A family affair

We headed to Sherman a few weeks ago to see my brother and family who had come in from NC to see my parents and sister.  It was a lovely visit despite being so prolonged by Michael's work in the Dallas area. (sorry A).

There was swimming. (at least twice.  D was all over the pool.  A still not so much and E not at all so both wore floaties)

They found a frog in the pool.  It became a pet that moved from bucket to bathtub to string leash before it was eventually freed.  Jane kissed the frog but he didn't become a prince.  :(  Then Emily tried on the off chance he was her prince.  No go.

M spent quite a bit of time talking with Fritz.

Fritz and M had fun with matching bags and Alex (in sling from shoulder surgery the week previously).

We had a very nice time with Uncle Peter, Aunt Rachel and my nieces.  I had only met Anya once and Chacha not at all.

Coincidentally, five family members wore matching checked shirts one day.  Peter and his female entourage posed for a photo.

 

Girls danced to Twelve Dancing Princesses-Barbie.

Then they proceeded to dress up in their own princess dresses.

There was one group picture that included almost everyone (sorry Fritz and Ben--and Andrew's family).

In another matter of coincidence, D and E wore matching shirts.  Here they are posing with T.  Merry Christmas!

Stylish Jane enjoyed her foam "Birthday" rollers and came down looking quite stylish one morning only to jump in the pool a few minutes later to catch the frog.  "The frog was worth losing the curls." E had admired the curls so much, she kindly did the same for E.  It was fun to see Miss Curlytop in the morning.

We finished off our last day with a trip to the park.  Brave A is also super persistent.  We saw her fail time and again at the monkey bar rings and start over at the beginning over and over so she could finally complete it successfully.  Little Ninja!

Thanks for our splendid visit Wilsons and both Browns!

My best friend

the rain in its season and the fruit of the trees

I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Leviticus 26:4

Unsure of whether we planned to stay in our current house or not, we planted a small garden this year.  Two jalepeno plants, 3 broccoli, 3 free ginger plants from Ms Josie, 8 bean plants, 1 sugar snap pea plant, and several varieities of tomatoes.  Oh, and free sunflower plants from HSLRodeo seeds.

Here is the garden when it started:

A few weeks later after lots of rain we were picking tomatoes and enough green beans for our family of 5 every two days or so:

And 2 months later, look at what our sunflower seeds became:

His favorite people

We had a few really sweet pictures of Daddy and kids this year for Father's Day.  Thank you, Michael for tirelessly going to work for us each day and coming home to engage with us.  Thanks for the hours of Bible stories and games.  Thanks for the H&K.  Thanks for the example you are.  We love you, Daddy!

Endearing

Here are three conversations with D that just further endear him to me...

We head to the pool one afternoon and wait for the gate to be opened with another neighborhood family.  David politely asks the 9 year old daughter her name.  "Excuse me?"  She says it again, "Trinity?  Excuse me?  What was it?"  She says it a third time.  He still does not understand her.  I tell him her name is "Cindy."  His response: "Can I just call you Trinity?"  (Fortunately, she just grinned...)

The following week we headed to Dallas to visit family.  We stopped in McKinney for a late dinner. The indoor playground was empty except for a 4 year old boy there.  They played together.  Per usual, David never asked him his name, but by the time we left 45 mins later, he went up to the mom and said that we should plan a playdate sometime soon with his son.  I had been chatting with the mom for a few minutes but she still looked a bit taken aback.  However, that did not nearly describe her look when I told her that we didn't live in the Dallas area but actually lived 4 1/2 hours away!

We were watching an episode of American Ninja Warrior.  Out of the blue, David says, "Did you know when girls put on red lipstick, they leave a mark when they get married?"  I love his sweet naivety as he of course, was talking about leaving a mark from a kiss.