Tabby took a class at co-op about Ancient Egypt. They had a party today and showed off all that they made from the course.
Tabitha
Lunch date
I gave them their own table as we dined after church.
A fun way to start a play date.
Love these girls.
Last day of soccer pizza party.
Endless shrimp 2017
For the third year we made it to Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster.
We ate until we were sick…
(and I about really WAS sick when they said they no longer take Olive Garden gift cards [even though it says they do on the back] and I had to pay the full $85 it cost for this extravaganza!)
Still – time with these silly girls is gift.
Matthew 15:11 – It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.
Put a little song in your heart.
A few weeks ago, Marie mentioned a song from the Disney movie Brave that she would like to have the music to. I had to hunt around online, and the closest I could find was a duet book. I quietly ordered it for her and Tabitha (there were other songs in it that I knew they both would like).
At first, Tab was far more interested than Marie. What jumped out to Marie was the word “duet” and she wondered if it would be useful.
A little while passed and she sat down with the book at the piano, then brought it to the table. Then back to the piano. And back to the table. And she identified that the top staff from one and the bottom staff of the other would blend to make it a single musician piece.
And – we now have lots of new music wafting through our house.
The first one she worked out? Pirates of the Caribbean theme song.
Proverbs 25:20
Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.
Seabreeze, 2017
Once upon a time “summer” equaled “Seabreeze” for these disciples. How is it, then, that our family hasn’t been there in a few YEARS and the littlest Butler has no memory of it?
I think it’s a combination of having a pool, having bigger kids getting busier, having the prices more than double from the first year we bought them, and having the big kids get a little TOO familiar with the place.
My work made tickets available for $13 pp for up to six people. A co-worker helped me secure three additional tickets. I got the tickets back in June and we proceeded to sit on them foReVEr!
FLCC classes and Toronto weekend made June a poor time to visit.
Costa Rica and VBS and Prince Edward Island wiped out most usable dates in July.
August found work schedules and camping ruling out most days.
So in the waning week of summer we found a day we could visit. And it was chilly!
To be fair, summer never showed up this year. Oh. It phoned it in a few days, but it never stopped in to stay. Overnight temps were cool for most of August, and the water at Seabreeze reflected this.
BRRRRRRR.
We didn’t spend long in the waterpark. We had some lunch around 12:30 and headed for dry rides. While once upon a time my big kids would have front row seats for the acrobat shows (we’d watch more than one a day), we only paused on our way through to watch them today.
The big four visited a lot of rides on their own, although I did skulk around admiring them from afar time to time.
Hanny got her first ride on the Jack Rabbit.
I can’t know if it was the cool weather or the lateness in the season that made the crowds small. In either case, it benefitted us tremendously as we owned the park.
Nan snapped some photos of the big kids.
And one of the rest of us.
My how we’ve all changed.
We were surprised when at 4:30 P.M. we were pretty much done with all the rides! They’d done each one multiple times and it didn’t make sense just to stay to order a pizza. As John had met us there, he took one van to BJs for some frozen pizza and honey BBQ wings, and I took the other van to Walmart to pick out a bunch of ice creams.
Home for dinner and dessert and the official last day of Butler-summerness-fun.
Ok, school year – here we are.
Prince Edward Island Surprise Road Trip
This is where I should be starting my series of posts on the surprise road trip I took Marie and Tabitha on the morning on July 24th. However, Stewart had JUST completed his digital photography class at FLCC and the camera was set to record each photograph as some fancy .NEF file instead of the normal .JPEG. We need to find a time and a way to convert each image. There are 300 of them.
I’ll be back.
VBS 2017
While Nigel served in Costa Rica this past week, Stewart, Marie and I had been serving the campers at the VBS at Pittsford Community Church. Tabitha, Johanna, and Katriel all got to embark on Operation Arctic. The emphasis all week was the Bible.
B = Book of Books
I = Incredible Impact
B = Bedrock Base
L = God’s Love Letter to us
E = Exciting to Explore
Marie worked in the four-year-old group (Katriel’s group).
I led group 1A (Johanna’s group).
Stewart was a Bible teacher.
Tabitha was in her final year as a camper. Fifth graders get to do their camping out in the “Garage” where they follow a slightly different rotation and dig a lot deeper into the work. Next year Tabitha gets to come back to VBS as an assistant.
Piano recital for Tab and Hanny
Tabitha resumed piano this year and Johanna began instruction with a new piano teacher, Clay. Clay is the oldest daughter of some friends and a very accomplished pianist. She also has a personality that easily lent itself to the instruction of these sisters and it has been a blessing to work with her this year.
She orchestrated a small recital for the girls and their Ba and Poppy were able to join us.
Dayspring Disciples 