August / Kimball's 13th Birthday

 In addition to our stay-cation we had a lot of fun in August.

We had some fun play dates with our friends, the Kjars, who are moving.

We had a water/sprinkler day together. 

Annika and Sage really became close this summer!

We had our fist official day back at church.  We attend a short church service once a month.    In order for everyone in our congregation to have an opportunity to attend church once a month there are 2 services each week.  As Bishop, Joseph attends each week.  Right now for religious services in New York we can only meet in groups of 25 people.

I love how everyone has their eyes closed.  It was bright!

Lincoln won the summer reading prize from the library one week.  

Kimball also won for a second time.

One afternoon we helped out a friend and we watched her kids while she ran an errand.  Her two older boys played so nicely, but the real draw were the 4 month old boy/girl twins!  The kids loved holding the babies.  Rebecah even got Nolan to sleep.  Annika had to have pictures with Nolan since they are both redheads!

Twins holding twins!

Joseph replaced the brakes on our van and had a good helper!

Lincoln loves to work with tools and weapons.  One day he found a stick and a rubber band and made his own bow.  He also found some fairly straight sticks and Joseph helped him sharpen them for arrows.  Lincoln had such fun shooting his tiny bow around the yard.

Kimball turned 13 on the 23rd.  He was really disappointed to have his birthday on a Sunday, but we tried to make it special for him. For the 8th year in a row he has requested cranberry white chocolate scones for breakfast.

For lunch Kimball requested homemade buttermilk pancakes with buttermilk syrup.  I try to comply with all birthday requests so special food for lunch, too!

Kimball is a HUGE Cleveland Browns football fan.  He started rooting for them a few years ago when they had the worst record in the NFL.  Since then the Browns have improved and Kimball proudly wears his Browns fan gear.  He also has some Browns masks that he wears every chance he gets.

Kimball and Joseph celebrated Kimball's birthday on Saturday by going mountain biking at a local ski resort.  Joseph surprised Kimball with a new mountain bike and they had fun biking for hours.  Kimball had a few close calls on his bike.  He was very lucky not to be seriously injured when he accidentally lost control on his bike and was heading down a black diamond ski trail.  I'm sure he had protection from Heaven in that moment.

The last few years Kimball has wanted cheesecake or key lime pie for his birthday treat so I was really surprised he was just wanted chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting topped with berries.  I guess I shouldn't really complain that he had picked a simple dessert.  The cupcakes were still delicious.

My friend Mari decided to hold one final ballet camp before she moved.  She hurried and packed up her house and held a ballet class for these girls.  I was glad my two little girls could experience one of Mari's ballet camps even if it was an abbreviated camp.

I offered to watch Mari's kids while she and Josh loaded their moving van so our kids could have one last day together.  The kids were so good and they got along so well.  I had everyone over for dinner as well so we could have one last gathering with our families.

Josh served as one of Joseph's counselors this year and they will miss their association together.

Annika has said so many times how much she misses Sage.  She cried when they said goodbye.  Annika comes off as a feisty redhead and she is at times, but at other times she is the most tender and sensitive girl.  I love her big heart.

A couch of kids!  My  heart is happy thinking of the friendships that have been built with this family over the last 8 years.

One final picture of Jude with his baby quilt that I made for him.  I can honestly say that Jude's dinosaur quilt is one of my favorite quilts that I have made over the years.

Our summer is coming to a close.  The kids start a hybrid version of school on September 10th.  Rebecah, Lincoln, Annika, and Eden will attend in-person learning twice a week with 3 days of remote learning.  Kimball will have 1 in-person day and 4 days of remote learning.

Rebecah decided she loved reading Harry Potter so much that she read the entire series for a second time this summer.  She now loves to read and that makes my reading heart happy!