We came to the beach today! We spent only about 30 minutes at the water this afternoon because the wind was too fierce, and Vivian was rolling in the sand...this is what she looked like after 30 seconds: covered head to toe. We are going to have a fun week :)

Today at their music class, the teacher had them sit on a tape line...they sat so attentively and listened so well, it made me smile at the thought of future school days!

Yesterday afternoon Gramme watched the girls and Aaron and I went to see the Salem Red Sox play. It was a slow, enjoyable few hours with the hubby. Everyone should go at least once this season!

Last Thursday Sierra and I took the girls to Splash Valley, which is a water park at Green Ridge Recreation Center. I highly recommend it to everyone in the area! They have lots of rules, but the fun that they had made it worth the few hassles. For the first hour, Vivian was hesitant to get on the slides or run through the sprinklers, but after lunch she was all over the place and did everything. She had a blast. Kate had fun, too, the toddler way...just playing in the shallow water and jumping off the side. She took a decent nap in my arms while Vivian played with Sierra...a perfect summer day!

The girls were very excited about eating peanut butter and jelly for lunch today...wow!!



If you're confused about what their saying...it's just "peanut butter, jelly!" over and over. And if the camera was shaking too much, it was because I was genuinely laughing at them and couldn't hold steady.
One more note: yes, we were still in our pajamas at lunchtime. Gotta love these kinds of days!

Am I the only one who is sad that the Salem Fair is over?!

We've been going to Moyer Park every Monday morning for the past several weeks and have loved it. The girls get a chance to run around and play with their friends, and I get a chance to sit down and talk with my friends and godly women of our church for encouragement and advice. It's been a great constant of our summer so far!

We have had lots of fun summer events happening recently! Here are some pictures of last week's water night at church for several of the younger classes. I was in the service and very curious about what the kiddos were doing, so I was thankful that someone (Tracey?!) used my camera to take pictures. There are great shots of all the kids having a blast!

Vivian has been trying more recently to put her clothes on by herself. On this occasion, she put her underwear on backwards, over her shorts. She didn't even notice! It certainly requires lots of patience on my part...takes us three times as long to get ready in the mornings, but I know we have to practice!

On Saturday we had the pleasure of attending Jeremy and Arin's wedding in the morning! It was a beautiful ceremony and reception...everything went so smoothly and it was very enjoyable for all the guests. Arin was a gorgeous bride! We have known Jeremy's family since we were born (this is Carissa's brother). They will be living in Chicago after they get back from their surprise honeymoon.

Aaron and I had the special honor of singing together in the ceremony. It was very sweet of them to invite us to participate. We sang a country song by Lady Antebellum, one of the bride's favorites. It was fun for us to prepare and do it together!

On Sunday after church we headed to the lake to meet up with my parents and brothers to hang out. We had a nice little vacation! Vivian skipped her nap both days to play on the water...she loved every part of it. She was a little fish! Kate, not so much:She was pretty unhappy about most things, especially the boat. She's very timid about trying new things and gets scared easily. But, after a few minutes and some strategic distractions, wah-lah:

On Sunday we celebrated Stephen's 25th birthday with an awesome homemade meal by mom (bbq ribs!) and our classic yellow cake/chocolate icing birthday cake. Happy birthday, brother! Thanks for letting us party with you.
This is the only picture I got of Vivian's patriotic bathing suit that I got at Walmart at the last minute...it was either $2.50 or $5 :) She didn't want to get out of the water for anything.
On Monday we tried to spend more time on the boat, so I attempted to let Kate take her nap there. Successful! She fell asleep around normal nap time, but woke early. It was sweet for me to hold her while she was sleeping...haven't done that in forever! The sad thing was that our boat ride didn't last long because of a threatening storm.

We are having a lot of fun at my parent's pool this summer. On Saturday Aaron suggested that we spend the day there, and I thought it was a superb idea. We got there around 10 and left at 6! It was a relaxing family day for us...thank you, Lord! We needed it.

Wow. We had an amazing week at VBS!! The talent at our church is phenomenal...the staff and volunteers wrote their own curriculum and music...everything...for what they called, "Armor Up!" They taught the children the gospel from Paul's description of the armor of God in Ephesians 6. We did it each night of the week, and thankfully they served dinner to all the helpers before it started. There were so many people involved from our church body which made it really fun. There were lots of visiting children from the community. I helped teach the Kindergarten group and had a great time playing around with them and seeing them learn new truths.
It was even more encouraging for me to see how much Vivian loved participating. She was crazy about her class and all the music! Starting on Tuesday night, she would cry when it was time to leave, until I told her we were going to come back the next night. Her joy was evident! This video shows just how much fun she was having.
We had late nights, and lazy mornings. It was a memorable week! We thank God for bringing us to this church that believes in the importance of training the next generation in the Truth.