July 28 Bubbles, water fun, flowers!

Tuesday:

I am really thankful for the beautiful weather we've had all throughout July. It was actually a little TOO hot for me, which was a surprise ... but this afternoon was one of those very perfect summer days. We took advantage of it by playing outside for a little while--just in my driveway, but there was a nice breeze and the kiddos had fun.

Erin (below) uses all of the containers (pails, cups, molds) to drink the nice cold water--however, when at the LAKE, she does the same thing no matter how much I tell her NOT to drink the lake. My fault completely. A tiny child cannot differentiate between clean sanitized water at home and a nice refreshing lake, a pretty "clear" lake too.

One of the things (of many) that I love about Brendan is that he gets a lot out of the simple, everyday things of life. Making bubbles brought him so much happiness.

Aidan was old enough to get the hang of my big bubble maker this year. He was pretty intense about it too (see middle picture below).

I love you, Brendan!

These two still get a lot of joy from the water table--pouring and making rain, etc.

Aidan and Erin enjoyed going up and down the steps of my porch. Erin was counting: 1, 3, 5 -- and for a minute I thought she was on to something ... like counting odd numbers by twos (which would have been quite remarkable), but she followed the "5" with "8" and then "11" and then she was back to "1".

Aidan took time to stop and smell the flowers ... Erin did too, but she was too quick, so I missed that picture.

Miss Erin wandered out of MY yard and into my neighbors where she admired the little stone fox family. She very badly wanted to climb to the top of this cement bench and pick up the fox family, but I denied her that ... so mean of me ... but this kiddo would climb to the moon if you let her.

July 28 Our toy treehouse

Tuesday  

Sometimes when you put a good toy away for awhile (up high on the toy shelf in the playroom) and then get it out once again, it's like a brand new toy! That's what happened today when I set up our toy treehouse and got it ready for the kids to come over the play.

There is a trap door, a special ladder to the bunk beds, a table with cups and plates, a frying pan with two fried eggs ... even a laptop computer. There are little fish, a fishing rod ... tons of cute stuff to play with. Notice Erin's expression in the picture below ... she was not pleased (no, she was NOT!) because Brendan was closer to the treehouse than she was ...

But for the most part, the three of them played quite nicely with it while I got our lunch put together.

It seems as though BOTH Aidan and Erin are going through a bit of "the 2's" presently and seem to want the same toy at exactly the same time. Aidan has a hefty little body and just kind of worms his way IN to grab whatever it is he wants. Erin had about enough of that and began to push back--not with her body, but a very strong push with her arms and hands ... Intervention!!! Things were getting a little dicey but thankfully lunch was ready and tummies were hungry.

July 25/26 with Emma

Saturday Evening/Sunday:   Emma spent the night Saturday. We dropped Kaity and Matthew back at their house at about 7:15 or so. Emma and I came over here and rested from being at the beach. I put all of the beach stuff away and started a load of laundry.

 We watched Disney's "Hunchback of Notre Dame" tonight. I had never seen it! I read Hugo's novel WAY back in 1976 or 1977--I think it was close to 800 pages. I remember liking the story very much, but I didn't remember a lot of the details.

Sunday morning, we worshiped via LiveStream Calvary. One of the Calvary interns taught from Malachi about the God of Justice (Malachi 2.17-3.5). It was a challenging teaching that I really appreciated.

Emma and I enjoyed a simple lunch, did our Bible study, this week from the book of Nehemiah--what a great story! What a wonderful man of God Nehemiah was! It's always refreshing to actually find a person with integrity--even the Bible is full of scoundrels (sigh--ALL of us are scoundrels!) ... but it was encouraging to find a man who actually talked to God and was honest with Him. I only went through the first five chapters or so ... I'll hopefully finish up next Sunday. I sure was blessed in studying these chapters last week.

I took Emma home, left an important item (unintentionally) in their garage--so Jesse and Emma drove it back out here to me, and stayed to visit for awhile. Jesse was kind enough to get my extra hard drive to back up my computer while he was here. It was super nice to visit with both Jesse and Emma on this terrifically HOT day!

July 25 Pere Marquette Park

Saturday Afternoon:  I was very pleasantly surprised that Matthew joined us this afternoon for time at the beach. We had such a nice time out there. I was so glad to see him again so soon after last week. It was a super nice treat for me!

 It was a truly dog-day of summer ... HOT ... but Lake Michigan was perfect. The waves were just the right size and a lot of fun.

 It was super crowded ... like every square inch of the beach was covered with people ... but you have to take what you can, and once we were IN the water, it wasn't nearly so crowded.

 Kaity got to try her new face mask (the one that isn't allowed over at Versluis). She did very well with it. Kaity loves the water. She is learning to swim, and she loves to be UNDER the water.

 While we were IN the water, I mainly stayed with Kaity. Matt and Emma went further out and just hung out together. I was glad the older kiddos could do that without being cumbered with Kaity.

 Look how much fun Kaity is having though!

 It is SO wonderful to listen to the waves crash in and to be IN the water ... to feel the sun and just the joy of being alive.

We ended up staying in the water for nearly two hours! There were so many boats out there. I love sailboats ... 

 It was a little bit difficult to make sure I had my eye on Kaity and still take photos ... I wished I had taken more of Matt ... but these ones are nice anyway. Emma took some very nice pictures of Matthew when they were walking the breakwater later in the afternoon.

 While Matt and Emma were walking the beach, Kaity played on the playground ...

 The playground is brand new and really nice. It was crowded too, and Kaity was pretty worn out from all of her swimming ...

 But still, she tried all of the fun stuff there ...

 We ate our dinner at MacD's. Their "dining room" and bathrooms still are not open to the public due to COVID. I brought a cooler with water melon, fresh strawberries and grapes, to add some kind of healthy something to our meal.

 After our burgers and nuggets, we drove to an ice cream place for the kiddos to have a treat. The line was L-O-N-G and the workers were S  L  O  W ... so it was quite a wait.

 However, I think everyone DID enjoy the afternoon and the time together. I know that I DID.

I want to thank you again, Lord, for Your kindness to us in safe travel, good weather at the beach, and Your obvious love for us. You, Lord, are awesome.