Catch up with photos. . .

Who can believe it's July? We are having a great summer. We have been swimming, playing (indoors a lot), seen lots of movies, and enjoyed play dates.

We enjoyed some sweet treats! Hank and Clara love chocolate!

Happy Father's Day to Pops (Poppy!)! 14 grandkids think you Rock!

We did a week of VBS at LHUMC. The kids had such a great time. Here is Bo on Crazy Hair Day!

Another fun summer with Mrs. Debra! She is for sure the best swim teacher ever. We look forward to our two weeks with her all year long!

One of our dear Young Life friends Michelle (Meesh to the kids) got married to a great guy last month. Bo was the ring bearer and Kyle sang. It was such a great celebration. We have known Michelle for 14 years--since she was a sophomore in high school. We love her a lot!

Bo and Mary Elizabeth (gee gee).

Just a great pic of my mom and dad from the wedding!

We went to the annual 4th of July parade here in LH! My brothers and I used to be a part of this same parade-- 30 years ago. This year we were spectators and collectors of candy thrown to the crowd!

Sweaty boys. Rhody, Asher Davenport and Bo--waving to the LH football players or cheerleaders--can't remember which one.

Andy's family is in town visiting. Got a few pics of their precious children. Here is baby Andee Laine!

Asher -- my boys love playing with him. He is all boy. And a sweetheart.

This is Ayla. She is like a little pixie. So adorable. She is two and a half. Lainey wants to keep her with us. She is lighter than Hank --even though a year older.

Here are all the kids after the parade. The Bone girls, the Davenports and our 4 kids.
Man, it was HOT!
and fun of course.

Have you heard about the planking craze?
Here is our air plank with Rhody!

A fun day with Asher!

Lots more of summer to come!

Summer School

This week Rhody and Lainey and I have been helping with a Summer school program for some precious kids that live in the Lake Highlands area. They are refugees from Burma.

We weren't really sure what to expect. L & R asked what these kids look like. I didn't know exactly how to explain it to them. Then we pulled into the complex and Rhody said, "Oh, maybe these kids look like Thue!" Thue is a boy that was in kindergarten at White Rock with Rhody.

Then about 5 minutes later as I was getting set up, Rhody said, "Mom! There is Thue!" (see cute picture below of Rhody and Thue). Rhody has been reading and writing with several boys this week--including Thue.





Lainey worked with some preschoolers this week. She even had to co-lead a group with another elementary aged child. They worked on letters, sounds and read stories so they could hear English. The picture below is 3 out of the 4 kids in Lainey's group. All of the kids in our group were so eager to listen and learn.






One day at the end of the lesson, I told a few of the boys that I would come back early the next day and bring a soccer ball. I really wasn't sure if they understood what I was saying. But they all showed up at 8:15 am ready to play soccer with Rhody.


These boys are waiting for their turn to get into the game.



What a fun week to get to know these boys. They are seriously wonderful children. It was great to help them read and even better to tell them that Jesus loves them.

Birthday Fun!

This past weekend was jam packed with birthday and family fun! June 6th is Lainey's birthday and June 12th is Kyle's birthday. The last several years we have scheduled Lainey's party on Kyle's birthday. So that means a whole lot a nottin' for Kyle's birthday.

Our baby cousin Maddox was in town too! She is 10 months old and just precious. She got lots of hugs and kisses! She lives far away and so we treasure any time we can get with her!

Lainey had a roller skating party! It was fun (and easy)!




Sherry threw a last minute surprise party for Kyle at our house. She made one of her famous cakes! Thanks Sherry for helping celebrate Kyle. He was surprised!

Here are a few pics of Maddox. You just want to squeeze those cheeks!

All the Richardson grandchildren.

And one of Hank.

Kids dancing

We were looking at some fun family YouTube videos today. (After we did some times tables, read some of War and Peace, memorized a sonnet or two--of course)

I came across this old one from Blair's birthday party a few years ago. Rhody is almost two. Lainey is 3 1/2. You will see Cobb, Charly and Sam Thomas as well. Bo was just a baby. Hank wasn't even a thought yet.

The quality is not good but you can see how much they love to dance. Rhody is the one you see first.



Also, I added the video of Bo at his program in the previous post.

Bye Bye Preschool.

This is our last week of preschool for Bo and Hank. Sweet and sad. It is our 3rd year to have Mrs. Hopkins. We love her (and Mrs. Boekemel)!

A lot of people ask us if any of our children have any singing ability. The answer: we have no idea. Yes, they have their father's genes. They look a lot like him. But they have my no-singing-ability genes as well. Only time will tell.

I have no idea if Bo can actually sing. But he does enjoy the stage. Just take a look at the pics below. See video below!!!

We love you Bo!

Hot Head Hank

We had a great Easter with the family. Well, minus the 15 mins that we took pictures. Hank was not having it today. Can you tell?

It actually hurt when he pulled my hair. Precious thing. See below for more examples of how much Hank enjoyed the pictures. His 17 year old cousin was at a loss of what to do with our angel baby Hank.

If you look really close, you can see cousin #14 made his debut in the cousin picture! Tribb Thomas is in the purple onesie. He did great for the pictures. He is really an angel baby!

It was so humid outside today. That is good for Hank's curls but the rest of us were sweating like pigs.

Look at the 5 girl cousins! They love each other a lot!

Elle was our model for trying to get the right lighting for the picture. Great smile Elle!

Here are all the big cousins. Man, it sure is easy getting a picture of them. They stand right where I ask them (the first time). They hug each other easily. They don't wail and throw themselves on the ground and demand a piece of cake. They just smile and look fabulous. We will be there someday. Right?

Cute Clara and Blair.

Happy Easter.

He is Risen!