No Coupons For Ladybugs: June in pictures

To celebrate the end of another school year, we had our traditional free Krispy Kreme doughnut.

The first week of summer brought cousin Benny down from Charlotte for a visit at Mimi and Pop Pop's. He came with two ridiculously loose teeth; he went home with money from the tooth fairy after Paul, never able to resist a loose tooth, pulled them right out.

We took Benny for a picnic at our favorite picnic tree.

And then we took him to pick peaches. The Ludwigs also joined in this adventure. Tessa cried pretty much the hole time. She said her feet hurt and she didn't want to walk. No one believed her. Later on it was discovered that, lo and behold, she actually had a blister.

Claire said she was tired and didn't want to walk either. But she's so darn cute that Sam fell for her ploy and carried her most of the way back from the orchard.

Mimi has been dreaming for years of taking her children to her Bible school. This was her year. Nathanael, Max, and Benny all spent the mornings that first week of summer at Bible school at Mimi's church. They had a blast.

The week concluded with a picnic lunch for the whole family. Sam had just recently learned that he actually somewhat enjoys hot dogs, so he actually at the lunch!

Claire's people drawings continued to progress. They now typically include: the sun (top left corner), grass (bottom), people with hair (seen above the biggest person's head, but not touching it) and clothing (the red colored in area), and a message (the lines on top right symbolize words).

Only about 1 time we were able to pick some blueberries from Pop Pop's orchard. After that, it was too hot and dry and the crop withered.

Claire regained her fearlessness in the water and enjoyed swimming immensely.

She also found that she quite enjoys laying out in the warm sunshine, soaking up some rays. Never fear; she always wears sunscreen.

We attended the Bubble Lady show at the library. Sam was a good sport about this babyish show. He even volunteered and made lovely bubbles for the children.

We went downtown to eat lunches with Dad in the courtyard outside his office.

The boys spent 3 mornings a week doing workouts.

Awkward family photos? The girls had their 3 year old photo shoot. Claire wasn't real comfortable with Anne Quinn's hand placement.

Sam and I got to go help pack food boxes for needy seniors at a food bank. During the first few minutes, Sam was having a blast and even suggested he might like to do this for a living. After a bit though, the pace was so fast and he was loosing stamina. I think he has decided a desk job might suit him better.

I bought a box of board games from someone on a buy/sell site and the games provided a lot of fun family moments.

Picnics are just so much fun, no matter who you share them with.

Grandma and Grandpa Washington came to visit and brought fun things. The kids especially enjoyed playing bingo and winning prizes.

We took an impromptu trip to Abingdon and Marion, Virginia. The kids really enjoyed the fish hatchery. We were the only ones there and a nice guy gave us a full bucket of fish food. The fish went nuts with every handful and the kids never tired of watching them leap out of the water when the pellets hit.

But even more exciting was the visit to Paul's friend, David Halsey. Claire got to ride his miniature house. Nathanael was going to ride too, but just as it was his turn, the bigger horse wiped his mouth across the mini's back, leaving a huge smear of green slobber. Even though David wiped it off, that was it for Nathanael.

But we still all got to enjoy a ride on his 6-seater ATV, all over his property. And the kids loved getting a ride on his car lift. David's wife, Patty, gave the kids plenty of frozen treats and there were toys that Claire enjoyed playing with. The boys played pool and Nathanael had free reign to shoot David's bb gun. He could have stayed there forever and been in absolute heaven.