Time with Friends

Even though we've been sticking much closer to home with Ben's broken leg, we're still having a wonderful summer! And our little stud muffin only has a week to go with his cast! It feels like our life has slowed way down, but when I look through the pics of the past several weeks, I can see that we've gotten out more than I realized! ;)

We've enjoyed having friends and family here at the farm! It was such a treat to have Mauria come visit! Our kids spent a lot of time together when they were babies and toddlers and it was sweet to see them all together at these older ages. They had a great time playing outside together, making necklaces, laminating art work and eating popsicles.

We hosted another fight night, for the big martial arts fight of the year! This is a photo Gina took from the last gathering, but the most recent gathering looked similar. :) We were excited to see Conner McGregor win.

Our friends came over to play in the sprinkler and run around outside recently and we soaking up every minute of their precious company. We love this bunch!

I got stir crazy last week and Sheri rescued me! We swam at my grandparent's house, and Josh met us for frozen yogurt after work. These kids love being together, and so do we adults!

One of my favorite summer events is Josh's company picnic. He works in software sales and we love the people he works with and the company he works for. It's fun to see and catch up with familiar faces, and they always have the most family friendly events planned. It was at the same park again, and this year they brought in a food truck for dinner, and they had water toys and three pinatas for the kids. Ben was so happy that he got a turn hitting it too, and he broke it open!  

The also did the big raffle again this year. Jude won a Lego Ninjago set and Selah won the pie face game. And I couldn't believe my ears when they called our number to win a dyson vacuum! What a gift! I've never owned one, and boy am I a dyson believer now.

Josh and I had a great time attending Dylan & Krista's wedding. They are the cutest and it was such a beautiful setting!

Spontaneous pool parties and our Grandparents. I sure love my siblings!!

That night we spontaneously went to a drive in too (another great summer event that's easy for a kid with a cast.)

Jude recently asked if just the two of us could go run some errands together. I told him I'd love that. He was such a gentleman and opened doors for me everywhere (even our car door), and he pushed the shopping cart for me, and helped load and unload things. I was sooooo proud of him. I didn't ask him to do any of these things. He just wanted to. I love the little man he's becoming!

The kids have found many creative things to do these days. I recently found a bunch of sticky notes with things like this written on them. They were sneaking them onto one another's backs. ;)

Walking down to the mailbox together...

Selah has been watercolor painting a lot more. We've been dehydrating lots and lots of pears this week, so Selah painted this pear for Grandma Janet. I thought she did an amazing job.

She helped me bake some chocolate cupcakes this week and was inspired to use a cupcake wrapper in a drawing. Pretty creative. :)

Ben loves art as much as Selah does and he begged me to make him a minecraft sword. He helped color in the squares.

He also made this chef all on his own the other day. :)

I often feel like there are two sides of me. The dressed and "sort of put together" person...

...and then the "lounge-wear, no make-up, messy bun" person. :) I'm sure every mom can relate!!

A well known artist recently came to the farm to teach a three day painting class. I was so fascinated by this group and watching them paint, and then hearing the critiques. I learned a lot from just popping in for 30 mins a day. It made me want to try my hand at painting or using pastels. 

The most special part of it all was see the farm through the eyes of these artists. I wanted to collect all of their work!