28 hours

Tuesday was going to be an exciting day.  Holly had to endure a dentist appointment for a few fillings (no camera to document this visit) then we were headed to the humane society to "adopt" our very first family pets.   She survived, just barely, so we were able to go pick up Eric later that morning and bring "Mocha" and "Blaster" home with us.  They're being well loved so far and everyone is seeing if they can "train" them to jump, sit, etc. :)  

Our day was going along just fine until I had a friend :) stop by to drop something off and Joey was sooooo excited to show her the new guinea pigs that as he ran to get downstairs to them he slipped on the floor and shoved one of his front teeth WAYYYY back.  Thankfully our dentist hadn't left yet for the day and told us to come in right away (thought about turning around to take the camera but thought I better now).  :)  As you can see (by the terrible, horrible off-colored photos) the tooth had to be pulled.  Not a single tear game from Joey, just a big "OWWW" when he pulled it out.  At least now, the kindergarten teacher (and everyone else for that matter) will be able to figure out who Joey is! 

The tooth fairy was very good to him.  The first tooth has a reputation for being with a little more than the rest.

Wednesday morning I was back to the same dental office for Mia's ortho appointment.  Dr. Trevor hooked her up and we have officially began our adventure with braces.  

The 4th Part 2

After some long naps, we headed to Gary and Michelle's for a night of firework fun!  

With just a few minor incidents, the night was a blast!

Look at those skills!  Pretty impressive for a guy who would choose soccer almost last on his list of favorite sports to watch or play.  I'm thinking he should have thought twice about that decision. 

The 4th (Part 1)

The morning of the 4th started out with a bang!  ;)  Eric's cousin, Dave, invited us to take the kids to ride a pony he had been training.  Jason, Mandy and their girls joined us, too.  What an awesome place and the pony was so patient with the kids.  A great way to start the holiday!  

As we were leaving down the long driveway this eagle swooped into the field and had 4 hawks hovering/diving around it.  We watched them for a little bit and then saw the baby eagle trying to get back to its mother.  It was a pretty impressive site seeing this eagle at eye level, right out the window of the suburban.  And a rather appropriate site for this Independence Day.

The garden is growing

With all the sunshine we've had (I think we had maybe 1 or 2 days of rain in June!) the garden out at Grandpa and Grandma's is looking great!

  

The peas should be ready soon.

The corn is getting pretty tall, too. Almost as tall as a few 5 year olds we know.

I think the kids are missing school, too, a little bit.  They've been playing it for a few days this week.  Mia has all her lesson plans laid out and she has a pretty good class, too.  She isn't sure she can be a "real" teacher though since she said it's hard enough teaching 4 kids. :)

Slow Summer

It's summer time and the weathers been great and we've been trying to stay busy.  Last year at this time we were taking off on our summer long vacation, you can look back HERE for the first of our summer long adventure posts.  This summer we're staying close to home, hoping to get a few camping trips in and are looking forward to some visitors in August.

There's been a lot of sleep-overs in each others rooms already.  

Lots of strawberry jam is in the freezer.

Lots and lots of Lego ships have been built by our master builders.

Even made a few new dresses for the American Girl dolls. 

These pictures are all part of my Project 365 .  After I had done most of the laundry Friday and hung up the shirts in the boys closet I thought I needed a photo of it to remember it and I thought I'd add it for all of you to see. And yes, they each have their own section.

And the sprinkler keeps going!  Not much rain and plenty of sunshine!  That's about it from over here, someone just kept reminding me I needed to update my blog! 

Happy Father's Day!

After church  the whole VH gang headed over at Berthusen Park for lunch.  We had a great time eating lots of good food,  drinking coffee by the fire, playing on the playground and taking  walks through the huge trees and down to the water.

The worlds greatest dad to these 5 crazy kids!

Emma found this snail and didn't let it leave her side. 

Tyler thought he was hilarious with his HUGE mount of whipped cream on his strawberry pie.  (Aunt Joan, I blame this completely on you!)

Gettin' our hands dirty

and we're making a few changes around here.  More soon! By the way, no one has guessed correctly who the clean cut kid is down below...just sayin'!

summer buzz

We're well over 20 days in a row of pure sunshine here in "God's Country". :) (yes, that was for you Chris and Cindy!)  It was time for the shaggy hair to be gone.   Anyone want to correctly identify the clean cut little man in the above photo?  It was his idea to do the hair cuts yesterday afternoon and he even chose what number I should use on the clippers.

That's a wrap

A lot of things are wrapping up for the year. Mia had her piano recital to wrap up her 2nd year of piano lessons. Thanks, Janelle, for another great year!

Joshua is showing his support for a job well done.  If you can't make it out, he wrote "Good Job" on his hand.

Dee finished up her 25th and final year at Lynden Christian (over 30 years overall). We had a luncheon at school for her and gave her a book which included all her class pictures from the last 25 years as well as some notes from past students and co-workers.

Holly wrapped up a successful year playing baseball. Her last game, she even belted out into the outfield!

Lucas, Tyler and Joey concluded their pre-school year with a Shoebox parade. Each of them was given a letter and they and their family :) had to decorate it to represent that letter. Glad that is done!

Field Day is always a fun day that everyone looks forward to at the end of the year. Mia and Holly were on the same team this year. Go White Team!

There's still time to play in between everything else. The activity of the month has been snail collecting. It truly has been a group effort and they've constructed quite the small city for these little creatures.

Grandma, this was Tyler talking to you last Sunday on the phone.  I'm not sure what he was talking about.

I think every day last week more and more "stuff" came home from school. Tuesday Holly took home her artwork folder FULL of great things they'd worked on all year.

And while we've been busy doing all this "stuff" it's been beautiful and sunny and HOT!!

So HOT that this is what our cupcakes looked like Thursday afternoon after sitting on the counter all day. They used to look like baseballs.

Saying good-bye to teachers was rather hard this year. We had some AWESOME ones and I don't think anyone was to eager to say good-bye.

We had Heritage Days (formerly known and Holland Days) yesterday. The weather was perfect, a little overcast, for a day full of parades and dancing. Thanks, Grandma, for the BEAUTIFUL new costumes this year!