Beading Party

Last Friday, we had a beading party at the Waasdorp's house. We invited a number of girls to join us for a taco lunch and necklace-making.
Crystal (with her new camera) and Jessica

Tosca, Wraya, and Zoe

We were thrilled that Amber Moeller and the Stacys could join us for the party!

We had 14 girls and thousands of beads!
Molly, Becky, Rachel, and Crystal
Decision time. Some of us had a hard time making up our minds what beads we wanted to use and how we wanted to arrange them. Amber did great, but the person sitting next to her (hmm...I wonder who that was...) finally gave up and just took pictures. Oh, but that person did have a very important job at the end. She finished each person's necklace for them by putting on the crimp bead to hold the beads in place and cut off the extra wire. :-) (A skill that was taught to her the night before by her sister!)
Everyone used blue, white, silver, and gold beads, but all the necklaces were unique.
Wraya was busy stringing her beads, but she looked up to give me this beautiful smile.

Once we were done, we separated the beads and put them back in their containers. It was fun to see how different each necklace turned out and how they reflected the person's taste and personality.
We all had a great time!
These next pictures aren't of beading, but they were taken the same day.

Mom, Melody, and I have been crocheting hats to put in the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, and we decided it was time to get them out of the storage and see how many we had so far. Amber was staying the night, so she helped us sort them by size and count them.
The hats looked so pretty and colorful spread out on the floor!
Counting...
Of course we had to try some on too!

It will be fun to see how many we end up with come November.

All in all, it was a fun day. Thanks, girls, for joining us! :)

ICHE Picnic

Last Saturday was the ICHE picnic, and we sure had a gorgeous day for it!

Haley has been wanting a kitty, and some of our friends just "happened" to find one in their bush the other day. They couldn't keep it, but they grew pretty attached to it and were glad for it to go to a good home. We brought it with us to the picnic, and as you can see kitty and owner are quite happy! Haley put it on a leash for the day so she wouldn't have to worry about it wandering off. There was always a small crowd of kids petting and playing with the kitten throughout the day. I bet it was completely worn out by that evening! The Johnson family graciously opened their home and farm to all of us.

I think I counted 78 people! We cooked brats, hamburgers, and hotdogs on the grill. No, that's not the grill, but we had to put the picture up because Jason looked at it and said in disbelief, "That's not the grill, is it? You must be cooking some pretty big steaks or something! What do you do, just drag the cow over and tell it to lie down?!" He didn't really think that's what we'd be using, but he knew that was the general area where the grill would be, so he wasn't quite sure. ;-)The improvised grill worked really well. Becca J. and I cooked, and the guys helped by letting us know when the meat was done. As big as it was, we still didn't have room for all the meat. Maybe we should have used Jason's idea after all... It was so nice to visit with all these wonderful people! Mrs. Lewis, Mom, and Mrs. Grutzius Robby left because this turned out to be the "girl table"!

More hungry people... I'm not quite sure what Jacob is doing. Maybe he's testing the strength of the tree to make sure it won't fall down on him.Mallory enjoyed playing with all the little kids, and Mr. Skarin was trying out the 4-wheeler.

Mia, the little miracle girl. Not too long ago she was partially run over by a car, but she survived with no broken bones and no internal bleeding! She still has a few scrapes and bruises, but God worked a miracle in keeping her safe and restoring her health! I'm not sure what Jason's expression means, but Shannon must have thought he needed a little help. Ava brought her German Shepherd, Liesl, along for the day. The kids enjoyed throwing the toy for her to fetch.
Michael especially liked playing with her. After lunch, there was a meeting of sorts with different people sharing comments they'd received about the convention and a few other things. We also played a game. Someone had to stand up and state something like, "I never...finished a meal at the convention...went into the vendor hall...wore my own shoes...sat through an entire session...slept anywhere but my own bed...etc..." If you did do one of those things you had to give up a sticker from your page. The one with the most stickers left at the end of the game won the prize -- Hershey's Kisses!The sticker board

Ultimate Frisbee

The spectators

Some action shots

Jeremiah, Aaron, and Jacob The shooting range was quite noisy for someone who wasn't wearing ear plugs!

Mr. Moeller, Karson, Mr. Gibert, and Mr. Skarin Karson's attire fits right in! It wasn't only a guy activity; Morgan and a few other girls shot too. We had a number of volleyball games going on throughout the day. I like the look on Matthew's face--is it determination or just squinting from the sun? Katie and Jeremiah Marissa Aaron, Jason, and Abby A number of people took advantage of the cool water. Racing to the other side Bean bags or cornhole--whichever name you prefer.

Kevin and Jacob Nate and Jeremiah Mrs. Sisson wanted to the learn the cup game, so we taught her and few others who didn't know how to play either. Amber, me, and Mrs. Sisson This game gets going so fast that you end up with cups flying off the table!


Sandy, Ava, Helena, Mel, and Becca I'm not sure what this kid's toy is called, but when we were younger, we called it a "Hoppity-Hop". Melody and Jason had to try it out for old time's sake. A few families stuck around for a campfire that night. Thanks Johnsons for a wonderful day!