Wrapping up Summer/Back to School

 

We wrapped up summer with one last trip to the beach!  We also co-hosted our 8th annual Night to Unite Neighborhood block party and this year our kids got 2nd place in the chalk art contest!  Among other things in the gift basket was free lunch at Cane's which we enjoyed on our last day of summer.

The kids got to meet their teachers at school and organize their lockers.

Larkyn has Ms. Nerdahl for 4th grade.

Larkyn was so excited to get her first locker!

Colton is confident, excited and more than ready to be a middle schooler this year.

Summer loves organizing her locker and is excited about all the leadership opportunities of being top of the school this year as an 8th grader!

We so enjoyed our family date to the state fair!

Cheers to a new school year!

Tommerdahl/Crabtree Fun!

 We all looked forward to this past weekend that we got to spend with family on Paul's side!  The Crabrees flew in from Boston and we all headed to Grandma and Grandpa's trailer on Battle Lake.  Tubing, fishing, playing in the water, a campfire, August birthday celebrations, good food, and connecting with family all made the weekend special.

Birthday / Back to School Dates!

 Every year since I can remember, I have taken each kiddo on a birthday date around the time of their birthday.  It is a sweet time that we all look forward to.  This year, the craziness of life and activities and travel made it impossible to schedule those dates near their birthdays, so I decided to put all three dates in August, taking a day with each kiddo to do back to school shopping and an activity of their choice. It was SUCH a sweet way to spend our last few days of summer vacation and I am pretty sure it will now be a new tradition for us to do our birthday dates this way every year!

Summer

Summer picked to do an escape room.  We also spent time together shopping for new shoes, getting her first salon haircut, shopping at the outlet mall, and grabbing lunch together.

Colton

Colton also chose to do an escape room, however he chose to do with with Dad too!  We drove to dad's work over the lunch hour one day and found an escape room a block from his work.  We also grabbed lunch with dad which was a special treat.  We then did some back to school shopping finding lots of sports themed clothing and some cool new shoes.

Larkyn

Larkyn chose to go to Crayola Experience at Mall of America.  We also did some shopping for shoes and found new clothes for back to school for her as well.

I am so grateful for the one-on-one time I got to spend with each kiddo before the craziness of school starts up again! 

8/13 Larkyn Baptism!

Larkyn chose to be baptized this past Sunday.  As her mom, it was incredible to watch her heart choose this step of showing the world that she wants to be identified with Jesus in both his death and his resurrection, telling the world that she is a follower of Jesus and trusts in Him.  

Larkyn trusted Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior many years ago (read about it here), and over the past year she has been talking a lot about baptism.  We have had many conversations, (all prompted by her) as she thought through if/when she wanted to take that step.  Our church had two baptism Sundays scheduled for the summer, which unbeknownst to us as parents apparently Larkyn took note of.  After our morning devotions last week she wanted to talk about baptism, and she shared that she felt God was calling her to be baptized, but that she felt nervous.  She told me that there was a baptism this coming Sunday (to which I was shocked that she even knew there was one! She is not a date person!) and as we continued to talk it was very evident that God was prompting her to be baptized.  After she talked with her children's pastor, Ms Laurie, and read in her Bible that evening (noting her new favorite verse Malachi 3:2), she decided the following morning (Friday) that she wanted to be baptized that Sunday!  Our amazing family made every effort to come despite the last minute (to us!) notice.  It is so amazing to watch God work in your kiddo's heart.  I feel beyond blessed that Larkyn loves and listens to the Lord.

As part of baptism Sunday, those being baptized share in church their testimonies and often include why they want to be baptized and how they have seen God working in their lives.   Click here for Larkyn's testimony in church video.

After church we headed to the local beach for the baptisms.  Larkyn asked me to baptize her.  Click here for Larkyn's baptism video.

Below are some pictures from the day, including some our pastor's wife took. 

Thank you, Lord for working in Larkyn's life.