Mama Mia, Papa Peta, the day we almost lost John and other stuff happening around the Hiemstra House

It's been lots of fun having these two around this summer.

They are easy to have around, sometimes we don't even see them until the early afternoon.  It's pretty handy having that little cottage. 
Speaking of the cottage, John and I (and Holly a little bit) spent lots of time working on the outside of Gramma's Cottage.  We got all the trim and the doors painted, looks so nice!  For some reason, I have no pictures.  Those will have to come later.   I do have pictures of John's special project on the chimney though.  The cottage was originally heated with a propane fireplace (which we took out) but the chimney was still there of course.  It was ugly, cinder block and kind of stuck out.  John decided to try and paint fake bricks on the chimney.  He taped it off, painted the "mortar" on and then used three different spray paints to create the "bricks".  Turned out pretty good!

It's really nice that my mom and dad work for their room and board when they come. 

They put together the windmill I got for Mother's Day.

John and Dad got the cabinets hung in the shop and my Dad put in a nice work bench.

They washed all of the vehicles.

I'm pretty sure that Geo's never been so clean!

The freezer went out in the cottage fridge (my dad noticed when his ice cream bars were really soft) so these three piled in John's little truck to pick out a new one.  My dad needs his ice cream.

The neighbor helped us put it in.

Don't worry.  They don't work the entire time they are here.

One Sunday we headed to the bay for a picnic lunch and a walk along the spit.

That evening, Holly played her violin in church.  It was beautiful!

We had a big scare on the 4th of July.  John was trimming trees and fell about 25 feet.
It was super scary but miraculously he came away with just a loose tooth, a swollen ankle, lots of scrapes and bruises and a lesson learned the hard way.  We are so thankful, it could have been so much worse.  At one point he was over 50 feet up in the tree.

He fell flat onto his back into lots of tree debris.

Holly is convinced that angels lifted him down.  I think she might be right.  He was trimming trees so they would quit falling on the (future) party barn's roof.  I will never look at this little place again without feeling blessed that God spared my guy.

And just a couple more pics.
The neighbor's have a raspberry patch that they let us pick from.  Katie just can't get enough!

Holly made a raspberry dessert that was amazing.

I didn't get any pictures of John's injuries (I think he might have some on his phone) but I did snap this one of Holly giving him a bad massage a couple days after his fall.  She's going to make a great nurse.

This big weed had been growing in my yard since this spring and I finally got sick of looking at it and pulled it up.  My family wasn't happy with me; they thought it was the coolest thing.

And they were all laughing at me when I was mowing in John's coveralls and Sam's airsoft helmet but I think I was pretty ingenious.  The area I was mowing had lots of rocks and gravel in it and I didn't want to get pelted by flying debris.

My mom sent this picture to my sister who texted back that I was a dork.

She's always been jealous of my fashion sense.

Madagascar and the 4th of July

For the last several summers, the music teacher at the kid's school along with the former drama teacher at the high school have a two-week theater camp which ends with a musical performed by the kids.  They use high schoolers as the leads and all the camp kids get small parts.  This year the musical was "Madagascar".  When Katie told me she wanted to go to camp, I was pretty surprised.  She has never expressed any interest in drama, dancing or theater.  In fact, when the Sunday School kids sing in front of church, I usually have to threaten her to open her mouth, do the actions, and smile.  It makes me slightly uncomfortable when I have to threaten my child in church but sometimes a mom just has to do what she has to do.  Anyway, I did a thorough job of explaining to Katie exactly what drama camp entailed and she still insisted she wanted to do it.  So, being the open-minded mom I am, I signed her up.  I thought perhaps she had just been hiding her passion for theater, I thought perhaps she wanted to be just like her big sister, I thought perhaps she was some child prodigy actor and I was stifling her creativity and that once I let her do drama camp she would go on to become a famous actress on a hit television show and buy her mom a John Deere zero-turning radius riding lawn mower as a token of her appreciation for encouraging her hidden talent. 
Sigh.
None of that happened.
In fact, when I picked her up and asked her how it went she said something along these lines: "It was dumb.  All we did was sing and dance.  Do I have to go back tomorrow?"
And I responded with something like this.  "Yes, you need to go back tomorrow and you will sing and dance and smile and act like you are enjoying every minute because I paid a lot for this drama camp."
So she did.  And I think she even started to enjoy it a little.  She had three little parts in Madagascar.  She was a zoo guest, an animal control officer and a chorus lemur.  She was pretty nervous the first night of the show but she did great and I was a proud mom.

Holly and her friend Lauren were in theater together all through their time at LC.  It was fun to have them cheering on their little sister and brother now!

Grampa and Gramma were here for the second night's performance!

 Aunt Sally was there too!

So, Grampa and Gramma came and we left.  After Katie's show we loaded up and went camping with friends. 
Good thing my parents are cool....and that they are staying a while.
We've been camping in Birch Bay with my coffee ladies group for a couple of years now.  It is always so much fun.  This year was no exception and even better because the weather was beautiful the entire time.
Katie and one of her best friends, Nicole, down at the beach.

 Messing around on the big rock.

This year, we started a new tradition.  Before we could walk back up to the campground, we had to hit three small rocks off the big rock.  This was the guy's turn.

And then it was the girl's turn.  No, I was not one of the winners.  I have horrible aim.

A camping selfie with my favorite people.

 Katie loved my friend's little dog.  She gave her lots of love over the weekend!

 We celebrated Cassie's 21st birthday!

The kids played cards late into the night.

 She really liked this dog.

 Ken and the kids putting new nets on the soccer goals.

 Exactly how many guys does it take to grill?

Holly and her dad walked back to the beach in the evening to watch the sunset.  It is SO pretty down there!

John (and Holly too) played A LOT of Rook over the weekend.

And I had to include this picture.  John went on a hike with some of the guys and convinced them to carry back a bunch of rocks for him.   

One more thing...
For years we have had a parent's versus kid's kickball game.  We were not able to be there for the Saturday night's game since we were watching Katie's performance.  Apparently the parents were  beaten very, very, very badly.  I think it's a combination of the kids have now become big and the parents have now become old.  Anyway, for our Monday night game, we divided the teams into even and odd birthdays.  It worked much better.
We might be getting old but my coffee ladies (and their hubbies) are still a lot of fun.  Great 4th of July weekend!