At the Orchard

The first week of August we joined some of our dear friends for a picnic and blackberry picking at Butler's Orchard.
The girls sweetly posed for us on the bridge.

Then, while we were eating our peanut butter and jelly picnic lunch, we discovered a long earth worm (which was especially cool, because we studied soil for science the next week)!

Then, we made our way to the fields to pick some blackberries!  I never really liked blackberries until I tried fresh blackberries from the farm; they are absolutely delicious!

After we picked several lbs of blackberries, we went back to the picnic tables for some more play time!  Little M and Anna enjoyed hiding in a game of hide-and-seek!

Then, it was Little M and Anna's turn to do the counting and finding.

It was a beautiful day and the girls enjoyed running and playing outside with their friends!

Baby J couldn't do much running with his cast, but he was happy as could be!

He enjoyed being with his mama!

It was Little M's idea that she, Anna, and the bear should have their photo taken on a rock! 

Faith shared her hat with baby J and he was beyond excited!!

All five of the kids have become the sweetest friends....

and love giving one another the biggest hugs.

All five of them make me SMILE! :-)

On the day at the orchard, my friend Joanna surprised me and captured these adorable photos of my girls.  She is such a great photographer.  Thank you Joanna for this gift. :-)

All of my girls' hair was an absolute mess after all the fun they had running around at the orchard!

But I love them! I love how this one shows Anna's feistiness and her excitement for life!

I love this photo of Faith's more serene side.

Faith's cheeks got so red as she ran around.  She asked me several times,"Mom, am I flushed?" The answer was a most resounding "YES"!   (We brought water with us, but Little M and Faith thought it would be fun to water the plants. I also bought the girls 3 frozen lemonades from the market, but it was a little tart for their liking ).

Faith loves the outdoors and appreciates all of God's beautiful creation! She is my only girl who will touch a slug or worm and delight in God's perfect design for it. :-)

Jillian is growing up into such a little lady!   I definitely feel like she is outgrowing the little girl stage. She is compassionate, a little bit of a perfectionist, and most definitely a leader!   She has strong feelings about a lot of things and is good at expressing her thoughts to other people. 

Anna and Faith adore their friend baby J! Yesterday, we celebrated Baby J's 3rd birthday with him. It was his first birthday (of many more to come) to celebrate with his forever family! We are so thankful that God brought baby J into our friends' family and that we get to know and love him too.