Dan just sent me a msg that the kids did great tonight on their date with gma and great gma. I'm so proud of them. I love you two "more than infinity"

Mini-golfing

This summer Henry and Cora have been really interested in golfing (Dan is so thankful !) They each got new golf clubs for their birthdays and have taken them out to Whispering Creek a couple of times to play. Then last week we went mini-golfing for the first time and they LOVED it !! Henry ran around the course about five times and did awesome with the putter. Cora decided the best way to "golf" was to take her golf ball and just place it into the hole and then clap for herself. It was precious.

Vacation Bible School

The kids went to vacation bible school this summer at our church and had so much fun. The theme was "Growing God's Children" and they learned all kinds of fun things about the love of God for them and for everyone. They put on a concert for the parents the last evening of VBS and they did awesome - I was so proud of them for learning the music and words and the actions. This is a picture of Cora as a flower and of Henry (he's the very last kid in the front row with the red shirt on).

Summer Fun

One of my favorite things about summer are the spontaneous neighborhood get-togethers. A few weeks ago on Sunday afternoon we invited Halle, Ella and Peyton to come down and swim with us in our backyard pool. Pretty soon, Kayla from next door came over also. Then before too long, the parents all migrated down to our yard and set up their lawn chairs. We ordered pizza and hung out together for hours. Everyone had a blast !! It's one of my favorite memories from this summer. Here are some pictures of the kids in the pool. We really are blessed to have such great friends !!

Ms. Sarah

Ms. Sarah is our summer babysitter and, to be honest, our lifesaver. She has been our regular evening babysitter for the past year or so and this summer we were fortunate enough to have her come to our house every day and take excellent care of Henry and Cora. She is doing all these wonderful field trips with the kids; picnics in the park, playing at the mall, summer kids movies, the pool in Sergeant Bluff, gymnastics, bible camp, children's museum, library storytime. She is totally awesome and we'd love to adopt her. We just wanted to say a big "thank you" to her !!! Here's some cute pictures of them at the pool . . . . .

Language

At our house, we have certain words we can't say such as "stupid" or "shut up." We've told Henry that those are words he can use when he gets to be 15, but until then we don't want to hear them. So picture our house last weekend when Henry was frustrated with a Transformer and couldn't get it to transform correctly. He says, "Mom, this toy is stupid !" And Cora marches right up to him, puts her hands on her hips, wiggles her finger in his face and says, "Henry, you watch your ang-uage" (language)" It was way too cute !! So now Cora is handling my scolding of Henry for me and making my life easier, I guess . . . .

Easter

Easter this spring. Okay, I realize this is getting quite a ways back in time, but I had to put some pictures of Easter in. The kids had a blast coloring eggs and hunting them. To try to keep the sugar content down we hid a few coins in most of the eggs and the kids loved putting the money in their piggy banks.

Our best friends

At our old church we met one of the best families. Matt and Yvette are very sweet people and their daughter, Ava, and Cora hit it off immediately. These are some pictures of some of our playdates together. We are so thankful for you, Ava and Yvette, and are looking forward to the new baby on the way. We're excited to meet the newest member of the Townsend family !!

Railroad Park

Another favorite of ours is the McCormick Stillman railroad park. We discovered it on our last trip to Arizona and had tons of fun. They have playground equipment for the kids, a life-size railroad they can ride around the park, a carousel, and an "Old West" town complete with a stagecoach. I love the pics of the kids on top of the jail.

Children's museum

We found the Children's Museum of Phoenix and had a blast. They had converted an old school into a three-story playground for children. We loved the two-story climbing structure, the noodle forest (hundreds of pool noodles hung up from the ceiling that you walked through), the pretend grocery store and kitchen, the art center, and the move-it area (motorbikes and such). What a wonderful gift to the children of Phoenix to have this musem available to them.

Pedicures

Cora and I had our first manicure/pedicure while we were on vacation in Arizona. She sat still for so long and was soooo good. I was really proud of her. This is what the final product looked like.

Arizona

I earlier posted some cute stories about our vacation, but here are some pics. We had a fabulous time. Everything went so smoothly and the family had tons of fun together. Thanks to Chris and Kerri and Todd and Vicki for being our "hosts" so much in the afternoons and evenings and letting us crash at your pool and eat all your food !! We loved being with you and the kids were ready to go back to Arizona about as soon as we came home. Thanks mom and dad for being around so much and making our vacation so much fun.

Papa's flag

A few years ago for Christmas, mom bought dad a flag at the local cemetary. Now, for most families, that would be really weird, but not in ours. The flags are put up for Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day. There's a really nice plaque at the base of the flag that says In Honor of Terry Smith. Each year we take our pictures by the flag to see how much we have changed in the past year. Here is this year's picture.

Summer Fun

The best part about summer is putting on the swimming suit and heading outside to play with the neighbors and splash each other !! Our friends are Kayla, Halle, and Ella. Thanks everyone for a fun day !!

Random updates

Here are a couple of pictures from our "girls weekend" Mom and Cora and I traveled down to Des Moines to see Heather and Katharine when they were home for the weekend and had a blast. We did some shopping - Toys R Us was a big hit ! And ate out a lot - the one picture is of Cora and the "cow" outside the Iowa Machine Shed. Then we went swimming at the pool late - we didn't get out of the pool until after 10:00 at night. Then we spent a lovely morning at Jon and Lynette's house just catching up with our friends. Cora and Katharine played really well together !! Thanks gals for a fun weekend