Little Lads in Leola

The first week of August, the two older boys enjoyed the Vacation Bible School at Forest Hills Mennonite Church in Leola, near where my mom's old house used to be. (I learned to drive stick shift in that parking lot!)

Aunt Jen was in charge of VBS again this year, and she was nice to invite the boys to go. The first night they were gone, we took Ryan out to dinner at Isaac's, and he was SO good! He loved the one-on-one time with Mommy and Daddy (or is that one-on-two?). He ate his mac & cheese, applesauce and everything so well. It was a fun little date.

The older boys loved Bible school. A funny moment on our way home the one night was when Joshua proclaimed "We can stand up for God!" and Caleb shrieked back "You can't stand in the car, Josh!" They loved the crafts and Bible stories and snacks. On the last night, there was supposed to be an ice cream social but between Ryan being tired and the rain starting to drip, we decided to skip it and headed to Sonic for half price milkshakes for the boys. They highly enjoyed this special treat!

Going back a couple weeks, the boys had their backyard Bible club with Aunt Becky on Monday, July 22. The following day, I texted a couple friends to see if anyone would like to meet at the park. One of them - Tara -  was able to come with her kids Elizabeth (Joshua's age), Luke (Caleb's age) and Hudson (Ryan's age). We had a great time! I was asking her about all her farming, planting, weeding, etc. It was interesting. We agreed that it was time to go home for naps as the sky was growing black. But, we should have left five minutes before we did. The heavens let loose and it POURED on us! We left extremely wet. :)

The following day, my friend Suzanne came over with her kids Ian and Emily. We had fun playing with them and catching up, too!

That last weekend of July, Caleb went to his friend Sam's birthday party in the afternoon. He loved that he got a cape to come home with as the "giveaway." That same evening, we went to Emma & Grace's combined birthday parties and the boys enjoyed playing outside.

We've enjoyed other play dates this summer where I didn't take my camera along. We met one of Joshua's school friends, Evelyn, whose mom had asked us to go to Overlook. We also met my Study & Share friends a few times at Talmage Park in Leola. It's a fun place!

These pictures are of the boys at the Leola Community Park. We meet Daddy there sometimes over his lunch break. I'll typically pack a lunch for us all to enjoy at the picnic tables and then the kids get to play. One day, I bought pizza and took up instead. The boys had taken their Mario toys this time and were playing with them on the playground.

One of Shawn's co-workers happened to be having her lunch there one day and showed us the cicada shells on the walls of the pavilion (YUCK!).

We love to slide, swing, run and play outside! And we LOVE to see Daddy mid-day when we can. It's been a fun summer!