The Annual Bike Ride

Every year our church has a Bike Ride. Everyone meets in Tallahassee to ride the 16 mile St Marks Trail. Lij and Ike rode in the bike trailer for the first eight miles and then they opted to stay with me. I drove the Support Vehicle ;-). Every three or four miles I found a place to park and watch the bikers. This was MaryVance's first time to attempt the entire 16 miles (on her bike with training wheels!) and I wanted to be near by if she pooped out.

Here's a shot of Lij and Ike while we were waiting for the bikers. Little boys. Rocks. Rocks must be conquered!

Oh! Look! Here they come!!! woohoo!!! I think this is around the 13 mile mark...Big Daddy in the lead with Mare, Sam and Luke following close behind. The man in blue is our friend John!
Biker Daddy... with the snack of champions... a banana, Gatorade and Slim Jim! Potassium, Protein and Electrolytes.... yummm....

And MaryVance Made It! She biked the entire 16 miles!!! Woohoo!!! Go Mare!!!

We all meet at the end of the trail for a picnic lunch.

Yapping? Me?! Gasp! Enjoying the afternoon with the RONU... Brandy and Serena!

And a final shot... one of my favorite little people in the world! Sweet Leah!! She was cooing at me... she *hearts* me! I think I'm gonna teach her to call me 'Dearly'... isn't that sweet :-)

Friends are a Blessing!

Last Thursday night we were blessed to have the opportunity to host our friends, the Graves from Tampa, for a quick overnight visit. It seems that none of the photos Molly took turned out so you will have to use your imagination! LOL The Graves are good friends with a family in our area, the Lains, so we invited the Lains to supper too! Graves + Lains + Lewis' = 28 people and a lot of chili, a lot of brownies, a lot of visiting and a Lot of Fun!

Thank you Lord for bringing wonderful new friends into our life!!

Backyard Fun

Friday the children and I enjoyed spending several hours outside in the back yard. Caleb was helping MaryVance learn to ride a two-wheeler and everyone else was just having fun riding bikes!

It won't be long Yo-Yo... it won't be long... This one is more your size for now!

"hhmmm... I don't think it works this way... I think YOU are supposed to pull ME!"

Luke helping Lij learn to keep his balance!

No Joseph.... really... tell me how you feel about it all...


And I include this as an aside of sorts... I am so encouraged by the faithfulness of our children to spend time in the Word. Sam had been really busy this morning and hadn't had time to do his Bible reading for the day. He brought his Bible outside and sat in the backyard with me and read while everyone else played. He is such an encouragement to me...

Goat Day

An annual local festival in Blountstown Florida ~ Goat Day. This is our family's fourth year to attend. Goat Day festivities take place at the Panhandle Pioneer Settlement. Here are some photos of the settlement area. There are many buildings here, a schoolhouse, church, fire station, general store, blacksmith shop and many more.

One of the highlights for the children is the Penny Dig. One of the local banks sponsors the Penny Dig and they scatter several hundreds of dollars of change in the volleyball thing (pit? field? court? Yes, I think 'court' is the right word!)
MaryVance and Elijah found $5.50 in change. They were excited to be able to buy their own snacks and treats with their own money!
Stephen and Caleb... 'partners in crime'... Ha ha ha ! They are big buddies and had great fun digging for change!

Joseph just liked playing in the sand.... who needs pennies...?

And the horses... we musn't forget the "horshes"...

It was a beautiful day, sunny, breezy and relatively cool. I didn't even *think* about the need for sun protection. Poor Molly... I think she got the brunt of it for our family -- though most of us were sunburned to some extent. Here's Molly after we got home:

Our church had a food booth at Goat Day. We provided a huge assortment of baked goods, breads and cookies, hamburgers, hot dogs and plate lunches with 'Uncle Lonnie's Famous Grilled Chicken' and all the fixins! Goat Day is a Lot of fun! It's always the third Saturday in October -- plan to come and 'do' Goat Day with us next year, okay?!!

Doin' the Zoo!

October 11, 2007... the Memphis Zoo... Every time we go we take a picture on the cow... it's neat to see how our family grows and how our children grow from one pic to the next!

Playing 'Catch-Up' Today...

So many pics I want to share!! Stay tuned... here they come!

Oohhh... Puppies, Puppies... Want a Puppy?

Adorable cute and precious! Wanna see them? Look here www.lewischildren.blogspot.com

"You can never have too many people that love you"

Wise words from my Mama. A long time ago. They've been echoing in my head for years.

We made a trip to TN on Wednesday night and stayed through Sunday morning. We had a nice uneventful trip up and a long uneventful trip back home.

We had a chance to visit most all of our relatives. We are so blessed. We have so many people that love us... so many people that we love. Thank you Lord for our family. Help us to be a blessing to them too!

I have tons of pics... I'll upload some soon!

For Baby Girl Wesselhoeft

It's Baby Time at church and I made this quilt for a first time mommy named Misty. Little Lena Rene (I don't remember how they are spelling Rene, Renee, Renea?) will be here in December!

Here are close-ups of the rosebud and lime gingham fabrics

The quilt is tacked with a little heart-shaped stitch every few inches.

I am addicted to making these quilts. It's all Katie's fault! Love ya Katie!

Sewing for Ayla

And since I just love to sew for little girls, I made these two outfits for Ayla... she's two! Her mama said she loves skirts and likes to dress herself. These shirts are so easy and they have no front or back.

This is the same style top but with little culottes instead of a skirt.

Lime green is one of Ayla's favorite colors!

Sewing for Alicia

So I was emailing with Katie today and she said 'What have you been sewing lately...?' I made these 'Back to School' outfits for a little four year old darling named Alicia.

The top is reversible...
I also made a few teeshirt dresses but I guess I forgot to get pictures of those...

Busy, busy, busy

Yes, that's our life recently. Seems like it's been so very busy. Busy is good, right? The whole 'idle hands' thing? LOL

We are heading to my hometown this Wed - Sun for a family reunion. The children are especially excited because my mother just got a Jersey and they get to help milk her!

I'm working on a quilt so that is my big project for today. I also need to give the boys a haircut. Molly and the big boys are doing our packing today.

I don't have anything else exciting to add... just wanted to drop a quick Update note.

More later... I'm sure!

Want to tour the "downstairs"?

When we bought our house there was a garage off of the kitchen. The laundry room and a bathroom were studded up and the laundry room was plumbed (the bathroom was not). We added some walls and created some extra rooms for us. This area now has the laundry room, a full bathroom, a pantry, an open area we are currently using for an exercise room and a play room. It's four steps down from the kitchen so the children call it 'the downstairs'. I should dig up some before pics, shouldn't I?

The Playroom, Reorganized...and Ready For Play!!!

And the children's computer area.

Here's a shot of the bathoom, we call it 'the monkey bathroom' -- not to be confused with 'the ducky bathroom' LOL!

And here's the open area we use for an exercise room. That tall cabinet has school stuff in it and there's a smaller cabinet to your left that has vhs tapes and dvds in it. The pantry is behind the tall cabinet, beside the window.

BEFORE PICTURES:

This is the doorway that leads from the kitchen 'downstairs'. That back left corner is now a bathroom.

This is the area that was studded up and plumbed as a laundry room. This was a garage but did not have a garage door so all of the wood had been subjected to the weather to some degree for thirty years.

The window to your left is now the window right outside the pantry in the exercise area. The other window is in the playroom.

And here's one more before shot: