Alex's Green Thumb

Can you believe that this ginormous sunflower started off in a little dixie cup on Alex's desk at school?! He's quite the little gardener! He' also growing some pumpkins. Be watching for pics of those this fall!

Can I go to school now?

This is the question I've heard almost every day for weeks now from Caleb. He straps on his Spiderman backpack and asks me if I can take him to school. I explain that it isn't quite time yet, but he just can't bear to take his bookbag off, so he wears it around the house. I just pray that he's still this eager when the time actually comes.

Flying high!

We got the boys a kite from the kite store across from Jockey's Ridge down in the Outer Banks. They have the coolest kites there - everything from simple (which is what we got) to amazing pirate ships (maybe next year). The boys have so much fun seeing how high it can go.

Mmm Mmm Good!

To Caleb, there is absolutely nothing better in life than eating chocolate, unless of course it's wearing chocolate. He's the only person I know who, when licking the icing off of just one spoon, can end up with chocolate all over his face, arm, and tummy. Yummy!

Happy 4th of July!

We spent most of last week down at the Outer Banks. Where else would we be? Alex told us he would like to live down there and we can come and visit him on the weekends. Here are some pics of our family loving life on the SeaDoo!





On the 4th, we went up to the top of the Wright Brother's Memorial hill to see the fireworks. It was such an amazing view! From up there we could see the fireworks up and down the entire Outer Banks. They were everywhere! We're definitely going to make that a tradition. Unfortunately, I don't know how to take good pictures of fireworks. I need some photography tips from Beth! The first pic is the boys waiting for the fireworks to begin. The second is the morning after - Caleb was recuperating from a late night out!

Using Your Talents

I forgot to mention this in the last post, and it was something that really touched my heart. During VBS, our children's ministry director Kim did something special with the older kids (grades 3-6). They went over the parable of the talents - using what God gives you to produce fruit. Each child in that group was given $2 apiece. She said they gave out about $250 total. They were told not to spend that money on themselves, but to find some creative way to use it to make more money, whether it be having a lemonade stand, or buying popsicles to sell, or whatever they could think of. The money they made would be given to House of Hope, a ministry supporting orphans whose parents died of AIDS. She was hoping to double the money and get back around $500. My first thought when she was sharing this with the parents at the end of the week was, "I bet most of the kids just went and bought themselves candy." I just assumed they really wouldn't get it at that age, or really wouldn't care. Boy, was I brought to tears when she announced that those kids had taken that $250 and turned it into $1200!! Wow! Those kids got it!! I was just so amazed and God just really showed me that he can use kids just as powerfully as he can use us old people.

Vacation Bible School

Last week was VBS at our church. It was one of the only years I did not volunteer. I thought, Caleb is old enough to go this year, so I can drop them both off and actually have some Mommy time! Well, Caleb had other plans. He threw such a fit on Monday morning that they called us to come pick him up. He did fine on Tuesday, they talked me into helping on Wednesday (I'm a sucker for guilt trips), and he had another breakdown on Friday when he found out his class was performing on stage. So, I went from having a week to myself to having Tuesday and Thursday to myself. Hey, I'll take what I can get. Alex had a blast every single day. They had a performance for the parents on Friday, followed by a cookout and fun on the inflatables ( in the 100 degree weather). All in all, it was a good week.