Blueberry Season

Friends from Boston brought their four children for a much anticipated visit to our town last week.  Pearl has visited them on their turf before, but it was so sweet to see them run around the yard, the best of friends. They enjoyed washing clothes in the creek, and those poor articles of clothing came back far dirtier than they went in.

We took them to swim at Gifford Pinchot and to cool off at the local splash park.  Daniel took them for a drive to view the Amish farms south of us.  Sadly, they had to return early due to a church emergency in Boston, but we will hope to see them again.

Each Wednesday this summer the girls have gone to the church for musical practice. The songs are really coming along, and I’m amazed that even the four and five year olds have been able to memorize their lines. 

These last photos are of our all family blueberry picking trip this week.  Ruby was a surprisingly focused picker. She filled her container very quickly and didn't want to quit.  Pearl liked to help everyone, and Sapphire preferred to stand back and encourage the rest of us but not actually pick much herself.   

 

And the final new element around here is the rope swing. We don’t have the final seat attached yet, but the rope swing has kept the girls busy figuring out all types of tricks.

Raystown Lake

We usually go to the beach for a summer vacations, but this year we headed to Raystown Lake to try something new. A little more than two hours northwest of us, we pulled into the cabin my mother had found, one that abutted state game lands and a state park with nice trails.  Nature came calling upon us one morning when my brother spotted a black bear trolling through our garbage. He plucked the bag out of the large trash can, and we watched as he dragged it up through the woods.  

On the one wet day we went to Lincoln Caverns, an underground cave formation not far away.  We also stopped at an alpaca farm, and the girls got to see a two week old alpaca cria.  He was so soft!  

During the sunny days, we went to the little sandy beach beside the lake. The water was warm and perfect for the little girls. We rented a kayak, and Daniel and I took turns paddling the girls around on the lake. After my brother and his wife arrived, they paddled off together to some cliffs, and Pearl surprised us by coming back to report she had jumped from the ten foot cliff into the water. 

We found it very relaxing, and I could have stayed longer, but we needed to come home for one of our favorite summer events, the church picnic. We had worship outside in camp chairs, then a wings contest, kids’ games, and an auction. 

Swim Week

Our Fourth of July included a family wedding. The little girls loved the princess-like bridal dress, dancing with each other, and Shirley Temples, a favorite drink from my childhood wedding experiences. 

Sapphire and her Shirley Temple

This week has been dedicated to swim lessons. The girls all take four days of swim lessons, all in a row. After each lesson, we have free swim time at the local pool.  This is a week they look forward to all year.  Today Sapphire realized she could do a forward roll in the water. After her first success, she came up spluttering and just exploding with pride. 







A friend came over to train Daniel in repointing. This will be his new  hobby, so fortunately he enjoys it. The spots they have completed look so pretty.  I can't wait to see the whole thing finished. I will probably have to wait, though.  It will probably take a few years to work the whole way around the house.

Everything Week

Pearl’s birthday falls at such a perfect time to celebrate summer, that we really need an itemized list to remember everything we did to make her birthday special.  We had celebrated with Grammy and Poppop early, so the parties really lasted nearly three weeks. The night before her birthday we said goodbye to seven (which is our little ritual). 

On the day she turned eight, we tried to complete everything on a list she made up, which included a family cherry picking party—this just means picking cherries at the local orchard, but she loves it--lunch with the whole family, and tea party with her stuffed animals. 

We spent two days at Cape Henlopen, a State Park in Delaware. The girls instantly turn into beach girls when we go, and Ruby and Sapphire were especially delighted with the beach. Sapphire made friends with all our sand neighbors, especially the ones with good toys.  Nana came down too and distributed birthday Frozen towels, which were a huge hit. Sadly, Nana took sick and had to abandon the beach on our second day.  

 

The birthday bliss ended with a low key pirate party with two little friends, ice cream sandwich-pirate ships for dessert, and some pirate hats. It turns out it doesn’t take much! They made a plank bridge into a deadly plank that everyone loved to walk.

In the midst of this week, we had over sixty people over to our new home, and some of them came multiple times for lunch during the youth retreat. This is exactly how we wanted to be using our larger space.  The youth spent their mornings painting a Rescue Mission property before stopping by our home for lunch and devotions. The girls loved hanging out with them in the afternoons and around the inescapable campfire.  We slept at a home kindly opened to us for the retreat, and Ruby asked if that was now our new house, poor confused little thing. The youth stayed up late goofing off and asking questions about the Bible.

Hours after the retreat ended, Daniel’s black belt test candidates were rolling up our driveway. About twelve of his students spent the night here, showing their skills at forms, breaking, and stamina.  They were amazing guests. While I am not part of the karate world, I do admire the deeply respectful, helpful attitude it engenders. They went for a run in the middle of the night and were up before me, working out on mats under our carport. The little girls were very entertained by everything they did, and I was able to rest while an exhausting fever laid me low. I'm now on the mend.

Celebrations

Cherry season! Ruby is a surprisingly dedicated cherry picker

One morning last week Sapphire gave me a hug and kiss and wished me a "happy Mother's Day." This seemed so sweet, I saw no need to correct her. Later that morning she said that she wanted Mother's Day to be "perfect," and going out to lunch would make it perfect. I wasn't too against this idea, so we tried to figure out if we could pull her daddy away from his weed-wacking project to go to Roburitos. This wouldn't do for Sapphire. She was sure Mother's Day (Part II) would be better if we went to the Chinese buffet.  In the end we tried it her way. I didn't mind the extra attention, though I started to see a pattern when she wished me "Happy Mother's Day" the very next morning.

The Black Jack team in a huddle.

For Father's Day we cheered their daddy on through two Ultimate Frisbee games, then we enjoyed some frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog.  This had been Pearl's plan all along.

This month has tons of celebratory importance in our house. We were able to celebrate Daniel's birthday with his parents, who also surprised the girls with an Easter egg hunt. With moving, we haven't all been in Chester County much lately to visit, but the girls thoroughly enjoyed their late Easter treats.

Finally, our little orange belt was promoted and received her first stripe this past Saturday.

We discovered a leak in the pond yesterday, and the water level has dropped a bit. The ducks don't seem to mind, but I wish they would figure out how to plug the leak. It is beyond me. 

Cherished

Last week on the anniversary of D-Day, we had a chance to chat with a veteran who was there. He is a kind neighbor in our old neighborhood, a retired policeman.  He initially said he wasn't really there because his troop transport was hit by two mines and sunk before it landed on the fateful beach. He made it out of the water eventually.

I asked a friend to repair the large mouse holes chewed in this quilt made by my great-grandmother. The crazy quilt is amazing, but very delicate.  Now that it has been repaired, we can put it to use, since that is what quilts are for.

My friend Bev did a lovely job, and my husband couldn't even find the repairs.  You can see that Capitola, the initial artist, worked on her quilt for years. She has added several 'notes' about her age as she finished this full size quilt. 

With all of our things around us in the new house, it really feels like we have been there a long time.  The frogs have been entertaining the girls. They go on frog walks around the pond to count the frogs (or, in Sapphire's case, try to catch them).  This requires a weird kicking-out-over-the-water way of walking that they tell me scares the frogs into jumping into the water. 

I finally saw a tiny frog sitting on one of our lily pads. I didn't get a picture of him, but I did catch this blooming water lily in the fish pond. 

Baptized into the Family of God

We have been looking forward to baptizing Ruby since before we brought her home.  This was one of the milestones that we could all enjoy together.  It seemed too much to throw the water at her when she first arrived, and, since her sisters had all be baptized in the summer in our historic eighteenth-century church, we wanted to continue that tradition.  We tried scheduling it for last fall, but the very day we had planned, her daddy was in the hospital learning he had an operable brain aneurism. This Sunday she finally got baptized.


We had talked about what it would be like, so she was ready for some water. I explained that it would be a sign that she was God's child, and that Mommy and Daddy were promising to teach her about God, and all this sounded fine to her.  During the baptism her daddy shared her life verse, held her, and scooped water over her head. Her Nana was able to assist, since she is an elder in our denomination, just at a different church.  Afterward Ruby had to tell me how the drops dripped down her back, but she wasn't upset at all by it. 

Later, our extended family joined us at the new house for a lunch.  Ruby knew that the cakes and food were for her party, so she was looking forward to it. We got to give tours through the house and celebrate this big event with our family. Thanks to all who could come! 

My very strong husband brought nearly the last load of random items from the old house.  I would not have imagined this was possible last summer when he was wracked with Lyme disease back pain!  Our calves and biceps must have gotten stronger during this last month of going up and down steps.  The last items seem to be the toughest, because they don't have an obvious spot. Another aspect of the transition is the fact that our home will be without internet for two or three months, depending on how speedy our provider is in connecting us. 

Here's a sight I love, and one that is perfectly timed for our library's summer reading program. 
These two have been bonding in a beautiful way over the last few weeks.