Gracie the Ewok

VBS

We had a great week of VBS this year!  Nathan got to help Dad in Recreation for a couple of nights, the kids loved their groups, and I got to be the photographer again.  So much fun!

A few random pictures:

Great news!

We were shocked when we went for Lucas's eye appointment and the Doctor told us his eyes have improved enough that he can go WITOUT his glasses now!  The astigmatism in one eye has gotten better and the difference between the two has lessened.  He will be re-checked in 6 mos to make sure his weaker eye is remembering what to do.

 To celebrate, he got to pick out two pair of regular (non-prescription) sunglasses!

 We are so proud of how well Lucas has done during these couple of years with glasses.  For such a little guy, this was much easier than we anticipated.  He did go through quite a few, but he always wore them!

Celebrating Brian

Happy Father's Day to the best Father to my kids that I could ever ask for!

Nathan's Disney trip

We got to see a few pictures of Nathan on facebook while he was at Disney.  They weren't his posts, but we were happy to see him anyway!

During the band workshop (Nathan is standing up in back)

He had a wonderful time but was quite tired when he returned!   He brought gifts for all of his siblings, and showed off his souvenir-- a cool light saber!

Beautiful ears!

Shortly before her birthday, Emma came to me and said that she wanted to get her ears pierced.  This was a shock to me-- it was something we hadn't talked about other than a passing comment at a jewelry store about when she is "older."  Very few of her friends have pierced ears.  She said she has seen lots of cute earrings and thinks they would look good on her.  We discussed it and decided we should wait until after our Holiday World trip.

She was nervous but did a great job!  Isn't she cute! 

Baby Gracie

These pictures are really the fault of a friend of mine... It took less than 5 minutes and the hardest part was keeping Gracie from chewing on the wrap!

Photographs by a newborn photographer with too much time on her hands...

Holiday World

Since Nathan was going to Disney with his school band program, we decided to take the other kids to Holiday World.  This also helped Emma to feel better about Nathan being gone on her birthday.  

We saved a couple of gifts for her actual birthday... 

 This 10-year-old enjoyed spending most of the day at Splashin Safari (the water park part of Holiday World).

Lucas was the adventurous one!  He rode the following rides several times:

Bakuli 

Watubi

He was in line for the Mammoth, but the wait was too long so he changed his mind.

We had a lot of fun but did have to wait out a couple of times when all the rides were closed due to thunder storms.  Since one of these times was over 60 minutes, we got free tickets to go back the next day!

Gracie's first drive in

After Emma's party we headed to the drive in to see the Angry Birds movie!  This was Gracie's first time and she ate up every bit of the experience!

 Sticks were her snack of choice

 

Emma's (early) Birthday Party

We celebrated Emma's birthday a few days early so Nathan could be with us.  Her birthday meal was Chicken-chili-relleno:

 She asked for a "Shopkins" cake...

 and picked a Shopkins balloon

 Opening presents