In April we signed some of the kids up for soccer!
We had 6 girls on the same team but no coaches...
Hubby has coached and coached and coached for most of his parenting years.
We were thinking assistant coaching sounded good given our large family
and busy schedule
BUT
there was no one else to do it
and since he had 6 of his gals on the same team
volunteering to coach was the only right thing to do!
Thankfully soccer enthusiast and big brother Mark
volunteered to coach with him!
All 8 kiddos had zero soccer experience
however they have watched their big brother Johnny play college soccer
so they had an idea of what it looked like!
There was a shortage of players so we had many inter squad games.
They also had an opportunity to play some of the lower level traveling teams.
This pic was taken after they beat one of the travel teams
(insert silent cheer!).
Ben and Sam played on the boys team!
The practices and the games were at the same field and the same time.
This made it possible for us to participate.
Both boys had such wonderful positive attitudes!
We are so proud of them for giving it their all and having such a great season!
Ben was born with Spina Bifida and he wears an AFO.
That did not slow him down a bit!
As I watched all of the children out there on the field I felt such JOY!
Each child has overcome so many obstacles...
they are my heroes!
Sarah and Mia were disappointed that they were too old to play
but since the girls team was short players and
well
Dad and big brother were coaches
they got an opportunity to play quite a few times!
And this would be a pic of the fans that wanted to be on the playground more
than they wanted to watch their older sibs play soccer!
Every year VBS is a highlight of our summer!
Sarah, Mia and Ellie were volunteers!
The other children in the yellow tees attended VBS!
While Emma and I shared special time together!
Just the two of us!
They come home singing and praising Jesus!
We love it!
Emma and I would arrive just in time to hear everyone singing in the chapel!
We had beautiful weather for VBS!
The sun was so bright I had to tell the kids to open their eyes on the count of three!
Not everyone got the memo!
On the last day they brought home their treasures and finished projects!
This year everyone got their own bible from VBS!
The helpers got a coupon for a dilly bar at DQ!
As you can see they were very sad VBS was over...
And once again they all said,
"I can't wait until next year!"
Only 360 more days!
While the other kids were at VBS Emma and I shopped for Ava's birthday gifts.
Emma wanted 5 bucks to keep quite and not tell Ava what gifts she was getting...
We bargained a bit and settled on $1!!!
We also went through some of our storage things!
We sent texts to the older boys asking if they wanted this or that!
Emma modeled the items!
She was such a sweetheart and loved helping us!
Big brother Mark was so glad we found his Ole friend Sparky in storage!
(Along with Barney and blankie!)
Our new puppy Daisy loves shoes...
this is only a small sample of the shoes she has chewed...
She prefers to chew
one shoe...
from each pair...
NO DAISY!
Evidence of open closet doors!
She looks so innocent...
don't be fooled!
We went out and bought a bundle of new shoes that are now in the children's upstair closets!
And now we have signs
ALL OVER THE MUDROOM
reminding kids to shut the closet doors!
Thank goodness she is so cute
and easy to forgive...
Daisy is not a leash dog...
We put it on and she immediately sat down and pouted...
We needed to get her used to the gentle leader and teach her the boundaries of the yard.
She is a very smart and we now have the invisible fence up and running!
Our puppy ate a few too many inedible items
and landed herself in the ER...
$1200 dollars later she is fine..
Nothing IV fluids, antibiotics, anti emetics, antacids and hospital time resting
couldn't cure...
Ugh!
Ben and Sam went to engineering camp!
They played games, built catapults and did all sorts of fun things!
Many of the children (Ava, Melissa, Jenny, Anna, Sam, Ben, Abby, Madeline, Joey and Luke)
took summer art classes!
They did clay and painting classes
and they loved it!
A business associate and friend of our older daughter Katie
sent us these awesome tees!
Thank you Mary Mulvenna Zimmer for your thoughtfulness!
We LOVE them!
To visit one of Mary's stores/sites please click on the links below!
I was so surprised when I cracked an egg for Sunday morning BKF and it was
NEON GREEN!
Of course we immediately thought of Dr Seuss and his book
"Green Eggs and Ham"!
I do not want them Sam I am!
The pic does not do it justice- I had to search for my phone and as I did,
it slowly changed to a more normal color.
We did not eat it...
but after googling it we found out we could have eaten it.
A neon green egg contains a high amount of vitamin B3
and it also may be green due to whatever the hen ate.
In early June the children and I visited
Square Root Farm!
Ashley is 19 years old and she is a homeschool grad!
Her passion is farm animals and self sustaining farms!
For a very, very small fee we were able to spend an hour with her and learn about farm life!
Her Mom, Connie helps with the farm events and she joined us!
We milked the goats and fed the baby goats bottles!
The children each got a chance to ride her horse!
This was a first for Jenny!
Ben loved it!
Emma was thrilled!
Abby smiled ear to ear!
And Ellie was in heaven!
We learned about the different kind of chickens!
The white ones... may be on the dinner table at some point... sorry guys!
While these beauties lay wonderful eggs!
The children collected the eggs and ran around trying to catch the chickens!
They were very successful!
Makes me want a chicken coop!
And I will leave you with a pic of the children and I doing the rumba through the house
making sure it is all picked up !
We get in a long line and do a dance throughout the house
while finding things that still need to be put away!
Usually the kiddos at the end of the line have to put more things away!
We will post more summer fun later!
