Summer of Friends!

 We have had a summer full of fun with friends! We have been doing fun things with friends or having friends over several times a week. Boo got to spend a day with her VBS emcee group. They had a blast shopping, going out to lunch, getting ice cream, and taking funny pictures. These are just a few of them... 

 

 

Titanic... 

 

Love these sweet girls! 

 

 

 

We've been having A and S over a lot since their parents started harvest. They come hang out for most of the day, eat dinner with us, and then get picked up. The girls love it and so do I because it keeps them happy and occupied. I've gotten more done since harvest started than I have all summer! Haha!

 

 

We had the G family over for dinner before they left. It was really fun to spend one last night together! 

 

 

Everyone talked for hours! 

 

 

We were hoping to eat outside but the wind kicked into high gear so we had to move inside. 

 

 

We will miss the G family so much! We always love it when they are here!

 

N comes over for dinner ever few weeks and hangs out with the family. He's such a great guy and we love spending time with him!  

 

 

I tried to take the girls and three of their friends to the water park one day. I checked their Facebook page before we left and they said they were open, but when we got there (an hour away) they were closed due to the smoke. :( It was much better air quality than our town though so I let the girls play at the park there for an hour before we came home and then everyone got to play for a few hours before the parents picked them up.

 

 

It will be nice to get back into the routine of school, but we will definitely miss these fun, friend-filled summer days! 

Funny Friday

 

 

 

Happy Friday! :)  

Leftover Thursday

 Boo's boyfriend works as a lifeguard pretty much every day but sometimes after he gets off he will come over for dinner. This day R was over as well and after dinner they all went outside and played Bocci ball in the yard. 

 

 

I don't think N had every played before so they were showing him the ropes. 

 

 

 

Looks like our girls are the competitive ones. :P 

 

 

I am loving these warm summer nights!

 

 

 Ms J and her granddaughter, L, have been having the tween girls bible study again this summer and Peaches is loving it! Two hours with her friends: studying the bible, making cookies, swimming, eating snacks, playing games...it's the best! 

 

Love this fun group of girls!  

 

 

 

And we are very grateful to Ms. J for encouraging their spiritual and social growth in this way! 

The Circus!

 We took these three to the circus!

 

 

Peaches had never been to a circus before and Lou had only been to the little family one at our local fairgrounds so when I saw that they were having one in the city I got tickets. I wanted to let them experience a "real" circus. This one was definitely impressive, but not as great as the old Ringling Brothers ones we took the big girls to when they were little. We still had a good time though! 

 

 

 

 

Daddy spoiled the girls and got them popcorn AND cotton candy! I usually make them chose when we go somewhere like this. :) 

 

The theme of this circus was Hollywood so all their stunts tied into an old movie. They did The Mask, The Matrix, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Wicked, Grease, etc. The first one they did was Back to the Future and they shot a man dressed like Doc Brown out of a cannon.

They had a lot of very talented performers! I think this was part of the Wicked skit.

 

 

This was Jurassic Park...the world's smallest man! He was so tiny and came out riding in a little Jeep. The lady there had to lift him out and then put him back in after he came out to walk around and wave.

 

 

Some of the movies were NOT kid appropriate! This was a skit from Molin Rouge which wouldn't have been too bad except for the twenty by fifty foot movie screen behind them playing scenes from each movie. Thankfully the girls were too engrossed in watching the performers to notice. :P

 

 

 

The Grease skit was cute with all the girls in their poodle skirts.  

 

 

 

The headliner of that one was a tightrope walker. He and this little girl came out and were doing stunts...the most impressive was when she balanced upside down on his head!! 

 

 

This one was a little scary for the girls. I guess it was from the movie Mad Max which I've never seen, but these guys did all sorts of cool tricks inside these spinning wheels and then two of them went on the outside and kept pretending like they were falling and would catch themselves as just the right moment. One of them even did a backflip off of it at the very top and dropped a good ways before landing on it. Yikes.

This was Peaches favorite...Star Wars! They came out and had a lightsaber fight.

 

 

 

And then Storm Troopers on motorcycles came out and did the ball. They had four of them in there which was super impressive...and then they added two more! There was barely room for them to move much less spin around going so fast! 

 

 

 

I took a video of that one.

 

 When the first two motorcyclists came out they rode to the front and whipped off their helmets and everyone started cheering when they realized they were girls!

They really did do a good job! 

 

 

 

I could have done without some of the movie choices and done with a little more costume coverage...we didn't need to see every single female performer's rear end hanging out of their suits :P but they did put on a great show and the girls enjoyed it! 

Friend Time!

 Last summer two of the girls' friends' families moved away. This summer they coordinated a visit so they could come back and see everyone! 

 It was a smokey, hot day but we met up at the local pool and found several other friends there as well! 

 

 There were lots of cannonballs, jumps, and games of Marco Polo.

 

 

And lots of catching up, both the moms and the kids! 

 

 

 

Peaches was happy.

 

 

 

 It was fun to see these girls and how much they've grown over the past year!

 

 

 

We let them swim for a couple hours and then we went and got ice cream together. 

 

While we were doing that all the bigger sisters were having a get together of their own. They hung out a G's house and then went and got "coffees" and did some shopping. 

 

 And then hung out at the library for a couple hours since G's mom works there.

 

 

 

Such sweet girls! 

 

And speaking of friends...I got to see some of mine too! The G family had an open house before they left so the girls and I went over there for a couple of hours and also got to see another friend that I haven't seen in  years! 

 

 

 

We have had such a crazy busy summer, but it's been so nice to catch up with old friends!