Who's That Kid?!

 Can you believe the change a simple haircut makes?  Look at Braewyn in my header picture with her beautiful flowing hair and now here with her new short do!  The day of her haircut I kept thinking she was someone other than my precious Braewyn.  Honestly though, she's been asking for a haircut for a while but Daddy loved it long!  She and I finally convinced him that her "get ready time" would be cut in half if we cut the hair.  He really likes being on time so that helped with the decision.  Also, it seems to have liberated her, just the chance the get the hairstyle she's wanted.  She seems more helpful and easy going.  A huge blessing to my heart!!

July 4th in Chattanooga

Last week, the five of us plus Grandma Ruth Ann traveled to Chattanooga, TN for a mini-vacation.  We arrived on Saturday, June 30th and returned home on Wednesday, July 4th.  I had been to this fun city years ago (before marrying Matthew) but remembered enough about it to want to go back.  With the temperature over 100 degrees that weekend, a few underground excursions sounded like a good idea.  Matthew researched the area on the web and found a great kids' museum and aquarium which would also provide inside fun.  Here are the best photos from our trip.  To see them all, you can check out my Facebook page. 

The Lost Sea Adventure

Tennesse Aquarium

Rock City

Ruby Falls

Creative Discovery Museum

And at the end of each day, we used up any left over energy at the hotel pool.  It was a great trip!

Country Kiddos

We traveled to the country and back in time this past Saturday for a reunion with Matthew's side of the family.  The reunion has been at this location a few times and it's always fun to leave technology behind (wait, I took this photo with my phone!) and enjoy life at a slower pace for a few hours.

BBFF goes green!

If you are a long time reader of this blog, you may remember the Brooks Baby Food Factory.  Those days are behind us (at least for now), but yet Matthew is back in the kitchen and this time slicing, measuring, and boiling to transform our homegrown cucumbers (I told him we should pray over our garden this year and the Lord really has blessed!) into yummy varieties of pickles!  We are a pickle-eatin' family but we each have our favorites.  I like Bread and Butter, the kids like Dill, and Matthew has made himself some Spicy Garlic.  I really admire Matthew's follow through mentality.  He googled pickle recipes and "how to can".  I told him at the beginning of spring that I would love to learn to can so we needed to grow things I could can.  Well, I've not canned once and he's ready to make his fourth batch of pickles on Thursday night.  Thanks, sweetie.  I enjoy reaping the benefits of your labor.  I think it balances out because he likes playing with our kids (reaping the benefits of MY labor!).

 Farmer Matthew

 Newly bought and washed canning jars

 Water's just a' boilin'

 Great looking cukes!

 The pickle master at work

 Yummy finished product! We have enough now to store up for winter.  It's like we're pioneers!

A to Z and now we're done!

When Philip was in K-4, I helped him put together an alphabet book of pictures from magazines.  With Braewyn being in K-4 this year, I decided to make her a photo book of places we've been and things she's made which start with each letter of the alphabet.  Our visit to a nearby zoo provided the pictures I needed to wrap up the book!  Z is for Zoo!

Not only did this outting provide the Z pictures, it was also a milestone in our homeschool journey.   Our new children's pastor, George, who's awesome btw, organized Fantastic Friday outtings throughout the summer and the zoo was the first!  This means Philip rode an actual school bus for the first time with about 50 kids and adults from our church to the zoo while I followed in our car with the girls.  It was fun for him and a little anxiety-filled for me.  It's the feeling I guess I would have had had I sent him off to public kindergarten two years ago. 

Upon arriving at the zoo, we all ate our box lunches (well, my family ate grapes and graham crackers as I was banking on buying hot dogs but didn't realized large groups eat BEFORE entering the zoo!).  Then George split the groups up into smaller groups each with an assigned chaperone.  He said that I could just tag-along a group since I had Braewyn and Juliet.  I told him I could be a group stalker.  I did stay with the main group (including Philip who was in George's group; was it that obvious that I was holding the apron strings tight why George took Philip under his care?) for a while until Braewyn and I did stop for hot dogs.  For the next two hours, I didn't see Philip.  It was gratifying that I could let go and let him gain some independence.  Later that afternoon when I picked up Philip from our church gym (the bus full of kids headed back home while I let Braewyn play on a super cool playground near the zoo), George said Philip had been great.  Makes a momma proud and thankful!

Here's the recap in photos. Click on the first photo and you will be able to see all photos enlarged.

 Juliet was squealing with delight at seeing the giraffes and orangutans and lasted the four hot hours at the zoo better than I had expected.  And Braewyn no longer runs from my camera but has in fact turned into a little starlet always ready to give a smile and say cheese!