Backyard Vacation Bible School

Last week Isabella was very excited to go to Vacation Bible School. Last summer she went in Houston at Faithbridge and she really loved it. Our church here had backyard VBS, so she got to go to that. She had a great time. It was every night from Monday to Friday and was about how every day is a holiday in God's love. Liza and I switched off nights so I had some from the Easter night.

The kids listened to a story each night and a lesson with a skit thrown in for flavor.

Tonight's activity was coloring eggs. They also had an easter egg hunt, but Isabella, being the youngest one there, didn't get any. She came over to me and said, "I never get nothin!" I had to laugh.

A Fresh Perspective

Last night I was putting Zach to bed at LaDawn's house. I put him down then came back upstairs with a fan. I turned on the light and Zach said, "Why did you turn the dark off Daddy?"

Fun with cousins

The kids have had a lot of fun with their cousins the last few days. Right now they are over swimming LaDawn's inlaw's place. They've had lots of fun.

Dogpile! Jayson jumped on Luke, and then Isabella and Zach jumped on top.

On Tuesday the cousins all went to the water park in Columbia City. They had lots of fun in all the big sprinklers.

On Tuesday evening, Lucas planned a birthday party for Melayna and me. She'll be 1 on July 20th and I'll be older than that on the 21st. :-)

Zach enjoyed the cupcakes.

Isabella had some belated birthday gifts. One was a set of Dora books to help her learn to read. Her cousin, Morgan, is just 3 weeks older, but has already taught herself to read. She grabbed the set of brand new books and read them all to Isabella. I think Isabella believes now that she can learn to read too.

Zach and Marissa wanted to play baseball with the bigger kids, but enjoyed hiking around the flowerbed instead while they watched.

Not to be outdone by her brother, Isabella was showing off the goose egg she got when bonking heads with her cousin.

Make and take day

We had our 3rd annual make & take with all of the cousins. Here is a picture of the 9 children. Melayna didn't do much crafty stuff, and Zach and Marissa got some help, but the other children have fun on the day...


Here is Zach's patriotic windmill. I think it only took him 5 minutes to tear apart. But he had fun!
Gramie helping Isabella on her windmill
Liza with Isabella and Zach
Isabella's new pencil case...

Post Haircut

Here is Zach sporting his new haircut...

Haircut

Zach had his hair cut today at the Downtown Barber Shop in Warsaw. It was his first time to sit by himself for a haircut and he did great!

More boo boos

If there is a way to get hurt, poor little Zach can find it. He was out playing with his cousins in on the swingset when he let out a cry and came running. He said a big fly bit him. We're not sure if it was a bee or a wasp, but it was pretty painful. He's all recovered now, but I wanted to put this on the blog...

Fishing

Isabella went fishing with her grandpa yesterday. She had been wanting to go with him and they finally got a chance to go yesterday. She took right to it.

She caught several fish in a short time.

I tried for a while to catch one, but didn't have much luck. All I had to do was hand the pole to Isabella and she'd hook a fish right away.

She liked catching the fish, but she was happy to let grandpa put the bait on the line. :-)

Playing together

Zach had fun playing with Melayna a couple of nights ago when Noel and Angie were over. Possibly more fun for Melayna since she had no problem with Zach putting the cars in a line, but he would get upset when she would "take my cars out the line."

Here Liza and her brother Noel have Zach and Marissa on their shoulders. They thought that was great.

Melayna checks out Gus, Liza's parent's dog. He is bigger than her in just about every way.

When we first got here Zach was scared of him, but now he is warming up to him and will even pet him now and then. He even gave gus a hug goodnight when it was time for bed.

County Fair

Last week was the 4-H county fair here in Warsaw. We went on "dollar ride" day and had fun riding rides at the carnival and seeing the animals. We met up with Liza's brother and family and did rides together.

Liza rode the carousel with the kids. They loved it.

Isabella just hit the minimum height of 42" so she could ride alone. Morgan was quite a bit shorter, but since Isabella was tall enough, they could ride together. Didn't make a lot of sense to me, but they still had fun!

Zach and I riding on the ferris wheel.


The kids all went together on the boat ride. They had fun when Zach wasn't bugging Marissa.

After rides, we went to the animal barns to look at horses, pigs and cows. We also went in to the kid's barn and the kids got to touch some baby animals. Zach thought the baby duck was pretty cool. Isabella really liked the little horse.