Summer Fun Club - Junior Ranger Badges at Wolf Trap

This surprise field trip activity was planned well in advance.  There was a Wolf Trap Junior Ranger Program on their list of events that Aunt Kari had her eyes on.  She called me and we set a date.  We didn't know at the time that it would turn out to be one of the hottest days of the year.  We were all pretty hot and miserable, including the Rangers.  They took pity on us and signed the kids off even though they hadn't finished all of the requirements, since everyone was melting.  It was cool to see the "backstage" areas of their Theater in the Woods.  Next summer I might take the kids to a performance there.  They also learned about Cicadas, and looked at some nice pictures.

Extended Family Time

 I was so busy while my sister and parents were in town that I hardly ever broke out the camera.  But here is some proof that we were all together in the same place for a while.  I sure love all these people!

Summer Fun Club - Make Your Own Kite

This summer fun club was marginally successful.  The kids had fun coloring the kites, but the color wiped right off, and the kites broke as soon as we tried to fly them.  This activity will not make it into the summer activity list next year.  The kids are still cute though!

Boys, Birthdays, Family and Presents

After Enoch's baptism, our local family and out of town family gathered at our house for some dessert and some more present opening. This time Phinn got to join in on the fun since his birthday was the following week.

Enoch Turns 8

On July 11th my sweet, sweet boy turned 8.  He had a stellar birthday.  First of all, since his birthday was on the first day of Cub Scout day camp, he got to go.  I tried to tell him not to have too high of expectations for the rest of scouts!  I went with him too and got to see him doing some of the activities and fitting in with all the kids.  The last activity of the day the kids all read letters from their parents.  Dave wrote an incredibly touching letter to Enoch about what a great kid he is and how proud we are of him.

 At home we had cake and ice cream. Best of all, we had Grandma and Grandpa High, Aunt Melissa, Tabitha and Alicia all in town from Seattle visiting.

And most importantly, Enoch was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by his dad.  It was so hot and humid outside that the camera lens kept fogging up, these were the best pictures I got.

 We love you Enoch, you are an amazing kid and we can already see the great adult you will become.

Summer Fun Club - Painted Owls with More Cousins

While our Hale Cousins were in town, we introduced them to Summer Fun Club.  The first activity was painting owls, since we had a few left over from our previous time.  They loved it.  In fact, the Hale girls had so much fun that when they returned home to Seattle, WA, another Summer Fun Club was born.  Unfortunately, I didn't capture any pictures of this one.

Summer Fun Club - Science! Milk, Dye and Q-Tips

There are millions of fun science experiments for kids.  For summer fun club we did a quick one that we had all the "stuff" for.  All we needed was milk, food coloring and Q-Tips.  You pour milk into a shallow pie pan, then the kids added in drops of food coloring.  Each took a Q-Tip and watched what happened when they submerged the Q-Tip into the milk.  Then they had fun trying to swirl the colors all around.  It was just our speed.

Summer Fun Club - Owl Painting

The best Summer Fun Clubs are when we get together with family.  The first one this year was painting ceramic owls.  I ordered the owls in a 12 pack from Oriental Trading Company (one was broken on arrival) and a bunch of paints from Michael's.  The kids were super excited, and this was fun for everyone.  You could see their personalities come out. Some wanted perfection in the design, others just wanted lots of color.  I am so glad that we live close to cousins and we can enjoy doing things like this!

Swim Team

This summer was the year of Swim Team.  When the kids and I were in England and Dave was house hunting for us, he sent us pictures of the house we wanted to buy (this one) and a big selling point for the kids was that it had a community swim team.  At the time we were wrapping up 3 years of pretty regular swim lessons at the Hydro.  Hilde is a natural swimmer, she is graceful and lovely in the water.  Enoch enjoys the water, but swim strokes were not coming as naturally to him.  We bought the house and moved to Virginia in August of 2011.  It was too late for swim team that year.  The next year I was working full time which meant there was no possibility of swim team again.  This year was different though, and we signed the kids up.  It was a big time commitment, with me having to wrangle the two younger kids for two hours every day while the older two had practice.  But, in the end, it was definitely worth it.  Hilde picked up right where she left off, and was one of the best on the team for backstroke for her age group.  Enoch started the summer barely making the team.  You had to swim one length of the pool without stopping, any stroke.  Enoch barely did it, but his look of pure joy after completing it was priceless.  By the end of the summer he was begging to do the IM, and could do freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and some butterfly.  These kids are awesome.

Younce Family Reunion Part 6

These are the last few pictures I have of the family reunion.  The older kids took turns on the big bouncer.  I even took a turn, and wow it was hard work.  The pictures from our reunion are great, but it doesn't capture all of the fun that was had.  A week is enough time for cousins to bond or re-bond, for adults to have real conversations with each other, for 20 games of Dominion to be played, for movie nights, for family dinners, for water aerobics and runs and long bike rides, for fishing and hiking and time at the spa, for naps and make believe and art.  This was a pretty epic family reunion and there may never be another one quite like it.  But this year, I am glad we were a part of it.  We really love our family.