Bowling

We took Austin (and some of this friends) bowling for the first time~ granted he plays bowling on the wii, but the real thing is very different!  He had so much fun with Sydney, Addy, Ava, and Thomas! Kids can bowl one free game (including shoe rental) per week during the summer- so we will be going again soon!!

Sydney

 Addy

 Austin

 Ava

 Meredith & Thomas

Cute little bowling shoes

One of my favorite pictures- she was so proud of herself, if you couldn't tell!

 How many pins will fall....

 Passing out the bowling balls

Sassy girl

 Waiting for the pink ball to come up

Acts of Service and Kindness- Week 9

Week 9- Visiting my grandma in the nursing home and taking goodies to those needing a little extra love!

Large print word find puzzles/pens, scented lotion, and cute stationery- we asked the nurses about residents who don't get a lot of visitors.

Leaving the house with our goodies

Ready to go inside

Having fun with Grandma Anna (who turned 95 just a few days earlier!)  Love her!

Spy training

It's amazing how a little yarn and tape can entertain a child for an entire day.  I cannot tell you how many times we went through the "spy training"- crawling over and under trying not to touch it!  

Even the cats joined in on the fun :)

Acts of Service and Kindness- Week 8

Week 8- Making a giving plate and passing it along to friends

I had seen the idea of a giving plate on pinterest, but I decided I would change it up a bit by making our own plate at the local pottery painting place!  So a few weeks ago we went & personalized it by making the center of the flowers out of Austin's fingerprints!

Austin painted a snowman (his choice) while I finished up the plate

A fun project with my favorite guy

The finished plate- I love how it turned out!  We also put Keller, TX / July 2013 on the back so everyone would know where it began.

We made cookies for the plate....

... and passed it along to the O'Quinns!  They will fill it with goodies and pass it along to someone else!

Shrinky dinks & bird/squirrel feeders

In the past week we've done two new craft projects!  We made shrinky dinks for the first time- Austin thought it was so neat to put them in the oven and watch them curl up and shrink!  

A few days later we decided to make some bird/squirrel feeders using toilet paper rolls, peanut butter, and bird seed!

Spreading the peanut butter

Adding the bird seed

All done

Hanging them in the perfect spot!

Needless to say, they were gone in a few days :)

Acts of Service and Kindness- Week 7

Week 7- Sending care packages to soldier serving abroad.

We signed up for Project Frontlines through the AAUSS organization (adoptaussoldier.org) & they sent us contact information for a soldier (and her unit of 150) currently serving in Afghanistan.  

Some of the food purchased (we were given a list of some goodies they were requesting- coffee, breakfast foods, snacks.)

All done packing the boxes, now we just need padding so that nothing gets smashed!

*Austin's new thing is squinting for pictures because he doesn't like the flash.  Well I don't like the results I'm getting in the pictures.....

Writing notes to the soldiers with drawings and stickers, of course.  Mommy was busy filling out those fun customs forms!

We also attached photos of our family, so the soldiers can put a face to the name!

This was a great project- Austin really enjoyed it!  He's already asked if the soldiers got their "present"  :)

UPDATE:
We received these notes back from the soldier- what a blessing!

Visiting Annie & Adelaide again!

We are really enjoying our time with the two newest additions to our family- I could just eat 'em up, they are so cute!!

Aunt Whitney with Annie & Adelaide

Shane with Adelaide & Whitney with Annie

With big sis Evie

Adelaide taking a snooze

Gran & Annie

Feeding a sleepy Adelaide