A Midsummer Day's Blog

It is a beautiful summer day today.  We have been blessed with lots of nice weather lately and have enjoyed every minute of it!  Today, unfortunately, Ian has a fever so we are laying low.  It is pretty noisy around here though because we are finally having our sewer pipe replaced!!!  If you recall, we had some major problems this winter and have suffered through some rather unpleasant adjustments since then.  Last week we received a grant from the city to cover the cost of replacement!!!!  We had been contemplating for months how we were going to do it and we are so blessed by this grant!  Our great God has provided once again!

In other news, WE ARE HAVING A BABY GIRL!!!!!!!  We found out about a month ago and we are sooo excited.  We can't wait to welcome this precious bundle wrapped in pink!  It's been 10 years since I had a baby girl.  The really neat thing is, he kids are all getting something they have never had...a little sister!  So exciting.  I am 5 months along today and feeling great. Here she is, making her very first TLC blog appearance!  Now we have the fun and exciting job of figuring out what her name is!

The same day we found out we were having a girl, I also got a dishwasher installed in the kitchen!  It was an overwhelmingly great day to get a dishwasher and find out it was a girl.  I didn't really know what to do with myself.  As I said, its been almost a month since then but I still smile with joy every night when I turn on my beautiful dishwasher and listen to its gentle whoosh whoosh.  It is like a beautiful serenade to me.  This too was an amazing blessing from our great God.  I had been wanting one for a long time but a new installation is expensive and would have run us about $1000.00 to buy a new dishwasher and pay to have the electric and plumbing done.  After much patient waiting, God provided everything!  Dishwasher was free and the plumber and electrician did the work for free!!!  What?!  Thank you God!!!

Our family is doing a vegetable garden with my friend Jen's family.  The garden is at her house because she has a great yard and plenty of sun.  Jen and I grew up together pretending we were Laura and Mary Ingalls...sometimes we still do that, especially on gardening days.

Here it is all planted and ready to go. 

And here it is a month later, growing gloriously, after we just removed all of the weeds.  Jen receives the weeding queen reward!  She did the most.  We harvested some lettuce last week and it won't be long before we are munching on the summer squash!

Way back on June 18th we had a very special day.  Isabella turned 10 years old!!!!!  Yes, 10 years old.  I know, I can't believe it either.  My parents and sister and nieces came up for the day.  My parents took Isabella to the pet store and bought her a beautiful parakeet who she has named Sapphire.  Its a very sweet bird!

The same day, Isaac and Hannah had a baseball game so the whole family was able to come cheer them on.  They both had a great game.  Isaac got to catch (his favorite position to play) and he also got some great hits and Hannah pitched awesome!!

 After the game, Papa treated us to a special birthday dinner before they headed back home.  We ended the day with a nasty m&m ice cream cake with 10 candles on it for our big girl!

After our fun filled weekend, it was back to work for me.  School may be out but there are many loose ends to tie up!  I organized everyone's portfolios and wrote up their LOI's (Letter of Intent to Homeschool).  Everything is off at the superintendent's office awaiting approval!

Isabella and I took a trip to see our favorite little penguin, Madilynn, tap dance her way across the stage in her first dance recital.  The production told the story of Madagascar through dances.  It was very well done.  She, as you can see, was ridiculously adorable!  I thought, since I was dressed nice it was a good day for that baby belly picture :)

Mostly we have just been enjoying the days where we don't HAVE to do something.  One afternoon, Lexie and Hannah came over.  They decorated some cheap flip flops by tying colorful ribbons all over them. Bella had done this last year with my friend Amy and they were her favorite flip flops all summer! I love cheap summer fun and they came out so cute!

 Isabella loves gardening, especially flower gardening.  She wanted a garden of her own but I just didn't get around to clearing it for her so I gave her the job of filling the planter in front of our house.  She picked a beautiful array of textures and colors and it came out beautiful!

When we spent a day down at the Germain's we had a cooking day.  Kyle and Isabella made a strawberry rhubarb pie that came out excellent! (although it was lacking in the rhubarb department because my plants didn't really produce well.  I think its because I didn't pick enough last year.  Any thoughts on that?)

 Isaac, Ian, Aiden and Eric made fajitas for lunch.  They chopped and sauteed and set out all the fixin's!  They were delicious! 

 The cooks were very excited with their accomplishment.

These beautiful roses were in bloom on the side of my house on my birthday.  I have never seen them look so amazing as they did that day.  They were special birthday flowers from my Savior.

The July 4th weekend started with excitement for us as we took our annual trip to Lake Compounce with Jason's company!  My kids look forward to this all year.  They always have such a blast and the park there is wonderful.  It's kept so clean and nice and they give you free drinks all day.  There are just drink stations all over the park with small paper cups so you can grab a soda or water whenever you are thirsty.  I just love that!  They started with the kiddie rides but Isabella and Hannah have definitely graduated to the adult rides.  In fact, Bella is crazy.  She went on, and loved, some pretty wild rides! 

Jason and Ian got pretty wet on the river rapids this year.

I went on the carousel with my boys despite the warnings of its dangers to women in my condition.  I am a such a rebellious risk taker, I know.

The very next day, Bella, Isaac, Ian and Jason got to go boating, tubing, and swimming with a friend of ours.  I joined them for the later part of the afternoon too.  After the boating we all went to a Colonials game.  It was a day packed with summer fun!

 The actual 4th of July was a pretty low key day for us.  We usually go to Monson for Summerfest, but due to the tornado, it was canceled this year.  It was sad not to go but we had a very relaxing day at home.  I spent lots of time reading "Gone With the Wind" in the sun and received the punishment of a sunburn for my overindulgence.  Lexie and Hannah came over and everyone played in the sprinkler and painted themselves like warriors with sidewalk chalk. 

 That night we had the privilege of watching the city fireworks from the top floor of the Crown Plaza!  No bugs, no traffic, it was delightful.  We could see fireworks going off all over the city.  It was really awesome.

In addition to all this fun, Bella is doing the summer swim team and Isaac decided to play in a summer baseball league / tournament to raise money for the Jimmy Fund.  He is trying to raise $100.00.  If you would like to contribute, you can mail him a check made out to the Jimmy Fund.  We have to turn it in by this Saturday the 16th.  Isaac also has a goal of learning how to swim this summer so we will be spending as much time at the lake as possible!  He's doing pretty well and gaining confidence, which is definitely half the battle when learning to swim. 

Looking forward to enjoying the rest of July and we can't wait for our vacation in August!!!  Summer is just so wonderful!  I wish it would just slow down a little...I fear it will be gone before I know it!