A couple of random shots :)

Mr. Michael man... the guy who's growing like a weed ;)

Little Janelle... she may be small, but she's definitely a leader!  Something cute...  I asked James if he wanted a new little boy or girl in the family.  "I think a girl" he says (it's always changing).  "You want a little girl like Janelle?" says I.  "Yeah!  Should we try that?"  Janelle... if the Lord blesses us with a girl, we'll try that!  haha...

And what is 4th of July without some fireworks.  Unfortunately, because of the heatwave, Jerry had to work 16 hours a day for the majority of my brother's visit.  He was able to have Friday and Saturday off, so we are thankful for that, but he missed the firework show.  John and Daniel ran around setting off the fireworks. Poor John was drenched in sweat by the end of the evening... it was still 90 F as we sat outside at 9pm. Sheesh!

James and Samuel... little buddies.

Daniel, our pyromaniac!

John setting them off... these are some low shows, but several were beauties in the sky.

I don't think Lucas took his hands off his ears the whole evening.

John and Anne and their family came to visit for a week over 4th of July.  Along with them came a heatwave and some rain storms. What else is new?  I think every time they come we have some bit of crazy weather :) So to beat the heat we spent a day in the city at the Field Museum followed by UNO's deep dish pizza (yum, says I, but apparently our family to the north prefers regular crust pizza... wink).  Another hot day was spent shopping... Michael is just stretching and stretching up, up, up!  So is John and Anne's food bill as he eats more and more to satisfy this teenage growth spurt :)

The other days were more low key, spent splashing around the backyard with water, water guns, and water sprinklers.  What cheap fun!  I love to see the laughter and fun.  Cousins are great for all of us.  James, Lucas, and Peter had such a great time keeping up with their cousins.  We missed them the moment they left and look forward to seeing them again soon!

Cooling off in the pool

Colouring on the concrete.

Water painting the walls... thanks Rachel :)

During the month of June James went for swimming lessons; 2 half hour sessions a week.  This wasn't his favourite pastime, but he went and was as brave as he could be.  I think the water was a little chilly for him... tummy sucked in and ribs sticking out :)  He did everything they wanted him too, except to put his head in the water... unless it was unavoidable.  (He stumbled once, and he would inadvertently get his head wet when he jumped in at the end of the session)

So, on the last day of John and Anne's visit to our house, we went to the beach.  At first James did NOT want to wear his life jacket and did NOT want to go in the water.  But after about 5 minutes of watching his cousins have fun he ran to get his life jacket and told me he wanted to go in.  He was great!!  Suddenly he was splashing and "swimming" the best he could... using all the skills he had learned in swim lessons.  What a proud day for him and for me.  So sweet,  "look mom!  I'm swimming!"