Wanna See Delia's Invitation?

Tonight we finalized the day and time of Delia's 1st birthday celebration. Dave will be on his service trip for the actual date, so we're going to do her party on the 11th. In our minds, it's a Friday night pizza party at church with just our circle of closest friends, but we're still working out some details. While I won't be mailing each of you an invitation, I thought you'd still like to see a part of it via the blog. If you want to hop a plane and join us, know we'd love to have you!

What To Do On a Saturday

This Saturday we enjoyed a couple hours of picnic and play at the park. We were there to catch up with some long-distance friends, Mark and Allison. They were a part of that great Youth Pastor group of friends we loved working and hanging out with last year. Mark now serves as a teen-counselor in Missouri, but a California trip brought them back to our area for the weekend. Their youngest son, Harrison, is exactly a week younger than Delia and has the best smile. He and Delia crawled around together trying to sneak inedible things into their mouths while their Mommies chatted. Hutson and Ella (about 6 months apart) spent the whole day following each other around the playground. The best parts of Ella's day were eating Hutson's lunch and going down the slide like a choo-choo with her old buddy. Dave and I just enjoyed sharing ministry and parenting stories and hearing about Mark and Allison's life since leaving CA.

What To Do On a Sunday

Today after naps we were all feeling a little restless, so I opened our wedding album to show Ella. Then I got the crazy idea to haul my wedding dress out of the closet. Ella is going to be a flower girl for a wedding in January and is very into brides and being married right now. Also, on Friday night Dave and I attended a lovely wedding that for some reason made us nostalgic about ours. So, we rolled with the wedding theme this weekend!

Ella was pretty excited about my dress (the ultimate princess dress in her eyes!) and had to put her dress-up wedding gown on too.

If You Leave It, I Will Climb...

Another possible title: Dave's Payback! Clearly Delia inherited all those climbing/get-into-EVERYTHING genes from her father!

Just watch how she celebrates when she reaches her goal! Little stinker...

Zucchini Comin' Out Our Ears

So apparently our garden grew while we were gone last week! I had Hailey, a freshman with cheerleading practice every day, stop by to water our garden and feed our dog. She's one heck of a waterer; our zucchinis seem to love her!

What to do with these baseball bat sized veggies? The other day I baked 8 zucchini breads! Over in the side margin are some new summer recipes. I've made all recently with the bounty of our garden. We hope you enjoy the Pasta Primavera, Tomato Basil Bisque and Creamy Cucumber Salad as much as we do!

Swim Day Starts!

"Hi guys, this is Amy. Just wanted to let you know we are planning on starting Swim Day today. Come on over any time after 2:00..."

This was a message we heard on our machine yesterday that cheered our summer-loving selves up immensely! Ella was so excited about swimming with her friends that she couldn't fall asleep during naptime and when I was applying her sunscreen she happily rattled on and on. "I'm so excited!! I love swimming! I love Jared! But Jared don't love getting kisses..." When we pulled up we were greeted by a jubilant Jared running to our car yelling, "Ella! Ella!" and tackling her in a hug. I guess we were all a little giddy with the joy of Swim Day starting.

And good thing we had this day planned, we were in Travis, Jadon and Mikaela withdrawal! To spend another afternoon with them, like we did every day last week at Mt. Hermon, was wonderful. Debbie (our host) had a new Bermuda deck built in her pool (a larger shallow step) that was perfect for the kids and Delia was content to just bob around in her new raft. The table was spread with snacks, fruit and baked goods and we all indulged in these and some fellowship.

I've been on a "What do you love about summer?" kick and I'll tell you: Swim Day may be my favorite thing!

Gotta Love Summer!

Here's a summer tradition Heather and I grew up with: running through the sprinkler! When you are hot and pool-less it's a great option (and from a Mommy point-of-view, it also makes some super cute pictures!). After our play time in the sprinkler we slurped some blueberry pomegranate popsicles. Ahhh, summer!

What are your favorite things to do during these hot, lazy days of summer? Leave me a comment and I'll compile a list of fun ways to fill the days of this season!

Mt. Hermon

Today we are returning/recovering from our wonderful weeks at Hi Camp and Mt. Hermon. Dave's week was truly blessed. He had awesome worship opportunities, tons of goofy fun and one of his best cabins of guys. He described his guys as respectful, gifted, open to the challenges and people he would have been friends with in high school.

*****

My week at Mt. Hermon was equally great. The time with friends was unequaled, for both myself and the girls. Ella grew quite attached to Travis, Jadon, Mikaela, Beth, Allie and Nathan and to see her light up and laugh with her friends while enjoying some independence with them was probably the best part of my week. Admittedly there were a number of challenges. Parenting the girls completely by myself when we were in unfamiliar territory, sleep deprived, over-stimulated and on an atypical diet was tricky. However my church family and friends were beyond helpful-- carrying plates of food for me in the dining hall, walking the kids to child care, escorting us to and from our cabin and holding fussy Delia when I needed a break. The rewards did greatly outweigh the challenges and already I look forward to Mt. Hermon being a summer tradition.

The grounds are stunning. The camp is nestled in a forest of redwoods with bubbling streams flowing all over. Just walking to the places we needed to be was rejuvenating.

I had lots of great quality time with my girlfriends Teri and Julie and their wonderful families.

I registered days before the camp started, yet I still got an amazing cabin. It was literally built over a stream, we heard the soothing water rush by all night. I sat on my porch and read as the girls slept and we were just steps from the place Anna Jean and Julie stay with their family also.

Busy Every Day

When I first viewed the week's itinerary, I was honestly overwhelmed. Bonfires, family concerts, s'mores nights, carnivals, Train Day, Beach Day, a pool, row boats, hiking opportunities, a ropes course, a rock-climbing wall and whole fieldhouse full of games...the options to keep us busy were endless. All this on top of twice daily day camp for the kids while I attended seminars and worship. We sure had days jam-packed with activities and friends! We did alright, though, at finding a balance between taking advantage of all the fun that was appropriate for us (no ropes course or climbing wall and no activities going past 9:00ish) and still enjoying a bit of down time in our cabin each day and night.

Enjoying s'mores with Allie and Nathan.

Singing silly songs around the campfire with Mikaela.

Cooling off in the pool.

A row boat ride with Daddy (he was able to leave his camp for a few hours to come visit us one day.)

The end of the week program. Ella's class sang "Our God is so Big" (here she is showing how He is so STRONG and so mighty!)

Beach Day!

I love the beach! The crashing waves, the sand, the hot sun, the smell of salt and sunblock...all of it spells out summer to me! We were able to coordinate an afternoon at the beach in Santa Cruz with a trip Dave's camp also makes to the beach. We met for a few hours of sand-castle-building, boogie-board-riding, crab-hunting, wave-knocking-over, shade-seeking fun!

Rides

On Wednesday we enjoyed a day of Rides arranged by Mt. Hermon. It started with an hour long, open-air train ride through the redwood forest from our camp and into Santa Cruz. We loved spending this day entirely with the Girards and chose to do the Boardwalk with them once we got to Santa Cruz. On the Boardwalk, Ella was so happy to go on the kiddie rides with her buddies. She rode little boats, cars, planes, flying dragons and a Pepsi truck. The sights, smells and sounds of the Boardwalk are always fun to take in. We wandered around admiring the old wooden rollercoasters and sky buckets built right next to the ocean.

Delia just grabbed naps whenever she could, here she dozes in her stroller.

Why I Love My Daddy (by Ella)

My daddy knows all my favorite stories and reads them very dramatically.

He plays Pretty Pretty Princess with me (but you'd never know about that since Mommy is forbidden to take pictures of it!).

He makes bath time wild and crazy!

He wrestles with me and taught me how to tackle.

He is my prince. He dances with me and finds me when I leave my shoe behind at midnight.

He never forgets to give me a hug and kiss before he leaves for church.

He is the only one I can actually fall asleep and cuddle with.

My daddy helps me jump on the big ball, which is my favorite thing to do.

His computer has things like "Move It, Move It" on You Tube and the Little People site bookmarked.

I can ride on his feet, swing in his arms and slide down his back.

He not only makes me the best scrambled eggs, he puts me on the counter and lets me help with each part (I especially like mixing them real fast).

He is always singing, and sometimes making up, some goofy song.

Sometimes I get to go in the little house and race cars with Daddy on the TV. I love this!

I often come home with some special treat that wasn't on the list when I run errands with Daddy.

If I ever wake up scared in the middle of the night, he is the one to quickly come and catch the fly or reassure me it's just motorcycles outside my window.

He works very hard to provide for me, Delia and Mommy.

He makes me laugh.

He takes good care of me.

He loves me so much.

He is the best daddy in the world!

Cinderella and Her Fairy Godmother

A little back lit and I think Ella is in the middle of a twirl, but I wanted to show you how Delia is standing completely on her own on a regular basis now! (No steps yet, though.)

Singing With Daddy

We had our own Children In Worship right in our living room last night. Ella was the teacher and Dave was the student. After acting out a little story with stuffed baby toys, Ella led Dave in some singing...

Father Abraham

This Little Light of Mine

Early Father's Day

Dave leaves on Friday for his week+ at Hi Camp. This is an annual convention for students from our youth group and others around California. It is held in the beautiful, forresty coastal mountains, minutes from the Pacific and is a true "mountain top" experience for all who attend. I'm excited for Dave to have this time to bond with his students and be spiritually challenged, but it does mean we won't see him on Sunday for Father's Day. He is such an awesome dad that we couldn't let him go uncelebrated, so we are doing Father's Day today! We woke him up with hugs, "Happy Father's Day!"s, and a gift of Ladder Ball (aka "Horse Balls" or "Hillbilly Golf"). Then we delivered a giant chocolate mocha to him at work and tonight I have special dinner and dessert planned.

I was originally stressing about the long time I'd be Dave-less, but some exciting new developments have just occurred! I will be attending Mt. Hermon with the girls for the week! Dave's Hi Camp is actually affiliated with this renowned Christian Camp and many families from our church go to the Family Camp that occurs simultaneously with and nearby Hi Camp. Someone from church has generously offered to help pay for our registration fees and one call confirmed that there is plenty of space for us yet. Family Camp at Mt. Hermon includes amazing child care/day camp for Delia and Ella, special speakers and worship times for me, plenty of family fun (like organized pool games, campfires, carnivals and BBQs), all our meals in a dining hall and even a day away-- a train ride to the Santa Cruz board walk! I'm thinking it will be like the summer camp I grew up going to (except for adults) complete with 2 of my best friends, Julie and Teri, going with their families. God really worked out the details so that not only would I would not have to stay home alone, but I could go and have this spiritually recharging, super-fun time with my friends and girls!

Lots to Celebrate

We're party animals this week! This time of year seems to carry lots of celebrations: birthdays, graduations and weddings. With Dave's involvement in the youth programs, we always have a bunch of graduation parties to attend. We kicked off our party week on Monday with Jared's birthday.


As fun as it always is to hang out with this crowd, Ella especially enjoyed the little water slide pool with her buddies. Even Delia got a break from Mommy's arms to satisfy her curiosity and need to move in the jumpy house. The twins, Peter and Cora, joined her, where Peter was the object of Delia's affection-- tackled with hugs and slobbery kisses! Amy (Jared's mom) recently learned that her baby due in October is a girl!

Some grad parties are a little hard for the girls, they're mostly for adults with few kids or toys (Ella spent much of Saturday night's on an inside treadmill with a caring high schooler!). Today we had our favorite party, a celebration for 4 graduates, all members of the extended VM family: Cody, Carlene, Kalvin and Kirsi. Ella swam with her friend Mikaela and even learned a few swim moves. The "jump-o-leen," visiting the mooing cows and huge tri-trip lunch were also highlights, as was "the best cake in the whole world!!" (according to Ella).