Summer fun

We are trying to stay cool this summer and also to enjoy some of the activities available for children in the area. We joined the summer reading program at the local library and it has been a great experience. Hadden is really just at the beginning stages of reading, so I wasn't sure how it would be for him. I was in for a big surprise - Hadden has really taken off reading - praise the Lord! Something sparked in him - maybe the thrill of a competition, I don't know, but he has been very excited about reading. "Mom, what does _ _ _ _ spell?" can be heard fairly often at our home.

Each week, they have a special program. One week was "Tattoo" the llama. Here he is with his owner who told us all kinds of interesting facts about llamas.

Everyone got to pet Tattoo.

Tattoo didn't want to get loaded in, but after some coaxing with a tree branch, he finally hopped in. She loads him in the back of her SUV and he lays down - kind of a funny sight.

This week, we went to a miniature horse farm and learned about miniature horses. They are so stinking cute!

This is Rocket and he is about a year old, but he is pretty much full grown.

I went back to the car for our picnic lunch while the kids hung out at the barn (hee).

We also had a week of VBS at our church. The kids had a lot of fun and we took our neighbor boy, Jesse, with us. To be honest, I was worn out and began questioning the validity of VBS. This area has a ton of churches ... therefore, a ton of VBS's ... almost like a competition somehow. Needless to say, I was very convicted and humbled when Jesse went forward on Wednesday night to ask Jesus into his life. Please pray for Jesse and priase the Lord for his new birthday.

I did have a chance to make some dewberry jam last week - here is a sample. In an attempt to declutter our camper when we moved, I put all of the jar lids into storage. We use the jars as drinking glasses, so I still had jars, but no lids! I ended up putting some jam in a storage container instead of a jar.