June 2016

 6/3 - I took the boys to a library sponsored steam engine event.  We got to ride on a steam engine tractor - they are pretty loud!  The one pictured below is about 100 years old.

6/7 - took the boys to the nature center to do some hiking.

6/8 - some birds built a nest on our porch and laid some eggs before we had a chance to remove the nest.  Josiah heard us talking about needing to get the nest down, so he thought he'd be helpful by putting rocks in it.  Oops.  Broke at least 2 of the eggs.  More on the porch birds later.

6/9 - Levi had a weird viral rash (according to the nurse practitioner we saw) so we stayed home for a couple of days.  Thankfully it cleared up on its own after lots of peeling skin.  So strange!

6/11 - We went to Jason's parent's house to meet baby Austen who came up from Texas to see everyone.  She's our oldest nephew's baby girl and she's adorable!

6/12 - We took the kids out with us for dinner and ice cream on our 12th anniversary!

 6/14 - The porch eggs hatched!  They are pretty ugly at this stage.

Also on this day we went to a library event where Josiah got to dissect an owl pellet (which is basically owl throw up).  They found bird bones in their pellet!  This was part of a series of events at the library called STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering And Math) and we did several of them over the summer.

That night we had cub scouts and Josiah "graduated" to the bear level - last year he was a wolf.  Good job, Josiah!

6/17 - We went to a library event at the nature center (can you tell we LOVE the library?) with some friends that we reconnected with this summer.  The kids got to touch a snake, make camouflage masks, and play several games guessing scents and animal skins.  They had a great time!

That afternoon we went to Branson with my parents for a couple of days of swimming and boating fun.  Thanks mom & dad!

 6/19 - Happy Father's day, Jason!

6/20 - The porch birds are getting a little cuter!  Still no open eyes but they are definitely ready to eat.

 6/21 - We started 2 weeks of craziness.  Josiah had 8 am golf lessons Tue-Fri for these 2 weeks, the boys both had swim lessons Tue-Thu at 11:15, plus other various events in the afternoons.  Some days we were in Springfield from 8 am (we left our house at 7:30 am) until 4 pm.  And the 2nd week we had VBS every evening.  They were worn out by the end of the 2 weeks (so was I!).

We had time to kill between events, and this was one of their favorites - tree climbing.  This is at a park where we ate a picnic lunch a couple of the days.

 6/22 - we went on an adventure with Ben and Kharis, our friends we did swim lessons with.  We played in the fountains and had a picnic lunch.  The kids also enjoyed climbing around on the giant cement blocks (which gave me a little anxiety).

 Also on 6/22 we helped the kids paint some paving stones which will be placed in a local garden.

This is an original design by Levi (but I added to it and painted most of it for him).

 6/24 - a pic from golf lessons.  He did a really good job!

 6/25 - The kids did a polar bear race - it was a super hot day and the Springfield parks board puts on a snow event where they make big piles of snow for the kids to play in and cool off.  So the race was through that park and over mounds of snow, and then they ended in the Springfield Cardinals stadium.  It was a cool event, but the kids were super hot and when I took Levi's picture mid-race he told me "I'm done with this, mom" - but I encouraged him to finish and he did!

 Also on 6/25 we got 2 bottle calves!  They are really cute.  The one Levi is feeding is named Bat Calf (there's a mark on his forehead that looks like the Batman symbol), and the one Josiah is feeding is named Fawn because he looks like a baby deer.  These little guys are harder to feed than you'd think.  They buck their heads up trying to get the milk faster, but the boys are doing a good job taking care of them (with a lot of help from their daddy).  We fed these calves twice a day for about 2 months.

6/28 - playing at the park next to the pool (waiting for swim lessons to start).

And a couple of cute pics from week 2 of swim lessons.

Josiah's class was working on diving.  He didn't quite get it, but I'm sure he will next time!

6/30 - Another post-swimming adventure with Ben & Kharis!  This time we went to Bass Pro Shops where they played around and even found a mystery to solve.

A pic from VBS - Levi's class said their bible verse on the stage.  They did such a great job!  I was teaching the pre-K class (3 and 4 year olds) while my kids were in their classes.  I know God was working in all the kids' lives!

June was a whirlwind, but really fun!