Brad Blackburn's graduation!

 Our friends Walter and Deborah's son, Brad, graduated from Southside High School this May. 

I can't believe he is already that grown up! We remember him being just a little boy younger than Christian! Time flies! We were so glad to go to his graduation!

 

Congratulations Brad! We are proud of you!

Biking!

For Mother's Day this year, Jim and the boys bought me a bike rack for my car! I love it!

Christian and I have both really enjoyed going riding together and now with the rack, it makes it simple and quick to throw on the bike and go! 

 

We ride the Lake Bella Vista trail alot. A couple weeks ago, we rode the North Bentonville trail and the Crystal Bridges trail.  The trails are beautiful! We stopped at the overlook area that has views of the museum. 

After our bike ride, we stopped at the Frozen Tung in Bentonville to try their snow cones!

 

Christian gave them a thumbs up!

I love going biking with my big boy Christian!

Fishing birthday party!

Christian's friend, Tyler from Cub Scouts had a fishing and boating birthday party!

 It was only Christian's 2nd time to go fishing but he LOVED it! We bought some crickets and hung out by the shore of Lake Ann.

 Tyler's dad took turns taking a few boys at a time on their boat too!

Christian enjoyed learning to bait a hook and cast his line into the water. 

By the end of the day, he was a pro!

Christian and his best friend Andrew enjoyed being together and fishing!

The birthday boy (in the green shirt) had a great party and enjoyed having all his cub scout friends there.

The party favors were little tackle boxes for the boys! Great idea and what a fun party!

Lunch with Tasha!

A couple weeks ago, my friend Tasha (who lives in Little Rock)came up to Northwest Arkansas for a visit. Dara, Susan and I met her for lunch at Eleven, the restaurant inside Crystal Bridges. 

We had a fun, relaxing and kid free lunch on a Friday....which is a very RARE occasion.

Thanks ladies for making the effort to get together and catch up with Tasha!

I had a great time!

CUMC Women's Gala!

This year, I attended the CUMC Women's Gala again with friends from church.

I did not host a table this year, but we all sat at Tricia's table that was really cute!

The theme of the table was "In the Name of the Game"! It was decorated with various board games and our names were done with Scrabble pieces. Very clever! 

After the Gala, Elise, Ama and I sat on the patio of the After 5 Grill and had a great time visiting. 

So thankful for amazing friends!

Best Friends!

Christian has had a great 2nd grade year! He has received straight As this year! He also enjoyed joining cub scouts for the first time! His fellow classmate Andrew, is also in cub scouts with Christian. They have become best buddies this year. So much so, that each Wednesday, they take turns having an after school playdate. One Wednesday at our house, one Wednesday at Andrew's house. He is the sweetest boy and I love having him over to play. I also love that his mom and I have become good friends too. 

Since I still have a few close friends from grade school even in my 30s, I love thinking that the friends Christian makes now may be his friends for a lifetime.

George Washington Carver Monument Park

Saturday, Christian and I headed north to Diamond, MO. His cub scout den was doing an outing to the George Washington Carver National Monument Park. It was right at an hour away and the weather was perfect for enjoying the outdoors!

The group from our wolf den!

Whenever we go to national parks, our pack always does a service project. The boys put on gloves and picked up litter in the park area when we first arrived.

But the was not a lot of litter around. The park was beautiful!

Saturday was also Art in the Park day. The park does this only two times a year.

They have tents and tables set up for kids to learn and do different art projects. From clay to paint, they had lots of great projects for the boys to do!

First, they drew along the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk! 

They had the idea of tracing themselves!

I traced Christian and he drew himself as a military soldier/Star Wars imperial fighter pilot. HA!

Having fun!

Exploring the museum

Christian and his best friend Andrew.

At 11am, we went to listen to the artist, Mike Wimmer talk about his life as an artist and how to be successful in fulfilling your dreams. He was a great public speaker and an amazing artist. The boys sat still and quiet and listened to the whole lecture for an hour. His work was amazing and I really enjoyed hearing about his life and all the art projects he has done.

Here are some of his most famous artwork...

He painted this for Disney and it was used as the movie poster and several other items advertising Lion King!

He painted this of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the movie Terminator.

His portrait of Sam Walton

After the Mike Wimmer lecture, we headed back outside to the park and did all the art projects!

Christian learned to paint with dye on a silkscreen!

He made a nature fossil project with clay!

He also did a color blocking and mixing painting!

The Joplin new channel was there and interviewed Julie, one of our den leaders, about our Cub Scout pack and activities for the day!

One of Christian's favorite projects was making cards using real flowers as color stamping. He made a card for GoGo's birthday!

One of my favorite quotes from George Washington Carver.

What a wonderful and memorable trip to the National Monument Park!