July Reminisce

July is really the central part of summer for many families. We didn't have much structured activities. Everyone just enjoyed the random funs that came our ways.

Mary Ellen and Gayla surprised the kids with a visit one day. We don't see them often after we moved. It was great to squeeze in some giggle time during a hot day. Mary Ellen has been a wonderful example for the kids. I can see their four-year friendship will blossom more as time goes.

 

Our friend Leslie just bought a new house in Arlington. We had a hamburger dinner at his beautiful house. We loved his built-in grill in the back porch. He always encouraged us with his stories from mission trips to the South American countries.

 

A friend from church invited us to a rodeo game in Blue Ridge. We didn't know what to expect since Blue Ridge is such a small town. But we totally enjoyed the experience. We had dinner at the only restaurant in Blue Ridge (The cattleman Cafe). While we were waiting for the meal, a parade went in front of our window. The games were entertaining and kids friendly. It was a great way to spend a summer night.

 

A startup church close to our house had a sports camp. On the last day it had lots of kids activities. We dropped by with Amy, Kendall, Chloe and Sophia. They all had a great time. Emily and Andy kept talking about the bouncing houses weeks after the sports camp.

 

Most days we watched the videos from the library, read the books, ran in the backyard and played pretending games at home. After dinner the kids went to the parks with Daddy. They liked staying outside as long as possible despite of the chigger bites. This will end soon as school starts in a couple of weeks. We already heard great things about our school. We hope to know it better when school starts.

 

 

 We have been fighting with the rabbits recently. They love coming to our backyard and garden. It didn't bother us much until several of our largest cantelopes were biten! Now we are trying to set up a rabbit fence around the back. Hopefully we will have some carrots and cantelopes to ourselves.

Having breakfast with the rabbit

The damaged cantelopes that went into the compost bucket

 

A very hungry caterpillar (tomato worm) stripped down the pepper plant. David had to escort it to the open space across the street. Our garden had a pretty tough time this year.

 

Emily and Andy made  play doughs and played with them for a whole morning

 

Emily and Andy did an experiment to transfer the water from one glass to another with a paper towel. The water in one glass traveled through the paper towel into the other glass. A couple of hours later, the two glasses had the same amount of water. 

 

Andy was trying to bundle the hair for Emily. He is such a good brother!

 Andy started eating more and more vegetable. He claims that he likes brocolli, tofu, corn, etc. Recently he fell in love with brussel sprouts and fish. But he still can't catch up with Emily regarding the variety of the vegetable that goes into his mouth.

 Emily asked to take a shower one night. So she had her very first shower all by herself instead of a bath.

 

We are enjoying the summer. Hope you do too!