July 4th!

Kris and Skot went for a bike ride in the morning, while Charis and I snuck out and got some fireworks. Kris loves them and every year I buy him at least a few for July 4th and a few more for his birthday. We had most of the Elkinton's over for dinner and then set off a few fireworks.And sparklers!
Then we walked down to the park to watch the city fireworks. Charis liked the fireworks but was restless the whole time. On the way back, Kris let Charis ride on his bike for a little way. She was so excited!

Baby Rattlesnake

For about three months now, Charis has been either coming to work with me on Mondays or we have been lucky enough to have a friend with a kid Charis' age and she has offered to watch her several Mondays. (Kris and I both work on Mondays) Today, I bought Charis to work with me for a couple of hours. We were having a good morning with some light weeding, sweeping and a little office work.

Next I needed to program my irrigation, so Charis and I were standing by a wall with a narrow ledge that was right at Charis' height. Charis was fidgeting and pushing on the wall. Then suddenly she said "Mommy look! I found a snake!". Then she started to reach her hand in to touch it. My girl has no fear! I grabbed her and pulled her away and went to look at it from a safe distance. IT WAS A BABY RATTLESNAKE! And Charis almost touched it. I explained to her that it was dangerous and then left the area while one of my coworkers thankfully relocated it for me - not something I wanted to do with Charis.
The rest of the day, Charis told stories about the baby rattlesnake that "wanted to be her best friend" but that was not because it was dangerous and could hurt you with it's flat tongue. Charis has such a great memory, even with details and is such a great storyteller.

She also drew a great picture of the snake. First she drew a long winding line for the snake and then the cirlces to show that it was all coiled up. So cute!

Peanut butter and Jelly sandwich

Kris eats an almond butter and jelly sandwich everyday for breakfast. And even though Charis loves eating oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, she will occasionally want the same thing that Kris eats. On Tuesday Kris had her make and cut her own sandwich.


Finished product.

Hope Group

Our Hope Group (which it what our church calls small groups) is doing fun activities for the summer. We have gone bowling, swimming and this night I invited everyone over to see our new house and had a potluck with games and chatting.
We have around seven or eight couples and two cute kids!
We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and then played washers outside.
We also had a puzzle out that everyone enjoyed taking turns at. Charis and I started it and then a few friends joined us the night before so I had to leave it out on the table until we finished it. But it turned out to be fun to have out. Who knew so many people liked puzzles.

Learning to write

Charis has been practicing her letters a lot lately. Today I helped her by spelling her name as she wrote it!Later that evening, she had other people write their names and then she would copy it right next to it. She had so much fun practicing writing her letters and learning her friend's names. I am so proud of her!

Cute picture

We were getting ready for church and Charis asked if she could wear this hat. I think she is so cute in hats!
So just a cute picture before church.

Rejoice with us!

"Rejoice with those who are rejoicing." Romans 12:15

Charis and I went to her vision therapy and eye check up yesterday and received some amazing news! Charis was originally diagnosed with three eye conditions: Amblyopia, Strabismus and nearsightedness. Amblyopia is the most dangerous of the three and yesterday we learned that through the vision therapy and God, that is has been completely corrected. The Strabismus is at half of what was originally seen and her eyes are almost balanced.

The first doctor that we saw said that most likely we would only so this kind of improvement through surgery. But we got a second opinion and have been doing vision therapy for a year. Also her vision has improved a lot in her right eye and a little in her left, which means she needs a new prescription. This is wonderful news for our family and will help Charis so much as she starts school.

- "Thank you, GOD for loving Charis as much as Kris and I do! Thank you for your guidance and wisdom in making decisions a year ago about what path to take with her vision and directing us to her wonderful doctor. Thank you for providing strength, courage, financially for the vision therapy."

Thank you friends for praying with Charis, Kris and I throughout this year!

The only small bad news is that because she needs a new prescription, we will be getting her new glasses this week which amounts to a $365 bill, but we are confident that God will once again provide a way as He always has! God is Good!

Samantha

Outside play

We had a great day! We got up and got ready early. Then we went to the "mommy gym", where Charis gets to play and I get to work out. After cleaning up, we watered the plants and garden beds. Charis loves watering!Then we made lunch and ate outside.And still had enough time to walk to the new park before it reached 103 degrees outside.
They just installed a new playscape on the other side of the school from the park that we used to go to all the time. Now this playground is even closer to our house.
Charis wanted a little rest under the shade before returning home.This summer has been so hot that it is hard to play outside and not get over heated. But it was fun to get out early enough to get to play outside today!