Father's Day Baptism

Wes recently made the awesome decision to be baptized.  It was a really special day for a number of reasons.  First, the fact that he was being baptized.  Second, because it was on Father's Day. Third, because he decided to include our entire Small Group... this one's kind of a big deal because Wes is an extremely private person. And, finally, because the person that baptized him was our own pastor, Daniel Foster.  It was quite an honor because this was Daniel's very last day as our pastor!  We are so, so sad to see him go, but we're so excited for him and his wife, Anita on his new role within the church.  Anyway, it was a beautiful day and we're all so happy for Wes.



HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Introducing MadiIyn Weslie

I had the honor of being asked to be in the delivery room when my new neice was born yesterday.  What an amazing privilege!  Tiffany did a fantastic job.  She started labor at about 9 p.m. on the 21st and delivered her newest baby girl at 2:23 on the 22nd.  It just so happens that it was the same day as Lauren's (her two year old) birthday! 

Madilyn Weslie

Luke holding his newest cousin

Hayley & Miss Madilyn

Proud Uncle Wes holding Madilyn Weslie.  He was so touched to have her named after him!

The Story Behind the Photo

Woke up on Saturday... in a rush as usual... totally dreary, rainy, gray day... off to the theatre to see 'The Secret Garden' and from there on to a baby shower and two graduation parties!  Busy day, right?  Luke's down to one pair of ratty old sneakers which, as I am walking by the back door, I notice seem to have been left out in the rain all-night-long.  I'm ready to freak out on him because he literally has no other shoes to put on except for his baseball cleats, so he ends up wearing his sister's zebra print flip-flops to the theatre (which I must say he was a little too comfortable with!).  Anyway, I refuse to buy more sneakers at this point in the year because he only lives in crocs during the summer, so in between the theatre and the baby shower we have to run to the mall to finally purchase his summer footwear.  Not my favorite place to be on a rainy Saturday, but the mall it had to be because the color of choice this year is orange and not everyone carries this awesome color!  Anyway, that's the story behind the photo...

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Baseball Highlights

Tonight was Luke's second to the last baseball game and his finger was healed enough for him to go up to bat.  He didn't get a hit, but he took some good swings.

Teddy and Poppy had a ball at the park. 

I was snack mom tonight... Luke requested baseball cookies!

Baseball Season

Well, baseball season is just about to wrap up next week and I've only been able to make a few of the games which really bums me out because I love baseball!  Finally made it to a game tonight and it lasted

F-O-R-E-V-E-R!!  Well, I was very excited to see Luke at bat, but when his turn finally came he left the on deck circle and headed straight for home plate.  I think right as I was cheering 'Go Luke' I watched him walk up to the plate, then past the plate all while holding up his finger (no, not that finger!) to the ump and shaking his head.  He continued walking all the way to the dugout!  He wanted no part of batting today because his left pointer finger is swollen up like a sausage!  He had a trampoline injury this past weekend and it's either broken or really badly sprained.  I was bummed only because I loves my baseball photos!  Needless to say the following photos were the only ones that I got of my All-Star tonight!

 Go Blue Claws!

Yummy New Find

Hey everyone... I just discovered this fun new product and thought I'd share it with you!  Great idea and too, too cute, right?!  I haven't actually used them yet, but we're all excited to try them.... I always love to try new, fun products!  We're not exactly sure how they are going to fit on the roasting sticks, but we'll keep you posted when we make S'mores tomorrow!

New Discoveries

Hayley and I had a fun Girl's Night Out tonight.  We started off the evening with some yummy Thai Food and a little shopping at Bellevue Square.  Then we headed over to Seattle because we had tickets to see the play, 'Sense and Sensibility' at the Book-It Repertory Theater.  I actually thought that we were headed to the Repertory Theater which is at Seattle Center, but when we walked up to the Will Call window, they directed us to the Book-It Theater which is also at Seattle Center, but in a different location.  I had never been to this theater before, so I was thrilled with this new discovery.  In case you're wondering, it's located next door to the Children's Museum.  This theater creates adaptations of classic and contemporary literature for the stage, preserving the narrative text as it is spoken, not by a single narrator, but as dialogue by characters in the production. It's really, really neat. Book-It's style of acting and adapting books is actually trademarked.

It's a very intimate theatre... maybe seating for 200 or so.  It's also quite unique in that it doesn't have a traditional stage.  Also, there didn't seem to be a bad seat in the house and ticket prices were extremely affordable!  Obviously, I can't say enough positive things about this theater... so fun to make new discoveries like this, but also it makes me a little bit sad to think of all of the other cool places and things that I've been missing out on all these years.  Hayley and I have promised to be more adventuresome from this day forward.

Suminagashi

I wanted to share a totally cool art project that I did with my son's 3rd grade class this past week.  It was inspired by the ancient art of Suminagashi which is a form of Japanese print making.  All of the projects shown were done by the 3rd graders! 

The process involves shaving cream so you can just imagine how much fun the kids had creating.

Place about an inch of shaving cream in the bottom of an aluminum tray.  Smooth it out with a straight edge and then choose three liquid watercolors and spray a stripe of each on top of the shaving cream.  Then take a skewer and draw lines through the colors/shaving cream.  Make sure that the lines intersect.  You can even do some swirly lines.  The whole idea is to make sure that the colors blend into each other, but not to do it so much that the colors become muddied.  Then place a 4"x6" piece of watercolor paper on top of the shaving cream and gently press down onto the top and rub gently.  Carefully lift off the paper and place on a spare paper.  Take a ruler and pull it across the watercolor paper to remove any excess shaving cream.

If you want to try to make another one, simply scrape off the color from the shaving cream and start over.  Keep in mind that you may have to add a little more shaving cream before you spray on different colors.  The results are gorgeous and what's even more fun is that no two ever turn out alike!

I hope you can try this out!  It's rather addicting!