Water Fun on a Hot Day!

Beckett and Helen both had dentist appointments this morning. When we were finished with that, we went to a park by the lake that has a "splash pad"! We had fun swinging on this swing and having a snack before they played in the water! It has been a beautiful week!

We're goin' in!
Follow the leader!

Beckett getting dumped on by the water bucket!

Happy Half Birthday, Helen!

Yesterday (July 14th) was Helen's "half" birthday! She can now officially say that she is three and a half! We have a family tradition of celebrating half birthdays with a trip out for ice cream, so this year we went to Dairy Queen! Helen enjoyed her vanilla cone (which ended up in a dish after a short time!) She really wanted a cone, but it is hard to keep your ice cream from melting too fast when you are three and a half!

The Week in Review.....

We've had a good week! Monday was Sean's first "scheduled day off" in several years! He started back on the four-tens schedule where he works ten hour days Tuesday through Friday. We enjoyed having him home on Monday and we made trips to Home Depot and Wilburn's to gather information about columns. Yes, we have finally decided to replace the columns on the front porch. We are supposed to have four columns and we only have three because one of them rotted and fell off the porch! Now that two of the remaining three are about to do the same, we decided that we better finally go ahead and replace them. So, looks like tomorrow we are headed back to order the columns we chose and the work will begin! Tuesday was our second week at the LC public library for "Story Time". Every July they have a story-teller from a different country. This year the story-teller is from Africa and each week the kids have heard a traditional story from her homeland! Last week they had warm chai tea and "biscuits" (cookies) after their story and this week I heard that they will be tasting goat milk! I'll let you know how that goes! Wednesday was free movie day at Regal Theaters and we saw "Charlotte's Web". We met several friends there and actually took a whole row in the theater! After the movie, we headed to the Pridmore's neighborhood pool to swim and eat pizza! That was fun until the storms moved in and we had to head home early. Beckett got a hair cut on Thursday morning and then we met our friends Marilyn and Elyse for breakfast at Cracker Barrell. We then went to Marilyn's school and started helping her get her room ready for the upcoming school year! On Friday, Beckett and Helen went to Nana and Papa's house to play with Lillie. They had a great day! On Saturday we went to a picnic and Beckett had his face painted like the Incredible Hulk. Today we went to church and then had lunch at "Cinco de Mayo" with our Growth Group friends! The kids all sat together and did very well! The following picture is "the kids table"! We had a great time at lunch with our friends!

The Incredible Hulk!

The following are pictures from supper one night. ALL of the Harpers are working on obedience and we are ALL works in progress! Helen is having a little bit of trouble with this one.... especially when it comes to meal time! Let's just say that a few nights this week, we were at the table for much longer than normal trying to help Helen through this. She has quite a stubborn streak, and did not want to eat her chili one evening. The faces that she made as her lip hung over into her chili while she pouted were priceless. I kept thinking that I should get a picture of her to remind us of this "stand-off" but I didn't want to antagonize her. I was able to get this first picture without her realizing what I was doing. When Beckett saw that I was putting this picture on the blog, he said, "Mom, dad said that it says in the Bible that you aren't supposed to put sad pictures of your kids on the blog." :) Then he said that it probably didn't say that exactly because they didn't have blogs back then! Anyway, I think that he must be referring to Ephesians 6 when Paul says "fathers, do not provoke your children" which Sean brought up when I took Helen's picture that night! Anyway, this blog is meant to document our daily lives and believe me, the kids aren't always "all smiles" like you see posted here most of the time! So, today you get to see a sad Helen. Everything ended well. Helen ate the chili and she was happy when it was all over. She even got her snow-sicle for dessert!

We had a great Fourth of July celebration! We started the day with a cook-out at Sean's mom and dad's house. After a few hours there, we headed over to the Kohlmeyer's home with several friends from church and had another cook-out! The kids enjoyed playing with all of their friends and we all had fun visiting, eating and shooting some fireworks. We all left their home in time to get to our church for the big fireworks show. It was great! I didn't get many good pictures, but I hope you will enjoy the little slideshow below!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

This one's for you, "Oatmeal"!

The last couple of days have been fun as we have gotten together with these four new friends! These are our friend Neal's neices and nephews! They have been in LC visiting their "Grandy" and we met them at the park a few times! We have had fun with Maggie, Jacob, Ian and Kelsey! They affectionately call their Uncle Neal, "Oatmeal"! Isn't that cute?

Another Song From Sunday Night!

Here is a clip of the song "Everlasting God" from the Worship Camp Service Sunday night! Beckett sang the first part of the song before the whole choir joined in! He did a great job!

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. ~Isaiah 40:28-31