The Simpson 6: We're still here!

Well, if I thought the summer had been zipping by before, then I was sorely mistaken! We are already getting ready for our beach trip - we leave Wed!!! Yikes:) There's much to be done around here but I wanted to throw up a few pictures from VBS and our 4th celebration. The kids really enjoyed VBS despite all of us coming down with whatever funky virus Will brought home from church on Father's Day. The kids each had fevers of 102-103 and about 24 hours of really not feeling great. I got it the following week and then Jeff had an abbreviated version last week. So at least we're well for the trip!
On Sat. I took the kids to our local 4th of July parade (yes it was on the 3rd) and that night I took them out to our fireworks display. I knew I didn't want to tackle the big even in Bentonville, so we opted to forgo the display tonight in favor of the one last night. It rained on us a bit, but never downpoured so we were fine. Will did not like the loudness, but was ok with sitting in the car to watch. Ryan was enthralled for about the first 5 minutes, then he was squirmy:) Oh well - I did it. My poor children were not deprived of a 4th of July fireworks celebration despite their father's crummy work schedule! Will they ever remember these days????
The Bella Vista parade: small, quaint, and just the right speed for Will:) He did something really brave though - he shook Strike's hand! Strike is the most bizarre mascot of the Arkansas Naturals baseball team. I'm talking wierd! I'm not even really sure what the heck he is - he really looks like some kind of neanderthal crossed with a Fraggle Rock character!

Waiting for the fireworks to begin.

Watching the display - note Will's eyes! Not sure if he was in the middle of saying cheese or praying that they would be over soon.

When he started to really get upset I convinced him to watch them from the car. He seemed ok there and at least he didn't really freak out and start screaming or something. I was parked 3 rows from the front and surrounded by cars, so there was really no way out until they were over. Thankfully he just sat there and watched patiently.

This was the final of about 10 shots I tried to get of Ryan! It is so hard holding the camera out at just the right angle to take his picture while I'm holding him! The first 9 he was either looking behind me or was mid turn so he's just a blur:) Oh well - he was there and he never cried!

Here are some pics from VBS - the ones Jeff took inside of their performance did not turn out well. We were so proud of Jack though because all morning he said he didn't want to get up on the stage and we just told him he could decide for himself, but that the hard work he did learning the songs etc. was for that performance. About 10 minutes before they were supposed to go on, he told me he still wasn't sure. Then up he went with this class! Later I asked him about it and he told me his friend B said they had to go! Ha! Good for B and good for Jack!

Jack and Will petting one of the horses from Horses for Healing a great agency which provides therapeutic services for children with a variety of special needs. The VBS was mission minded and collected change every night to then donate to the charity. On Sat. they held a pancake breakfast, tallied the money, and the kids go to see some of the horses. Ella-Kathryn liked to die and go to heaven right there! I had to threaten her life to get her to come back upstairs after 20 minutes of grooming one of the horses:)