July, so far

 We were able to have my mom out here for girls camp, the carnival, to celebrate the 4th of July, and celebrate Aaron’s birthday before it was time to send her home. I’m grateful for the time we had with her, and her willingness to come visit us. Having family corn to visit is what making living so far away easier. 

For the 4th of July we were able to have a bbq and fireworks with our culdesac; I loved watching the kids in their blankets and on chairs, eating popcorn, oohing and aweing at the sky. On the actual 4th, we took advantage of a gap in the storms to host a small bbq with our friends and the missionaries. We then continued to play a 3hr board game with the remaining family that stayed. If you’ve never played Redneck LIFE, I highly recommend it. Just as we started fireworks the missionaries showed back up and told us they had extended curfews… and next thing we knew, they hung out with us until even our bedtime!  

Aaron’s 9th Birthday: After weeks of teasing him that we just simply weren’t going to celebrate his birthday and him politely accepting it and teasing us right back, the day finally came. He wanted a Minecraft birthday, but thoughtfully added, “but if you’d like to do Star Wars theme because its easier and we own all the stuff that would be fine with me too.” So of course he got a Minecraft themed birthday! And meet all his requests, we had sprinkled pancakes for breakfast, “9” year old nachos for lunch, and ham and cheese sliders for dinner. Topped off with an ice cream cake for dessert. He was able to play with friends, as well as play hours of Minecraft. He had two of his three closest buddies over for dinner/desserts and then for a late night movie. He said he had a GREAT DAY, with the best cake to date… so it looks like I’ll just buy a HyVee cake every year and give up making my own 😂

Wednesday we took my mom back to the Des Moines airport, ate Chik-fil-A (which is always a highlight for us), and then had ice cream at The Viking for our mutual activity. 

The kids had the week off from lessons and enjoyed lots of play times with friends. Especially the girls who had lots of outing with some found freedom, and a new friend a few houses up from us. I loved watching them feel so big and grown up. 

Then over the weekend we were able to support Aaron during his last Raptors tournament, in the most beautiful weather we could have asked for. We spent all day outside . It was a great weekend!