Beautiful girls

We were blessed to have my sister in law and two nieces here for a couple of days this past week!  We gave them the Fairmont tour, had lunch and shopped, and took pictures out at Heritage Acres, Fairmont's historic farm that includes buildings and machinery from Minnesota and mostly from this area.  Chelsie is 17 and will be graduating next year and Bethany is 16.  They played and played with the kids and just are a blessing and fun to be around.  I remember playing with them when they were even smaller than Ava so it's a blessing to have them here playing with my children.  Here are some Heritage Acres pictures.  

Ava's 4 year old pictures

Taken in our backyard mostly

Connor and Ava

I thought this was the cutest thing.  My 9 year old nephew Connor teaching Ava how to hold a frog.  He has always loved little critters and he was so patient with her showing her how to hold him and let him jump into the water.  They probably did that over and over again for about 15 minutes.  Jack was nowhere near this happening.  He does not share Connor's love for critters although they do bond over almost anything else.  

Hanks family reunion

What a good time we had making memories this past weekend!  We ate and talked and played and sang and activitied it up all weekend.  We met first at Pizza Ranch and had time at Bunker Park, then the next day, we took a boat cruise around Lake Minnetonka and hit the Mall of America after that.  Lots of fun things with lots of fun people.  

Soccer started!

Jack did great for it being his first time and stopped lots of balls from being goals.  Of course, he loved being out in the action more so he could run.  It was fun to watch.  They all just run around in a swarm.  According to him, it all went "really good" with a thumbs up!  At least, he is confident!

Kids being funny

Ava has been saying Soooo lately.  "Soooo...what you guys do?"   Yesterday she said, "Sooo...my toys."

Jack said about meeting Jack Sparrow:  "I will never forget that!  Or maybe I will after a long time, and then you'll show me a picture."  Ha I guess that probably has been the case in the past.  

Truman Days Parade

Our church had a great opportunity to have a float in the Truman Days Parade this past weekend.  We had about 20 kids and adults riding and walking along with it.  We loaded up some benches and lots of flowers and put our name on the back.  The kids wore their sashes from our Kids 4 Truth program and threw out candy while the adults passed out around 700 flyers about our church and programs.  Here's a picture of a few kids before we took off.  I wish I would have gotten one of the whole group, but once we all got there, we had to quickly take off.  So I forgot.  But it was so much fun, and I hope we can do it again next year!

Look who was in the float in front of us!  The kids were so excited!  Jack Sparrow and the Pirate Fairy spent lots of time with the kids, so that was really special.