When Audrey was about a month old, I bought a few rolls of black and white film to experiment with. Out of all the pictures that I took, this is still one of my favorite pictures of Mark (5) and Andrea (2).
Author: Joyce
Puppy Love
This weekend we enjoyed having Josh and Angie stop by. Allan and I double dated with them on Friday night and the kids got to babysit their dog, Enya. On Saturday, we enjoyed breakfast and just relaxing together and talking. The kids dog sat Enya again while Josh and Angie attended a wedding.
All of the children enjoyed Enya, but I think that Enya thought Megan was the most fun.
Spoiled
I am one spoiled Momma. God has gifted me with five wonderful children. While there are many things that I am thankful for, one of the biggies is that they show they love each other in many ways every day.
Megan
Megan enjoys helping Audrey look for butterflies. Occasionally, we have for hunt for her as she gets lost in the taller grasses.
Baseball
Across from our house is a meadow. The neighbors let us roam in it whenever we want. The other day, they mowed the whole field. While we miss the butterfly food, we have been enjoying the paths the tractor left behind.
Have you Ever…
…watched a butterfly emerge?
Audrey has been raising butterflies again this year and we were able to video tape a butterfly emerging. This year she has raised 15 butterflies and has three more to go.
After the butterflies emerge, she releases them in a field where they will find food and milkweed. She hopes that they stay nearby. We have seen one or two Monarchs after releasing them.
She is hoping to raise more Monarchs this year, but it is already better than her worst year of only being able to find three all summer. Her best year was raising around 100 butterflies! Audrey has not been able to find any eggs or caterpillars for the last few weeks, so we think it may be another slow year.
Fireworks
We were able to see fireworks twice this year. At least three people around us were shooting them off on the fourth. Then we enjoyed a much better display of them at Black Squirrel Golf Course. This was the first year that I remember going without meeting any family there.
A few friends joined us in our customary spot and we invited some other friends to join us. The kids had fun with bubbles, catching fireflies and playing with many children who they met at the park before the firework show. Allan and I enjoyed the chance to talk with friends and had a relaxing evening watching the children have fun.
The Walk
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
Sang by Bilbo as he leaves home in Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter 1 by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Archery Class
Archery camp went very well this year. The children learned how to shoot a bow and arrow properly and all would love to take more classes and set up an archery range in the back yard. It was fun watching them improve over the week.
Adrian struggled at first. He was the youngest in class, and the bows were not right for him. His instructor brought in the bows and arrows he had made when his children where younger for Adrian to use. Adrian improved immensely with them. He also loved that he had special wooden arrows that were shorter and no one else could use them.
The last day of camp was just for fun and games. The children got to shoot at targets, pop balloons, shoot arrows into the air trying to “storm a castle” and other fun activities. The class was over way to quickly.
Their instructor was excellent. On the last two days he brought a very small bow and arrow set. He had noticed Megan watching the kids and realized that she wanted to try too. So, after asking me, he asked Megan if she wanted to try. He helped her very little, and she was still able to hit the target most of the time.
Color Run
Allan has been wanting to start running again and Audrey and Mark were interested in running with him. Many mornings, he gets them up before work and they go running. I get up too, but I don’t run much.
They have been talking about racing, but have not been sure how to start. We learned about a 5K fund raiser that we decided to try. We knew that it would have similarities to a race, but not have the pressure of having to run fast. We registered Mark and Audrey and discovered a free entry that Allan used to run with Megan.
The race went really well. Andrea hung around Grandpa and Grandma trying to get pictures and Adrian and I ran around trying to stay ahead of the runners. We asked Mark to stay with Audrey, even though he can easily run faster, and they both got so far ahead that I only saw them once during the whole race. I was able to stay ahead of Allan and Megan with shortcuts.
After running, the racers celebrated by throwing colored cornstarch at each other.