Summer Fun

We're staying busy...swimming, playing, riding bikes, picking the garden.

But we're finding time to unwind too!

Meeting Lydia Leigh

This summer I got to meet my newest niece Lydia Leigh. I may be the only one who calls her Lydia Leigh, but I love the sound of my namesake's name!

The oldest and youngest granddaughters.

Rome in a Week

My kids were privileged to be part of a VBS this summer that was a church-wide re-enactment of Rome during the days of Paul's imprisonment there.

They sang and danced to songs with an ancient flare. The dressed in costumes. They visited Roman marketplaces. They made toys that might have been from those times.

And their Grandaddy even donned gear for the week and posed as a Roman named Agrippa, who worked in the city carpentry shop.

Honesty

I do not have a picture for today's post. If I had a scanner and could add pictures to reinforce the subject matter, this post would make you laugh hilariously. I decided during our 2 weeks without Campbell Clansman being in the USA, I would show my girls some of my memory books and old photo albums from the attic. They were so excited. Tonight I cracked open my college memories book. They were shocked. "Why are you sitting by that boy?"
"Well he was my date for that night."
"Why did Papa let you go on that date?"
"Well, Papa wasn't in my life then."
"But I thought you went to the same high school. This was in college."
"Well, Papa was just some dreamy older boy that I sort of remembered from high school. Our paths hadn't really crossed yet."
I think this is perhaps why many people destroy all their old dating photos. But if I told them once, I told them 15 times..."Papa is the best boy I ever had in my life and I would never, ever, ever have picked anyone else..." to which they replied, "Yea. Our Papa is best."

Amid those discussions, two comments emerged about old photos of me that caused me to laugh very hard. The first was from Perma-Baby (also known as Eva, the 4 year old)..."Mama, you look so new." Yes. I was new then.

And the other...from The Tiptoer (also known as Annika, my 8 year old), "Mama, I really really like your bushy hair then."

You have my permission to laugh. And maybe just maybe I'll find a scanner so you can see the big hair for yourself.

Buddies

Big Ben has made a special buddy up here in Middle Tennessee. Rumor has it he's cashing in on the animal cracker mother lode.

Tennessee Turkeys

As I drove my kids to swim lessons, I spotted these 4 turkeys. I quickly pulled over and grabbed my camera. My sweet niece, who has lived in the country most of her life, said, "Aunt Sara, why are you taking a picture of turkeys?" as if it was the most natural thing on earth to see a family of turkeys trot by our car. I replied simply, "Read my blog." which made her crack up. We never see turkeys in Turkey. In fact, we have to special order turkey from our butcher at Thanksgiving time. Not only have I seen turkeys here all summer, they came to visit Grandma's garden one day. This made Grandma mad. I ran out the door in my pajamas with the dog, grabbing an umbrella as I went. The dog caught their sent in the woods and took off in the wrong direction. I ran straight in the garden flapping the umbrella open and closed and making turkey-scaring noises all along the way. Now that would have been a much better turkey picture.

Kizer Cousins

We are so blessed to have cousins for our kids on both sides. On our Campbell side, we have 3 cousins just the age of our kids. My 2 oldest girls have to 'share' their cousin, but Esther and Eva have a buddy all to themselves. Benaiah does not have a buddy his age, but I am hoping by the time he starts to grow up, all those big kids can babysit for me! Mary Erin has already promised him she'll drive him to the mall when she gets her license.