Bridget Turns 8

 Bridget had a birthday!  Saturday birthdays are super fun.  We went to the mall and got her ears pierced!

We also got to take care of a neighbor's adorable labradoodle that afternoon.  Definitely a treat!

Bridget really wanted a glitter lamp and gum.  The kids picked out some dollar store gifts too.

Bridget's third piñata cake.  She loves her candy!

And being 8, Bridget was excited to get baptized.  Some cute pictures from a photo shoot in front of our monster tree.

I'm so proud of Bridget!  Her baptism was beautiful. 

We were so thrilled that Oma, Opa, Grandma and Grandpa got to come!  It was wonderful!

We were blessed to have two neighbor families come as well and they had a lovely time.  Bridget is a good little missionary.  We love her so!
 

School Started!

Alice and Bridget got to meet their teachers before school started (which was the earliest we'd ever started - on August 9th, but it gave us a week long autumn break, which was great and will be another post).

Bridget and her 3rd grade teacher, Miss Jankowski. 

Alice started KINDERGARTEN!  She and Mrs. Breedlove.

We had a crazy start to school because Lydia and Isaac started a couple days late because they were still quarantining from COVID exposure.  And Alice started kindergarten a week after everyone else started.  So we got Evelyn starting 6th grade (middle school!).

Bridget starting 3rd grade.

Then Lydia and Isaac's first day.  Lydia is in 11th and Isaac is in 8th.

Alice's first day of Kindergarten!

Summer 2021

Summer was great!  Lydia and Isaac painted Isaac's room.  It was a bright green and PeptoBismal pink, and is now a lovely mint green.  Isaac was so patient to have a half pink room for 6 months.

There was lots of swimming!

 

Even in the rain.

Alice got blueberries from her little blueberry "trees."

And we had lots of visiting!  Lydia's best friend in Houston, Gabi, came up for a week.  Here we are walking around the beautiful indoor gardens in the Gaylord Hotel in Nashville.

We went up to Colombus, Ohio to see some friends AND got to take our nephew Spencer and his companion out to breakfast (he's serving as a missionary there!) to our favorite family restaurant! 

We were in Cincinnati to celebrate Oma's birthday with her!

And split wood with Opa, of course!

Our Calls stayed a night as they passed through Clarksville on the way from one family reunion on the East coast to another in the West. 

My Aunt Pam and Uncle Gary stopped for an afternoon visit on their way back home to Illinois from a trip.  How neat that Tennessee just seems to be on the way for people!

Mike's sister Angie and her family came to see us.  Free shaved ice at a library event.  (Hooray for free!) And thank goodness, because it was blessed hot that day!  We did lots of swimming while they were here.

All of us at Dunbar Cave.

Amanda and her kids came to visit too!!  Lydia and Isaac had just returned from youth camp.  Lydia was sick (although negative for COVID, but she still quarantined herself.  "What?  Stay home and watch movies all day while you galavant?  If I must.").  Lydia eating dinner in quiet solitude.  

I think Amanda doesn't slow down long enough for me to take any pictures which is why I hardly have any.  My neighbor, Jim, took us around the 101st Airborne Division museum.  It was super neat and we ate lunch outside amidst these cool aircraft.

It was a wonderful summer!  

16 yr old Lydia!

Lydia turned 16!!!!!  Aaaaaaaaa!  Her birthday turned out a little differently than she expected because a couple weeks before her big day this happened…

At least she got to pick the color.

Lydia chose to open presents in the morning before Mike left for work (instead of sleeping in, which really surprised us).  She asked for a guitar.  It was a little ironic…
16 fingers for Lydia!  And her birthday breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Then we found out it was National Donut Day and Krispy Kreme was giving out free donuts!!  Second breakfast!  (And she is driving with a permit.  She is a great driver.)

We were lucky to pet sit for our good friends.  George the kitten is hilarious.

And we love their dog, Tess (what a great dog name!), who is a pit mixed with some sort of shepherd.  Good dog!  

Lydia invited a bunch of youth for a pool party (at which she couldn’t swim).  Not a lot of pictures, but here are a couple.  Notice the birthday girl sitting on the side of the pool.

After swimming and pizza all the teenagers came in for cake.  Unfortunately, our fancy dance fridge doesn’t fit the cake plate so I had to balance it inside a cooler.  Aaand it tipped over inside the cooler.  But it was still good.

After cake the teenagers went down in the basement and watched Jurassic Park on the projector and with surround sound.  (The goal was to finish the basement first before setting up the home theatre, but with wood prices being what they are the finishing of the basement has had to wait.). It was good teenage party.
Happy birthday to our ever delightful Lydia.  You are a terrific 16 yr old!  

Evelyn Eleven!

Evelyn and Lydia had their birthday week in June.  Evelyn turned 11!  She started her day with crepes.  (I like her taste.)

We had lots of rain that morning so the girls played with leaves in the drainage ditch behind the house.

Science experiments.

After dinner of cowboy stew, cornbread, and cucumbers Evelyn opened presents.  I took the kids to pick out dollar store trinkets.  Sometimes quantity is just as fun as quality.  She also asked for a shaved ice machine. (Notice Bridget’s helping out finger to make 11.)

Evelyn and her Black Forest cake.  She insisted she help make it.  

Classic Evelyn.  Happy birthday, you photo phobic girl.  We love your fun and creativity!

A Good Lizard

Our bearded dragon Hephaestus passed away at the end of May.  We came home from church and found him much too still in his tank.  He was a good pet.  He was young, only 4 yrs old.  He wasn’t a great eater so something was amiss.  We had him for 3 and a half years.  Here’s a picture when we first got him and he was 6 months old.  Bridget was 4.

And here is a random assortment of pictures with him.  Alice and I taking him for a walk in Houston.

On his home-made leash.

Christmas time when we’d let him run around the house he would climb up in the tree and sleep.

Once he climbed up the screen and we had a hard time getting him out.

Taking a bath in the temporary house in Clarksville.  His beard is black so he was getting tired of soaking.

This is the last good picture we have of him.  We had some friends over and the young boy fed Hephaestus some worms.  The boy was enchanted!

The timing of his death was rather tender.  We came home from church and were all together.  Being in our Sunday clothes seemed appropriate and made it special.  There were lots of tears.  We have a tiny corner in our yard that the previous owners fenced off to be a garden (as you can see we haven’t gardened in it).  It was a good place to bury him.

So many tears.

Hephaestus was a good, gentle pet.  We miss getting to show him off to company because he was so novel.  Rest In Peace, Hephaestus.  We love you.