Lake, China, Lake

The beginning of June was beautiful and we spent a lot of time down at the lake. This gave Dada a lot of time to work on perfecting his pulling kids behind the jet ski and air chairing skills. I think he's got them both down to a science. On June 6th we had our small group over for a lake day and he got Nathaniel (6), Emily (5), and our little Opal (4) up on their first try on the trainer board. Kivi water skiied, and Eben, Raegan and Josh went in the tube.

Opal deciding to give it a go was a huge shock! She's normally not so daring, but she saw all the other kids get up and thought she could do it. She did! She had fun too!

This was Peter's face the whole time Opal went around the lake. He loves that the kids love water sports. I think he's got them every water toy imaginable now. 

He was so proud of her!

The kids had a blast digging in the sand and making cities,

roasting hot dogs and marshmallows (we eat a LOT of hot dogs and marshmallows in the summer),

tubing and hanging out in the sun and having fun. Dada got Kivi and Eben wetsuits because they started water skiing before the water got warm this year. Crazy Dada. Crazy kids. So that people would know she was a girl, Kivi wore a skirt on top of hers - cute kid!

 In China, we used our cool ink stone, ink stick and calligraphy brush (from our new Ancient China treasure chest which we scored for free from a home school book sale) to paint bamboo paintings.

We made dragons out of the kids hand prints and egg cartons (oh yes, that's where all of our egg cartons went!), since this is the year of the dragon.

I also read the kids awesome Trailblazer books about the Judsons, missionaries to Burma, (I didn't read the back cover to realize they weren't in China) and Lottie Moon. Many Christians were put in jail in both of these books, therefore the cute picture of Berg wearing Dada's handcuffs totally fits here. (Bonus: it's in chronological order!)

On June 10th, we went to Reagan's dance recital/Mr. Joe's homecoming party/goodbye Mc Pholland gathering at their home.

We were able to have one more special day with them because Kivi ended up spending the night at their house for a sleepover with Reagan. Thus, another lake day... and another new toy! I was wrong, he needed one more - the hot dog bun or taco as it is now called is a great multi kid ride.

Pippa and Pella rolled around on the blanket, well, Pippa rolled, Pella just laid there, but she did play with her feet, while Miss Kim fed the begging Berg.

We even talked Mr. Joe into trying the air chair! It rarely ends successfully, but it's always fun to watch new victims friends try to get up.

A good memory of a last hurrah with our good friends before they moved away!