July Misc

Here are some miscellaneous happenings from last month:

Noah's Baptism

Our new little nephew Noah (Jon and Chelsea's son) was baptized on my birthday. Jon and Chelsea had a small private ceremony that evening. It was a beautiful, meaningful service. I ALWAYS tear up at baptisms as we rejoice in the amazing gift of God's grace and welcome another precious child into God's family.

After the rite of baptism, family was invited up to circle around Noah and his family and speak prayers for them. Groups of friends did the same after the family prayer. What a touching moment!

Jason and Kim sang a song for Noah on his special day.

Grandma got some snuggles with Adley during the post-baptism reception.

We loved having the whole Schleicher clan all together in Texas again (for the 3rd time in six months!). Unfortunately this picture is missing Cody since he had a stomach bug and was home with Grammy and Papa.

Family Birthdays

For my actual birthday, we were driving home from Missouri with a sick child and an infant who was less than excited to be in the car. Not a great way to celebrate. The next weekend, however, Cody, Jaden and Jason cooked dinner and baked a lovely birthday cake for me. Can you see the candles spelling out 36?

Daddy celebrated his birthday at the end of July. Jaden and Cody worked hard creating a large birthday poster for him.

Adley wanted in on the fun, too, so I helped her create a picture for Daddy with fingerpaint. Jaden tried his hand at taking a picture on my phone for the first time. He did a nice job, I think!

We made Daddy one of his favorite desserts-- chocolate peanut butter cup pie.

Family Events

Each month we try to gather the family together for a gameathon-- a night of dinner, kid games, kids' bedtime, and then adult games. Definitely a highlight of the month! On this particular gameathon, Matt and Kim decided to have a movie night for the kids. They loved it!

Uncle Jason was in charge of the bedtime stories.

Playtime

One Friday this month, we met some cousins at a playtime at this K2 Academy gym. Cody and Jaden especially liked jumping into the foam pit. 

Another day, Jaden and Cody set up a "store" in our family room. They categorized nearly all of the toys and games in our house into piles and even made labels for how much everything cost. Mommy and Daddy were the most frequent shoppers at their store. The boys checked us out with the 2 cash registers at the bottom of the picture. (This brought back some wonderful memories of my childhood! My sister and brother and I were all about creating home stores and libraries.)

Our dining room table has been full of Legos for nearly the entire summer. It's a perfect way for the boys to play with their sets. One day, the boys called me over to see their newest setup-- "Mommy, look how long the line is at the pizza truck! Everyone wants to buy a pizza!"

Upstairs one day, the boys decided to create our church. They built crosses a stage (complete with ramps) out of wooden blocks. They even added multi-color blocks since our church shines various colored lights each week in the background.

Here is the church's congregation, set up opposite the stage.

My sister Kim told us about a new splashpad that opened up in a neighborhood nearby our home. We invited some friends with us to check it out.

Even Adley spent some time splashing around in the water. She seemed to enjoy it!

The hot sun tuckered this poor girl out.

We've had a great month!