Project 365, Week 26

What a fun week! We had Vacation Bible School in the mornings, which was an opportunity for my kids to serve and also gave my teens something to do with some of their free time (of which they have MUCH this summer!). We got to celebrate Avery's birthday and my sister and her family flew up from Texas, so we got some good family time in, especially for the cousins.

June 24

Vacation Bible School at our church. Some were excited, some were not but I appreciated that they all kept good attitudes about it. Somehow all but one of my kids has aged out, so we provided several volunteers! :) At Avery's request, they had DD for breakfast...on the go.

Avery's 14th birthday and she asked if we could do a photo shoot. Our first year of "teening" with her was so fun. She is enthusiastic about everything from tacos to babies, bike rides to road trips and everything in between. She has an adventurous spirit (but always assessing the risks) and loves to participate in what's going on. She is respectful and wise and such a joy. So, so grateful God chose me to be her mom...its so amazing to watch her grow into the woman she's meant to be.

Dinner at Moe's...her favorite....

...and then the driving range and mini-golf.

June 25
My sister was the VBS photographer, so I got to see some great highlights of my kids during the week.

It was a rainy afternoon, TX cousins had just arrived in town and the theater had cheap tickets...Toy Story 4!

Later, Bethany came over and we all got to meet the twins for the first time. So fun!

June 26
After VBS we met at the lake, so excited to get time with cousins we rarely see (and the ones we see often! :).

June 27
A friend insisted on taking our photo...I'm glad she did.

We had a lovely afternoon at cousins pool.

And then we opened up our patio to whoever was available in the neighborhood. It was such a beautiful evening to sit out and cook out.

June 28
Amanda got to spend some time with her good buddy. Even though they don't go to school together anymore, they always pick up right where they left off.

June 29
Our foster care agency has an annual picnic. Its a nice time of catching up with workers who I don't see regularly.

Our town has a little festival by the lake and then a fireworks show. This year we put together and manned the H & R Block tent, letting people know we have an office in town. The kids were a big help (despite the hand sticking out from under the table, they actually were helpful :) and we got to spend the afternoon together.

June 30
The next morning I met up with Amy, who had found a 5K run benefiting prostate cancer and thought it would be fun to do it to honor our dad. No idea when I last ran 3 miles...a year? More? I completely lost a desire for it. Strange, after all those miles and how much I loved it. But, this 3 miles was nice and fun to do together. The run raised over $110K!

A quick stop at home to shower and change and we were off. It was my goal to do family pictures while my sister was in town (the first time we were all together in nearly two years). It was tough coordinating that many schedules but we found a one hour window when everyone could be in the same space at the same time, but we did it!

Somehow the four of us...

...have become the many of us. My kids think its totally normal to have so many first cousins who are also great friends.

LOTS of cousins!

The girls.

The boys.

The '09 Club.

The '06 Club.

We were under the gun to get the essential photos done but then we had time to just hang out and fool around at the park. It was so fun to observe!

We ended our time with a picnic lunch and a contest to see who could stay on the swings the longest, in the rain (and thunder and lightning).