Guess Who Came For Dinner?

Aeva's friend, Baruch, came to dinner on Thursday. She met him last year at EFY. He is from Vancouver, but he has been living in Kyrgyzstan for the past couple of years and Niger, Afica before that.They happened to be attending the same EFY session this year too. He and his family have been spending the summer here in the PNW with friends and family and have been on several camping trips since just before July. Baruch is going to be living in Berlin for the next few years. We decided, since he was in Vancouver for the week, to invite him over for a movie and dinner. He showed up with three bottles of Sparkling Cider. We had so much fun getting to know him We peppered him with lots of questions, and he was such a good sport about it. He was very nice and such a gentleman. We got to meet his parents and two of his brother as well, and they were so friendly.

Chris decided to scare everyone the other night. He was going to shave and decided to put it all over his face and then pop around various corners scaring all of us. All of us jumped, some of us laughed, and one of us cried in terror.

The girls decided to have matching outfits the other day when we went out grocery shopping. They are so much fun!! I just love them :)

I've been working on four quilts. I have the tops all done, except for one. A sweet sister in another ward has agreed to use her long-arm machine to put them together for me, and I just have to cover the cost of thread. I'm one month away from the next donation date, and I hope that these will be ready in time.
 I decided that this needed to be a bit wider and longer.

This is my one that isn't quite done. I need to add gray strips to the sides, and then it will be done.

It took me a while to arrive at the finish of this one, but I am happy with how it turned out and love the colors.

I worked entirely off of scraps and material I already had for these quilts, and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Chris painted Elsa's nails for her the other night. She loved the two colors and sparkles that he did for her.

My happy, smiley, curly top who was being a ham for the camera.

The first week of August is going to be a busy one. Hoping the rest of the summer will not be too busy and that we can enjoy that last days of summer break with a calmer pace.

A Water Fight, A Birthday, and Curls

We have had such a mild summer so far. I have loved it, as I am not one for really sweltering heat. This week we did have some 80 degree days, and the kids had a water fight.

 

 

 

Myles and Elsa racing to fill up their water squirters!

Miss Meg had some fun sitting at the table coloring with her siblings. Unfortunately, I only got a picture of her. It will be interesting to see in the coming years which hand she ends up using. She tends to do most things with her left, but she still uses her right hand quite a bit.

 

Rhaevyn has been helping Aeva put together Manga tutorials. Rhaevyn does the video and editing portions while Aeva does the drawing. They've made a YouTube channel with the tutorials. If you are interested, please take a look at the videos and pass the word along if you know anyone interested in learning to draw Manga. Here is the link, just click on it:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ1A3j6eNc25qURn595ZJig/videos

Yesterday was Christopher's birthday. He spent most of the day working on the Suburban. Not the funnest way to spend one's birthday, but he has it back together and running :)
I made him his favorite hamburger, my knock off of the Red Robin Bonzai Burger. He thought for his birthday that I made him an apple pie. Little did he know that was for the children who didn't want the other dessert.

 

 He was surprised that I made these miniature strawberry Bavarian creme pies. He loves that particular pie from a local bakery in Vancouver. I think I've finally nailed the recipe down because these tasted just like the pies from the bakery.

Time to open his presents:

 

 A new bow-tie! He hasn't had one to wear in quite some time. And of course, Red Vines!

 My two handsome matching fellows this morning:

 

Lastly, my little Curly Top. I love, love, love her curls. She had just woken up from a nap after her bath. She was having a bit of a hard time waking up, and my wanting to take a picture was not helping. I couldn't help it though, curls are my one weakness ;)

Here we are heading into the final week of July. The summer is flying by. I need it to slow down a bit!

Girls Weekend and Harvest Days in Battle Ground

 Chris, the older girls, and Myles went up to visit Ben and Stacey for the weekend. We were all going to go, but things got busier than we had anticipated. The Suburban wasn't quite put back together in time. They've had a great time. Ben and Chris went to a bug show yesterday, Myles has been enjoying virtual reality, and Rhaevyn found two books at the used bookstore.
The little girls and I have been hanging out and having some fun of our own. On Thursday we watched a cool documentary on the WASPS, the women aviators of WWII. Elsa was thoroughly captivated by the documentary and thinks being a pilot would be a lot of fun. She really likes the planes that they got to fly. She and Meg spent some time coloring pictures of WWII planes.

On Friday night we went to a local burger place and watched all the old cars cruise up and down Main Street for our annual Harvest Days. We have never taken the opportunity to do this before, but it was a lot of fun. After we finished eating we stood on the sidewalk for a bit and I got to point out cars to the girls:
Mommy had  car just like that in high school; that's Oma's favorite car; Grandpa Lindsay had  car like that; Opa has a truck like that one.
Elsa was wide eyed. A lady we know from church was camped out in front of us and said her son was in the cruise with his 64 1/2 mustang. She asked what one make of car was that passed us. All the years of being tested on year/make/model of old cars payed off, and I was able to to tell her :)

Saturday morning Elsa, Meg, and I walked in the Harvest Days Parade supporting a friend who is running for office as one of our district representatives. It was so much fun! We've never been to the parade in all the 20 years we've been here. We had such a good time. It was so fun to see all the people that we know as we walked the parade route: friends, church members, and past neighbors. We handed out Otterpops to the adults and candy to the kids, held our signs, and waved. It was truly a great experience.
Here we are getting ready to walk to our meeting spot.

 

 We picked up our shirts and signs, and then I loaded up Meg in our red wagon.

 

 

 There were a total of 75 people that came out to support Shane Bowman (pictured here in neon yellow).

 This is one of my former Sunday School students, and the son of our friend who is running for office. He was sweet to give the girls and I a ride back to our car in a golf cart.

 Random pictures from this past week:
Meg building with paper towels. Ta-da!

 Myles putting together his birthday present from the Mitchell family.

 And roses from Chris before he headed up to Seattle. It's always nice to have surprises like that :)

 We've been having fun reading together this summer. I think right now I have six books going at once. I'm reading three, but finishing one of them today, two that I am reading with Elsa, and one with Myles. Plus I've got two waiting in the wings, one of which is Wind in the Willows that I found at Goodwill for $2. I am super excited to start reading that with the kids. I will be ever so happy to finally finish up Tom Sawyer with Myles. Elsa is reading different Frog and Toad books to me, and then I'm reading her a book from 1927 called Children of the Alps. I've had it for years and have never read it, but she found it and wanted to see what it was about. We are really liking the story line. Even Myles listens in on our reading of that one. Aeva is reading Alice and Wonderland again. Her friend from EFY, who is now living in Germany, sent her the book since he knows how much she likes it. So thoughtful :) Rhaevyn is reading the Screwtape Letters again, which I found for her at Goodwill for 99 cents. It is fun to see the girls already wanting to build their own library :)
And we are off to the start of another week..................