4

Peter lost his 3rd tooth while we were away last week. It is really amazing how much his teeth have naturally adjusted to make room for his adult teeth. His second upper tooth was just hanging on by a thread at this point. He was definitely getting lots of comments at church yesterday about his missing tooth!

He lost this other tooth tonight after dinner. That's 4 down!