Hey There!

Hey! I've been sick! So the blog has not gone on as usual due to Kyle taking care of business over here and me, well,  being sick. I had some sort of food poisoning is the best I can guess, since thankfully no one else came down with my trajectory-enhanced state of being. So I am better now and thought I'd better update this here blog. So enough about me.  Irene also had a bit of a fever yesterday, and I can't say if it was related or not to anything I suffered, but she is doing a lot better today and is pretty much back to smiles and grabbing. Evangeline missed all the action and is plodding her way through more days of merry toddlerhood, talking moreandmoreandmore every minute and putting her pants on backward. Kyle has been busy taking up my slack and also being a pastor. So we don't relax too much,  we are heading to Southern Illinois for the week to Kyle's family reunion. We'll leave at night to hopefully lull the children into a nice 12-hour sleep (normal for Evangeline, but Irene...we'll see...) Anyway, here are a couple of pics to make up for my delinquency.

The Sickness has led to lots of watching of the Muppet Movie. This
is Evangeline being Animal.

She's really good at finding okra the right size to pick. Really.

Did you know that okra flowers were this pretty?

There are no pictures of Irene here, but she's just about to crawl. Which means the peaceful days of her sitting for hours playing with lots of little things are over and she often needs help out of some tight places she can't get out of.

A Few Eventful Days

We went over to the Haugen's to celebrate the rebellion of the colonies.

Independence!

Independence!

Dependents.

Ebenezer's new vicar and his family came over too. All the kids totally loved the dog door.

Reme is a grabby eater these days.

On Friday we wen't up to Asheville to see the grandparents new place. They moved out of their house a few weeks ago and have since settled in a sort of commune with a bunch of other retired folks. I think they might be hippies these days.

We had an ice cream party in the kitchen, which might actually be larger than their old kitchen. Evangeline enthusiastically led the way.

It was only a matter of time before we all crowded in to eat our frozen treats.

We then went to Biltmore to see the animals. 

She reaaaaaaaaaally wants to get some goats.

The goats reaaaaaaaaaaaly want to eat our stroller.

The horse is a bit too large and scary.

She packed a suitcase to go to Alaska. It has a pair of pants, a onesie, a magic wand, and one of my shirts in it.

Eight Months

 I was so proud of myself for remembering to take this Irene/8 Month, Evangeline/2 and a half yesterday photo, I completely forgot the most important thing about July 2: Happy 46th Anniversary Mom and Dad!We love you and can't believe you've been married for so long :). (Evangeline thinks maybe you can buy her an ice cream to celebrate when she gets to Alaska.)

Messy Eating and things

Here are a few things that have happened.

Evangeline discovered that she can just put the glue on top of
the macaroni and beans. Hm.

Our garden is exploding.

Higher Things conference at Wake Forest.

Add caption

Irene gnaws on a rib bone. Feminist statement?

And it's really hot so we've been waiting till late to
eat ice cream on the porch. Katie is in trouble for picking a fight with a
Pitbull, so she gets to be on a leash.

She likes to call herself "ice cream face Mietzner". Really.

Entertainment

Evangeline found her sister's funny bone.

Solstice

We went out to celebrate Solstice (on Saturday) with all the other pagans. It was pretty fun.

We went late to avoid the heat. It was still hot.

Irene wasn't super impressed, but didn't make a peep the whole time.

Hula hoop/not sure where to look

This fairy in the background tried to dance with Evangeline.
Didn't work. 

This little girl loved Irene (who can resist, really?) and even
let her scratch her face.

Evangeline knew what she was doing. She even insisted on being barefoot for the dancing portion.

vbs/no

Evangeline was super excited to talk a lot about Bible Cool and Bible Class. But when it came down to it, she only participated minimally and did a lot of crying. I had to take Irene home every day for a nap, so Evangeline alternately spent a little time with her class before realizing she missed Daddy, or I brought her up to his classroom before I left. Maybe next year she'll get it. So, I didn't really get any good pictures of VBS. It's a lot harder with a baby in your arms and a crying toddler scowling at the camera.But VBS went really well, and everyone besides Evangeline had a good time.
- Oh and I thought Irene for sure had an ear infection, she was so cry-y. And since she had just had a cold, it made sense. So I took her to the doctor, which is not a normal function around here. She was diagnosed with "baby".-

In Bible Class. Evangeline did pretty good this day until she saw dad in the hall.

VBS kids

Goofy Picture

Evangeline decided to participate in this song during the
final "performance" on Friday night. No, she had never practiced it
but apparently caught on pretty quickly.