A good reason for a celebration

A boy and his frog

Garrett insisted on taking this frog along when we brought the kids to school on Friday. He rode it on his back on the way into the house.
First haircut

Cherise waited until they came up to visit to have me cut Anabelle's bangs.

Usually a first haircut makes the little one look so much older. For Bellie-girl it just made her go from  sophisticated sweepy bangs to cutie spunky bangs like her Momma's.

A change of seasons

Harlan and I have been assisting Jess and Joylynn in the rearing of their children for a period of time. The kids have been mainly staying with us with weekend visits and school break visits with their folks. Friday it was official that J&J are now fully and completely responsible for all four of the kids from here on out. Harlan and I are merely grandparents once again.

Jess and Joylynn's pastor, Pastor James, was there for the signing of the documents. Cherise came out with us too.

We are so grateful for the gift of a wonderful case worker in "Mr Don" as the kids call him. He was a blessing in so many ways. Praying with us and supporting us and doing all that was in his power to keep everybody moving forward.

It meant so much to Joylynn to have Reesie there on this special day.

CHERRIES!

Kiel picked a huge amount of cherries while they were visiting their friends near the Tri-cities. They filled my largest mixing bowl to the brim.

Anabelle watched her mom as Cherise pitted enough for two beautiful pies and the rest went into the freezer except for one bowl for eating fresh.

First BBQ of the year

Harlan got the grill out and cleaned up so we fired it up for an old fashioned burger and dog meal. Jess and Joylynn went up to get the kids from school to give them the news that they are going to be back at home for good. There was an after school end of the year Beach Party that they stayed for. I don't have any photos of those festivities but from what the kids report it was really great.

Book worms are great

Wyatt loves reading. He's one of those kids who will hide a book on his lap under the desk during class just to be reading. They must sign up for a summer reading program at their local library which is almost as close to their place as our library is to ours. Very very close.

Danika isn't an independent reader yet but she loves being read to and enjoys books a lot. Krystle is more than happy to check out multiple books on her own library card for Danika to read.

My baker girls

Courtney helped Cherise with rolling and cutting the lattice strips for the cherry pies. I have no idea what Genevieve is doing in this picture.

The finished product! They turned out perfect. I would love to learn a few crust tips from her. Cherise is by far a better baker than I've ever been or hope to be.

Silliness on our swing

Here is a swing full of silly children. If all nine of the grands were here we'd have to have the three oldest standing behind the swing with the 6 little ones sitting. Perhaps 4 in back and 5 in front. I'd sure like to have the problem of arranging them all. Maybe at Christmas?

Grampa got to play with Garrett before they loaded up into their van to head home. The little guy was still going strong when Grampa decided it was time to play something else.

I call this cake "The ants go marching home again, hurrah, hurrah" :)

We saved it for Sunday evening dessert.

The WHOLE family

Happy, healthy and whole again.

Congratulations guys!

and God bless your family real good 

and may He restore to you those "years that the locust has eaten"!