Too Cute!

Miranda has been knocking our socks off with her cuteness lately. For example, tonight while we were making dinner, Miranda was with us in the kitchen, holding her teddy bear and singing to him. Then she put the teddy bear "to bed" in a toy box and walked away so he could sleep. This is exactly how we put Miranda to bed each night, cuddles and singing. Look how happy her teddy bear is, resting in his little crib.


Miranda also begs us to wash her hands. All day long, she comes to us, holding her hands out, saying "ah, ah, ah." (Translation: I really, really want this) She is actually quite accomplished at rubbing her hands together with the soap and then rinsing. In fact, she keeps trying to expand her talents to feet washing and would stand up in the sink if we let her. Her hand-drying skills still need some work, but with a little more practice, she'll get the hang of it. Today, we bought a stool so she could stand and wash her hands by herself. Let's hope she continues to enjoy washing her hands for many years to come!

Water Baby

Miranda's ZsaZsa and Grandpa Joe gave her an inflatable swimming pool for her birthday. This week was the first chance we have had to break it out, and she loved it! The heat index the past few days has been around 108 degrees so it's been really nice to have a place to play outside that's not too hot. Also, we signed Miranda up for swimming lessons at the YMCA. Her first lesson is a week from today.

First Attempt

Miranda really wants to feed herself with a spoon, and I have let her practice a little here and there. I would fill the spoon with something sticky, hand her the spoon and let her put the spoon in her mouth. She has done very well with this, and she has been feeding herself finger foods for a while now. This morning, I decided it was time for her first attempt at feeding herself with a spoon. I made her blueberry oatmeal, fed her a few bites, then put the bowl on her high chair and handed over the spoon. She started off well.


Then she got frustrated and ditched the spoon.


But she had a great time and enough oatmeal made it into her mouth to sustain her until lunch!

"Sleep" Over

On Monday, Zane was supposed to take the high school students camping. But the forecast predicted thunderstorms all night, so we cancelled the camping trip and invited everyone for a sleep over at our house instead. We had a great time. We played all kinds of games, watched a movie, ate hamburgers and hot dogs, but we did not sleep. Actually, about 3 of the kids who came slept (briefly). The rest stayed up all night. The only pictures I took were of Miranda trying on everybody's shoes, her new favorite activity!

The Zone

Last week Zane, Miranda and I went to summer camp with 13 of our middle school kids. The camp is called The Zone, and it is organized by local churches here in the St. Louis area. Two hundred kids from six difference churches attended, and the youth pastors from those churches along with the camp directors planned the whole week. Zane led worship for the whole camp in the mornings, and Zane and I together taught a seminar on physicality. Three young ladies from our church (two high schoolers and one college student) volunteered to come to the camp as student leaders, so Miranda and I stayed in a separate, private room, while all the girls stayed in two rooms. Zane was the only male leader, so he stayed in two adjoining rooms with 7 middle school boys! We had a great week, and our kids got to experience all the fun of summer camp like being blobbed into the lake (Zane was the official camp blobber) or making slides out of their mattresses. The last night we were there, we processed the time with our kids, and many shared ways that God was working in their hearts throughout the week to draw them closer to himself. That was the goal of the whole camp, so we were thankful! Here are some pictures from the week.

One afternoon, the kids could make their own t-shirts with stencils and a diluted bleach spray. The shirt turned out great!


Drew was the main camp speaker, and out kids really loved to listen to him. He spoke about how we all are a part of God's story and plan to redeem the world.


Ice cream!!!!!! I don't know who from our group won the award for eating the most ice cream, but I am pretty sure whoever it was ate around 15 servings in the four days we were at camp. And no, neither Zane nor I won that distinguished honor.


Our kids loved to play ping pong during free time.


Each day, we had a little time together just as our youth group to play games or talk. Sadly, this was the best picture I could get of our whole crew.


Last but not least, here is a picture of the blob for those of you who do not know what a blob is. I do not have any pictures of our group on the blob so this picture is courtesy of our camp facility's website. But image a line of scrawny middle school kids, all waiting in line for chance to have Zane jump onto the blob and propel them 20 feet into the air before smacking the water.

Birthday Girl

Surprise!

We spent the second half of our trip with my family, and this part of the trip was a surprise! My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on May 26th. My brothers and I all surprised them for Memorial Day weekend. They had no idea we were all coming. But we had a great weekend planned for them! We built a corn hole set and then played a lot of corn hole. We went fishing and took my parents our to a nice dinner at P.F. Chang's. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures most of the time. I did get a shot of Miranda in her cool summer hat and shades. I also captured the huge bass Zane caught when we went fishing.