fast moving trains

summer slowly swept over our hearts in the most lovely of ways...

sweetly unplanned moments of painting huge pieces of cardboard in our new backyard

customizing our new bedroom

(it became a rainbow with his name on it!)

(she's mastering her stick figures!)

(a family of penguins, in case you can't tell!)

splashball!!!

(it's water polo for kids!)

they completely LOVED it!

endless waves

sand

sun

and fun!

celebrating the first day of august...

its a family tradition...we make yummy cake from scratch and then decorate it!

this year we had some neighbors join us! (9 kids and me!) yes, it was completely crazy and hugely messy! which is why i paused to capture it on film! the best part...in an attempt to make a BLUE velvet cake, i had to use 1/2 cup of blue food coloring...the next day all 9 kids, and the 4 adults i gave some to, had GREEN poop!

all good things must come to an end (what a lame saying!)... with the start of september came the start of school... being on someone else's clock, rush to bed, rush to wake, hurry,hurry, hurry, hurry! homework, schedules, projects, practice...AGH!

my sweet sister in law calls it a fast moving train..."either climb aboard and hold on tight or get left behind", she says!

as we lace up and get ready to run i read this...

words to slow me back down and remind me of what matters most, why we are here and who we are really serving... "God’s mercies are new every morning — not as an obligation to you, but as an affirmation of you. It's right there in the sky every morning: Every sunrise proves the burn of His passionate heart. The car can fail today and the kids and the dog and the fire detector and the dishwasher and the doctor and the whole free democratic world and it’s entire economic system but the mercies of God cannot and will not fail and His faithfulness is not merely great–it is unwavering." oh. yes. this. is. TRUTH. (you gotta go read the whole thing...aholyexperience.com)