Summer--week six: Lots of sun and fun!

We had a great week and continued to cross items of our summer bucket list. One of the ones we had been looking forward to was riding the trolley in The Woodlands. We parked at the library and the kids picked up their goody bags for summer reading and then we caught the trolley to Market Street. It was so much fun! It's totally free and I don't know why we hadn't ridden it before. At Market Street, we had a picnic, got some ice cream, and played in the fountains. Such a fun day!

Grace holding her geode--a cool item in their summer reading goody bags from the library.

      About to ride the trolley with JoJo

                      On the trolley

           A little treat from Cold Stone

                  

Each evening this week, the kids went to a t-ball camp at Faith Bible Church with their friend, Kate. This was Grace's first athletic endeavor and a HUGE deal for her to participate in something that didn't let her wear a dress :) Surprisingly, she loved it! (Of course, Jake did, too). The last night, they played a game and she was hilarious. She never quit laughing and the coaches said her joy was contagious. We love our Gracie Girl. She never ceases to surprise us.

The rest of the week we swam, went to a water day at church, and swam some more! Jake's goal of the summer was to touch the bottom of the deep end which he's mastered now. As of this week, Grace is a full-fledged swimmer, too, and it's hard to get our little fish out of the pool.

                     Water Day fun

             A pool day with friends

 Grace and her new friend, Ella, after       swimming

Saturday night we had dinner on the waterway and went for a nice walk by the fountains. 

Summer--week 5: Happy Birthday JoJo and America!

It's hard to believe it's already July! We are continuing to enjoy the pool and our friends and cross items off our summer bucket list.

   Jake's best buddy Jackson over to swim

Here's Jake at Barnes and Noble after earning his free book for reading 8 books. He reads every day and is getting better and better at it. We're so proud of him!

Seeing Hotel Transylvania with friends at a summer dollar movie--the greatest thing ever on a hot summer day!

Celebrating July 4th at the Pavilion with the Houston Symphony. Claudia helped the kids make these adorable shirts. We met several friends and had a great evening!

Grace watching the show on Ty's shoulders--pure joy!

JoJo had been gone all summer on a road trip across America with her dad--check out her blog: www.jonesacochran.blogspot.com.

She returned just in time for her birthday. We took her out for bowling and Chuy's to celebrate. Watching the kids bowl was simply hilarious! So fun! Happy Birthday JoJo!

      The kids decorated JoJo's room :)

Ultimate Girl's Weekend

I am blessed with some of the best girl friends in the world! I got to spend a weekend in Dallas this weekend with three of my favorite people in the world: JoDee, my kindred spirit who has been my friend since Kindergarten; Jen, my dear friend who "shares a brain" with me according to our beloved High School Calculus teacher, and who I was absolutely inseparable from during those days; and, Randi, who is my incredible college friend who makes me laugh more than anyone. It was a weekend with a recipe for success!

We were in Dallas for an unfortunate concert. As young girls we were smitten with the New Kids on the Block so we couldn't resist going to yet another reunion concert. The last time we saw them (five years ago), it was nostalgic. This time it was just sad. 45 year old men should not be doing the same dance moves they did when they were 18. Tragic, really. We honestly laughed until we cried. Oh, it was funny! We are officially retired from the New Kids concert tour, but definitely not from girl's reunions! 

We spent all day Saturday basking in the sun at the pool and talking the day away. It was a huge blessing to have time with just the girls. I treasure these friendships so!

               JoDee, Randi, and Jen

                       At the concert

             The really, really old "Kids"

          Randi and I's midnight QT run

Summer--week four: VBS #1

Jake absolutely loves going to VBS! Our church has sports camp instead of a traditional VBS so I signed up Jake to go to one at Spring Baptist Church where he has played t-ball for two years. Misty's girls, the triplets, went as well with him and they had a great week learning about the apostle Paul. 

Grace wasn't old enough so she and I spent the week swimming with friends, having a donut date, riding the carousel at the mall, and going to "Fairy Day" at the Children's Museum. We had a delightful week!

Summer--week three: Sports Camp

We got back from Oklahoma in time to celebrate Ty for Father's Day and his birthday. We missed him and were glad to hug his neck! He got Legos for his birthday as he and Jake's summer project is to construct a very large and detailed Lego hospital. I love both my engineers :)

The kids got to participate in our church's Sports Camp this week. It is such a great event! They get to play sports and learn about Jesus! The music is phenomenal--we'll spend the rest of the year listening to the CD. Jake got to do T-ball at camp and Grace was on Team 45 for the pre-school kiddos. I helped with the cheer leading class (I realize that's funny!) Both kids had a blast!

We also had a fun play date with the Mathews at a new pool in The Woodlands. We're spending all our free time in the water to beat the heat!

Summer week two: Oklahoma!

After stopping in Dallas, we couldn't wait to cross that Red River and head home to Oklahoma! After the horrible tornados there this year, I was even more ready to get home and hug my families' neck. My Dad was really close to the May 20th tornado but was in an underground bunker. The May 31st tornado came just miles from taking out my hometown of Yukon. We are thankful it went back up when it did. We did see some of the damage in Moore and in El Reno while we were there, and it's just horrific. Ty says we aren't allowed to visit Oklahoma in May again--he's serious, too.  So we went the first week in June instead :)

My brother and his family were in the middle of packing and moving to Indiana when we got there. 

While they finished that up, mom and I kept all the kids entertained! We had lots of cousin quality time! The highlights of the week were the cousin pirate scavenger hunt and our backyard campout:

Another highlight was getting to be home for the weekly Stump dinner with all my cousins. I love spending time with them :) 

While we cooked out and ate, the little cousins decided to spend the evening digging in the dirt--they were filthy!

One morning I got to meet my old friend and tennis partner, April, at the park. We hadn't seen each other in over 15 years. We had a great time reminiscing an catching up!

One other highlight was lunch at Pops on Route 66. It's a gas station and cafe with awesome burgers and every kind of soda bottle you could imagine! 

We also had a great time Friday morning kayaking with my dad on Lake Overholser.

What a blessing to get to so much quality family time!

Summer week two: Seeing precious, old friends!

As soon as Jake was officially done with school, the kids and I headed off to Oklahoma and left Ty to be a bachelor for a week. On the way there, we got to stop in Dallas for a mini-College reunion. I cannot possibly express how much these friends mean to me. It's always like "coming home" when we get together. The older I get, the more I realize how blessed I was at Harding!

Tim and Amanda were great hosts! Shannon lives there in Dallas, but Adam and Rebekah had come over from Monroe and Paul and Julie were in from Vancouver  where they've done a church plant. What a great weekend!

Here are all our kiddos--future Harding friends!!!

We had a little praise and worship time like old times. Jake was in Heaven singing with Tall Paul playing the guitar and Aunt Shannon on the bongos :)

Praise God for forever friends!