The "Missing Months": July

In July, Joel spoke at the M.C.C Intermediate Camp.  Emma & Caitlin & I stayed home (Emma had her playschool summer camp on that week), but we drove out to camp a couple of times to see Joel.  

 

 

Emma helped our friend Anne with the "Book Shop". She was quite the sales girl! 

 

 

The picture above is of the barn where the kitchen is and where the campers meet for meals, activites, and for "Book Shop", "Tuck Shop", and "Bank" times.

After camp, we headed away to West Cork for a very short family holiday.  We stayed in our friend Sharon's caravan which is on her family's farm in Skibbereen.

 





 

This was our gorgeous view from the caravan.  We were only there for a few days, but the girls really loved looking out the window to see the cows in that field.  On one of the last days, Sharon's dad was out plowing the field, and the girls and I watched from the window and Emma waved to him each time he passed by! :)

On one of the days, we found the children's play park in Skibbereen and Emma had a great time playing there.

 



 

Caitlin's first "slide" :)



We went to a nearby beach for an hour or so.  The weather wasn't ideal, but we still had fun.  Emma started a "collection" of shells.

 



Caitlin and I watched Emma and Daddy collect shells.

 



 

This is the hole that Emma and Daddy dug together.  This is also the hole that put Daddy's back out the next day :(

We did have a beautiful sunny summer day to explore West Cork a bit.  We were limited as to how far we could explore because of Daddy's "owie back".

 



We ventured out to Baltimore.

 



 

We kept Caitlin protected from the sun :)

In July (on the 19th), Daddy had a birthday.  He left the house in the afternoon looking as he does above ...

 

When he returned, he looked less hairy ... and by the look of Caitlin's face in the photo above, a little bit scary :)

 

In July we also ran our first summer kids' club.  We did a week of journeying to Babylon.

 

And yes, we did find another use for Emma's birthday castle!  Welcome to Babylon!

 

Behind those walls, the children heard stories from Daniel (aka Joel) and others.



And of course there were crafts, games, snack, etc.  Yes, that is Emma who was thrilled to be able to participate all week!