Samuel's first swim meet

Samuel had his first swim meet this past Monday. He has worked really hard to get to this point. For his first meet he did well. There were a few bumps along the way but overall he was happy with how he did. One thing we did learn about swim meets is that they are HOT and LONG! But nonetheless it was a lot of fun to watch Samuel compete. His best finish was 3rd in freestyle relay.

For all the cooks out there....

Here are 2 GREAT websites I have recently found that I am super excited about trying new recipes from. One is Tasty Kitchen, and her original blog is called The Pioneer Woman. Here is the link www.thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/

And the next one is all about crock pots (or slow cookers as some call them). Seeing as we are always on the go, I am really excited about trying some of these out this week (and NO none of my recipes involve strawberries!!) The blog is called A Year of Slow Cooking

Happy cooking!

It's that time of year again. Strawberry season. We took a trip up to Huber's farm with our Woman's summer play group from church. It was a great time. I handed each of the kids a box and let them go in the field. I definitely underestimated just how many strawberries the five of us picked. So we have had strawberries coming out our ears! So what do you do with that many strawberries? What better way than to show you!! (and yes, if you look at my garbage bowl you will see that I was not meticulous in how I cleaned my strawberries- I am sure my mom and mom-in-law are having a fit about now- but when you have close to 18lbs of strawberries to clean you get a little careless!)

Summer weather means summer hats!

Now,if I could just get her to leave it on.

Abby's turn for pictures...

As I was printing out new pictures of the kids I quickly realized I had not taken any of Abby recently. So here are some of my daughter who is looking too grown up too fast!

Samuel is getting older which means time for......

A day in the life of the Croft household....

See this cute little girl. So cute you just want to squeeze her, maybe take her home with you. Well, tonight she put on quite the show. Brian has had a conference all week topped off with a retreat. He got home this afternoon bringing with him 2 guest for dinner. These 2 guest were men, fellow pastors, from Scotland. I had spent the week trying to get the house in order and food made for our evening. Everything was going just as planned. We sat down to a wonderful looking lasagna, a great salad, and yummy bread (thank you Mae!). Everybody was eating and chatting and having a wonderful time. Of course sweet Claire did NOT want lasagna for dinner. So we did what is customary which was to make her eat at least one bite. She took the bite and started chewing. She said "Mmmm mommy, I love it". A minute later I noticed she was STILL chewing the same bite. I quietly leaned down and said, "swallow it Claire". Being the perfectly obedient child that she is, she proceeded to TRY and swallow it. She gagged once to which I said "Claire, do NOT throw up!". She managed to say "Ok mommy". She kept chewing and gagging. Finally, trying to get her (and me) out of our misery I held up my napkin for her to spit the bite out. Trying to be descrete I simple whispered,"Go ahead and spit it out". Again being the obedient child that she is, she proceeded to not only spit it out but VOMIT it out. That's right, she threw up right there in the middle of our nice dinner. Still trying to be descrete I tried to catch it in my napkin which only caused the vomit to run down the inside of her dress. We got up, went to her bedroom, cleaned her up and returned hoping nobody had noticed. Brian gave the silent look of "is everything ok?" to which I quietly nodded. Only to be followed by Claire saying "I just threw up!" I have never wanted to crawl under the table so badly in my life. Fortunately our guest were very gracious and just kept on eating but I am sure we will be the talk of Scotland for some time!! Moral of the story.....some battles are better fought when NO ONE else is around!

Happy 6th Birthday Isabelle!

All of our children love their birthday, but none more than Isabelle. She loves everything about it, the presents, the games, the attention. I guess that is what comes with being the 3rd child! We are so thankful for Isabelle in so many ways. She brings a lightness to an otherwise very serious, competitive household. She is still the funniest of all of us. It has been a great joy to watch Isabelle as she has grown and matured. She is still just as imaginative as when she was young and loves pretty much everything about life (unless it is perceived to be painful in any way!). Here is our birthday photo shoot, with celebration pictures to come soon. We are still in the process of celebrating!! We love you very much Isabelle- our life would not be close to as exciting or colorful without you!

Why Claire? Because she is my most willing subject!

Level 4 State Meet Videos

We are very proud of Abby and her accomplishments at the state meet this weekend, which includes winning 1st place All-Around. We are most proud of her attitude and her hard work. She has had some ups and downs this season but has really had a great attitude through it all. So here are the videos! And now it's on to Level 5~~

Beam- 1st place, score 9.15

Bars- 1st place, score 9.35

Vault- 5th place, score 9.125

Floor- 4th place, score 9.225