Rachel is 7!

 Rachel turned 7 in August.  She is getting so big!  She anticipates birthdays all...summer...long.  We planned her party and made everything from scratch to keep her from being bored in the summer.

 The "Real Birthday" cake.

 Birthday breakfast.

The party theme was "stars."  It was a little far fetched but it worked.  The craft was this star jewelry box.

 Don't Eat Sunny

I was going to buy Rachel a pinata just like this, but got ambitious and made it.  I think I'm improving at my ghetto paper bag pinatas.

Rachel is a wonderful daughter and older sister to all her siblings.  She helps me so much.  I appreciate her sincerity and desire to make other people happy.

First Day of School!

Rachel had her first day of 2nd grade and Lincoln had his first day of Kindergarten.  I was nervous for Lincoln because he seems so young to me.  He has really impressed me with how well he has done.  The first day he came home and said it was thumbs down boring, but every day after that he has loved.  Rachel has always loved school and this year is no exception.

Carolina's Stop 3

Our final stop on our Carolina's Trip was to visit the Ragatz.  Sarah is my best friend from high school/college and my trip out to her new house was long overdue.

 The kids were excited about doing this camp fire the whole trip.

 Joe and Carman got the manly task of making the fire.  The even more impressive part of this was the wood was wet.

 Sarah, Lily, and me getting ready for s'mores. 

 Sarah's sweet mother lives nearby and offered to watch our kids while we went on a date.  I bowled above 70 so that was amazing. 

 Lily got to come too.  Pardon the creepy picture in the back.

 We went to a library magic show and then stopped by this Arthur exhibit.  The kids got to be on the Arthur show.  (If you look really close you can see it on the screen).

One of the funnest parts of the trip was decorating Sarah's mantel.  Joe watched the kids and we did the typical comparison shopping that I just can't do with Joe without him wanting to curse me.  We went from store to store and then back to old stores....so fulfilling:).  

Carolina's Stop 2

The second part of our Carolina's trip was to visit Joe's sister Lori and her family.

One of our first stops was to visit Grandpa Skipper's horses. 

The kids fed the horses watermelon rinds.  Hannah spent most of the time trying to work up enough courage to pet one of the horses.

The next day we went to a beautiful beach.  It was a lot of fun.

 Lily has some nice faces:)

 Another cute face

 Sand Hannah

Maddox, Rachel, and Lincoln.  They had so much fun playing together the whole trip.

Last, but not least, we got to see down town Wilmington (the closest big city to where they lived).  This may be a poor reflection on my coolness level, but we were told this is where they shot the outside the court room shoots on Matlock and I heart Matlock.  I had to take a picture.

We enjoyed our time with Laurie's family.  They were wonderful hosts.

Carolinas Trip- Stop 1

Our first stop on our trip to the Carolina's was visiting the Zastrows.  They just moved from Lexington and we've missed them a lot.  We had a lot of fun visiting them.  Our van broke down when we got there so it made our trip there longer while we were fixing the van.  We didn't mind (the staying longer part:).

Bowling

 Rachel and Atlas- This little boy plans to marry Rachel and Rachel doesn't seem to mind him saying so.

 Hannah and Leilah.  It's sad that these too little friends don't get to hang out as much any more.  They are very cute together and get along so well.

 I think everyone of these little bowlers out bowled me.  I stink.

Play Time

 Little Divas singing to Brent's accompaniment.

Emily's Birthday

Helping make/taste the cake

The Pier

Big Girl Food

Lily finally got her first "big kid" food toward the end of July.  She didn't think it tasted as good as mom's milk.

Free Food

We took advantage of the free chick filet chicken when you dress like a cow day.  Joe's such a good sport.  Hannah was not in this picture because she's still scared by the cow.