July Snapshots

I take a lot of photos every month, and am surprised at how many I take with my iphone.

These are some of my favorites from July.

 

1. Grace and friends sitting on the deck enjoying snowcones. 2. Grace had decorated

her walking stick while we were at the dog park. 3. Dan, Will and Zoe at the park.

4. Batman, one morning, standing on the landing. 5. Grace and handsome Jack.

6. A beautiful sunset at Pope Farm Park. 7. The back of my big camera, a recent

session with three little girls. 8. Grace and Lydia going down the slide at our town's

Summer festival. 9. A happy Will with his snowcone!

 

July has flown by.

When Summer starts I always feel like

it will last forever and it always seems to go way too fast.

(Sunday Snapshot) 5 Years

"The wildest colts make the best horses."

 

~ Plutarch

 

 

"The most wasted of days is one without laughter."

 

~ ee cummings



"You don't raise heroes, you raise sons.

And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn into heroes,

even if it's just in your eyes."

 

~ Walter Schirra, Sr.

He answers to several different names depending on the day or his mood...

Spiderman, Batman, Tony Stark, Clark Kent, Ironman, Green Lantern.

Oh and of course Will or William.

 

The thing that stands out most about my youngest son is his good heart.

He also loves to build with lego's,

is a good Christian, and is a gifted athlete and dancer.

He has a curious mind and often thinks deeper than I do.

I believe that he is here to do great things.

 

We can't always say it's been easy but it's certainly been worth it.

There have been bumps in the road but we're happy to be

on this journey.

Without William it would have been a very different and much less exciting

5 years.

 

It was on this day 5 years ago in a conference room in the Lakeside Hotel in Fuzhou,

Fujian Province, China, we first met him. A very scared and upset 2 year old little boy,

who first went to Grace, then Dan and about a week later came to me.

The changes in him in the past 5 years have

been nothing short of miraculous,

and for that we are thankful.

 

My sweet William, I love you so.

 

 

 

"Yours is the light by which my spirit is born;

you are my sun, my moon

and all my stars."

 

~ ee cummings

 

 

 

  There are over 100,000,000 orphans world wide, please consider adoption.

Dog Days of Summer

The phrase, "the dog days of Summer" refers to the wicked hot, sultry days
of July and August.
And it's certainly arrived in Wisconsin and in many parts of the U.S.
 

 

I love Summer, maybe it's because I was born at the end of July.

I'd take a Summer day over a cold, snowy Winter one...anytime.

I thought Grace and her friends Miles and Lydia were quite creative (and cute)

  riding their scooters up and down the sidewalk through the sprinkler.

(Sunday Snapshot) a Red, White and Blue long weekend

 

It was one of those gloriously long holiday weekends.

 

(iphone collage)

 

 Fun with friends...with swimming and relaxing at Devil's Lake.

 We celebrated with a parade, sparklers, fireworks and playing outside until it was dark.

 

And a neighborhood get together with yummy food,
 playing games and a lot of mosquito bites thrown in there
for good measure
(and they were worth it).

Hope yours was a fun one!!

July 4th

 

'I love my freedom. I love my America.'

 

~ Jessi Lane Adams

'In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed;
it must be achieved.'

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
 

 

 Every country celebrates "their day."
Many call it Independence Day.
The USA was
founded by people looking for religious freedom.
They were followed by people trying to find all types of freedom...
freedom from oppression, famine, poverty, you name it.
Our forefathers fought to get freedom, to keep it and let others have it -
at home and abroad.
This is a great country and I'm proud to be an American.
I'm happy that my children will grow up here.
Happy 4th!

Taken about 10 days ago in the beautiful fields not far from where we live in Wisconsin.

June Snapshots

Some of our June.

We've been out of school almost exactly two weeks and I think we've

discovered our 'new normal.'

Though normal every day is a bit different.

Grace started Summer school this week and is enjoying it very much,

she's taking an arts and crafts class and a reading/writing class.

Will gets to be a man of leisure with me in the mornings for now.

We've been swimming in the afternoon and they start VBS next week in the evenings.

 

1. They are now officially 5th and 2nd graders and I cannot believe

how much they've grown and how fast this school year has flown by.

2. Selfie 3. Yummy strawberries, we are loving all the seasonal fruit right now.

4. Grace and Will were baptized on Father's Day. They each thought of and wrote

a statement of faith, and spoke in front of our congregation. Grace read the 23th Psalm

and told everyone it is her favorite because she knows 'God is always with her' when she reads it.

Will summarized Christianity in 9 sentences and elaborated on several.

The congregation enjoyed it very much and we were struck by how moved

everyone was.

Dan and I are extremely proud!

5. Clark Kent made an appearance in our backyard.

6. Red poppies (taken with my dslr).

(Sunday Snapshot) Summer

 

 

"The earth laughs in flowers."

 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

 

 Our peonies bloomed late this year, it was last week and they surely
didn't last long.
That's why I decided to take some photos of them.
I frequently say I don't have a favorite flower,
I love all of them.
But really peonies are my favorite...

 I've been a terrible blogger lately, school is out for the Summer,
then I got sick with some viral thing for a week.
I will try and play catch up very soon.

 

May Instagram Love

The month of May has flown by for us.

That's probably due to school winding down and the recital.

Grace and Will have only 5 and a half days left of school until they're out for the Summer!

 

I use my iphone for most of the photos I post on Instagram,

and the above are some of my favorites from May.

1. My little 'cool dude' Will. 2. Grace with her best friends. 3. Grace and her friend Tess

waiting to get their photos taken at the dance school.

4. Will at hip hop dress rehearsal. 5. Grace before we left for the recital. 6. Backstage.

7. My 'happy place' as of late, my favorite garden center which I've visited a few times.

8. Our white lilacs in full bloom. 9. A serious Ironman.