Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Phillipians 4:8

Aggravation

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I seem to remember playing this game as a kid, maybe with my grandparents or camping with the family? It's a game Paul's family has also grown up with, but their family calls it 'marbles' and uses a homemade wooden board.

I've had this game in the camper for some time and last weekend we pulled it out at the campground. It's really fun that both girls are now old enough to play and we can make teams and play as a family.

Regan asked last night if we could get it out of the camper and play a game at home. We had a fun night playing with all four of us. Seems the competitive apple hasn't fallen far from the tree(s) and it gets a bit nuts...but we have a lot of laughs.

We've played a few two player games today, as well. Sage seems to be the luckiest one this weekend...which I guess is good, as she tends to abandon the game if she thinks she is going to lose! LOL!

Beautiful Endings

Thursday night, Paul scored a last minute opening at Ludington State Park - one of our favorite places to camp. We packed the camper Friday and headed up in the evening. The hot weather of this past week made for some great playtime in the sun and water.

After we got set up Friday night, the girls enjoyed playing in the channel that flows into Lake Michigan as we watched a gorgeous West Michigan sunset.

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We also did lots of bike riding, too much eating of ice cream and, despite a few scraped up knees, had a great time.

Hope your family is enjoying summer before it disappears!

Lost Tooth

A couple months ago, I was thinking about the fact that Sage had not lost any teeth yet (she turned five in February). Regan lost her first tooth before even turning five. The strange thing was, even though Regan lost her first tooth so early, it didn't seem, to me, like Sage was old enough to lose any yet? Well, I guess she is officially old enough.

Saturday, Sage complained that her front teeth hurt when she was eating carrots. I suggested that she may be getting a loose tooth. Sure enough, by bed time, she could wiggle one tooth a bit. On Sunday, she talked about and fussed with that loose tooth all day. Shortly before bed, she announced 'I pulled my tooth out Mommy!'. I was quite surprised that she worked it out that quickly!

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There is something about a toothless grin that is beyond adorable. :)

Inspired

As much as I enjoy finding my own inspiration for creative ventures, I think it is even more exciting to watch the girls when they are inspired.

This week, our local garden club had it's annual show at the library. Each year, they host an event where a limited amount of kids can come and make an entry for the youth part of the show. The garden club provides a theme and supplies for the kids to do their projects.

This years theme was 'Under the Big Top' - a circus theme. Instead of flowers for the kids to arrange, they had fruits and vegetables. The kids were asked to create circus themed animals or characters from them.

Sage's event was in first, in the morning. Regan helped Sage decide on a horse and helped her pick out the main body parts to make it. I had to help quite a bit with assembly, as it was hard to get toothpicks into the sweet potato body! :D We all worked together to give the horse a fancy 'blanket' on it's back. The girls were quite thrilled with the finished product!



Regan's session didn't start until after lunch. While we were home, she came up with her own plan for making a dancing dog, with a tutu, balancing balls on it's nose and paper umbrellas in it's hands. She even drew it on paper to show me! :) When we went back to the library to make hers, she got right to work making her cute little dog. She planned and assembled most of it herself, but needed a little help getting toothpicks into the sweet potato too. We worked together to make a trapeze and a set of juggling balls to finish her fine pup!


On Thursday, the girls were beyond thrilled to find out they had both won 'Best of Show' for their respective divisions! They even got to have their picture taken with all the other winners and it was in yesterdays local newspaper.


While we were at the library for the photo, the girls thoroughly enjoyed looking around at the rest of the flower show. They especially enjoyed all the cut flowers and both inquired about entering some of our own sometime.

Today, Regan found some really pretty lilies of some sort along our bike path. The girls each picked one to take home. They were tickled pink when I told them they could make their own 'flower show' using our colorful bottles and flowers from our yard and landscaping. I gave them a pair of scissors and let them go to town. When they were finished, they had made a beautiful display to adorn our dining room table.


How can all that color not bring JOY to the room?

Highlights from a Great Fourth of July Weekend

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We had a great Fourth of July weekend in Battle Creek. We found a campground to stay at and spent Friday through Monday having lots of fun there!
 Sage learned to ride her bike without training wheels.

The girls were right at home in the campground pond and spent many hours looking for frogs and turtles, and, of course, swimming.

They caught a 'little' friend - with Daddy's help.

On Saturday, we took a trip to Binder Park Zoo. The girls were thrilled to not only see giraffes, but to feed them too!

Sunday, we watched a couple of hours of the Field of Flight Airshow with Aunt Jenny, Uncle Terry, Dustin and Alena.

Paul and Uncle Terry stayed to watch the Blue Angels, while Aunt Jenny and the kids and I went back to the campground to cool down.

Paul and the girls and I went back to the airport at night to see the 'Balloon Illum'....

...and the fireworks.

Monday, we packed up and headed home midday and caught up on laundry and a few chores and relaxed for the rest of the evening. As the fireworks in our community went off late Monday evening, I was thankful we had already had our fill of fun for the weekend. 

Hope your holiday weekend was filled with lots of family fun and memories!