July was a month in which:

• We attended a little friend’s birthday party.
• We went to a Volcanoes baseball game and watched fireworks on the 4th of July.
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• We went to many track practices and delighted in the speed of our precious boys.  Grant tells me that he hums “Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus” in his head while he runs and it helps him win his races!
• We watched the weirdest storyteller at the park as part of the library summer events thing.  I totally didn’t get it.
• We celebrated Grant’s 7th birthday with a snake themed birthday party: complete with snake cake and snake pinata. (layout coming soon!)
• The boys attended VBS at a neighbor church and LOVED it.  I felt a little funny farming them out, but I am so thankful that I did.  They came home with lots of stories and questions about Egypt and they still talk about that week.
• In the afternoons, they came home from VBS to eat lunch, then zipped down to the 5-day-club that was going on in our neighborhood.  It’s like a neighborhood VBS put on by Child Evangelism Fellowship.  I’m pretty sure that this is where Cole really started to understand what it meant to ask Jesus into his heart.  A transforming week!!
• I missed a haircut appointment.  Twice.  I’m terrible.  The second time it happened, I almost started crying.  Do you guys ever get that way?  So frumpy that it starts effecting your mood?  Plus, a little guilty?
• The boys ran in their first track meet.  IT WAS AWESOME!  I’m sorry if this sounds completely prideful, but MY boys are the fastest, smartest, cutest, sweetest, most wonderful children around.  Did I mention that they are FAST?  Yes.  They are.  Grant won 1st place in the 200 by a HUGE margin.  Oh, you should have seen him coming around the corner and just lighting up the track.  It still makes my heart race!!  AND THEN, he ran the mile against 12 and 13 year olds and came in first place in his age group.  Okay, so he was the only 7 year old who was brave enough to run it, but STILL!  He came in at right around 9 minutes (unofficially) and never walked.  I can’t even TELL you how incredible I felt as I watched him.  Oh, that child!  He’s amazing!  Can’t leave Cole out!  He was a bit distracted during the track meet (lol!) but he did earn 4 ribbons!  What a doll!  He is an amazing long jumper!
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• I took the boys in for their well-child check-ups.  I still do this even though the doctor says I don’t have to.  I will probably still do this until my kids are in high school, and by then they will be required to have sports physicals anyway . . . which our doctor does for the high school . . . so whatever!  It’s covered by insurance, so I do it.  Anyway, Cole had to have a bunch of shots.  Poor guy.  However, he was brave and is recorded in the 95th percentile for height!  Good grief!  Okay, so I’m not THAT surprised.  Mitch is 6’4″ and the men in my family average about 6′ or more.  I can’t remember what %age Grant is (since they don’t really keep track of those things after a while), but he’s a tall guy, too!  It was nice to get the doctor visit over with.  I still need to call the specialist to get Cole’s hearing tested.  He doesn’t talk the most clearly, and I wonder if his hearing is okay.  The Dr. says to check it out just to put my mind at ease!  (Note to self.)
• Grant was a camper at Wildcat Hoop Camp for a week.  He rediscovered a love for basketball!  He was reluctant to go, but he didn’t want to disappoint his dad (who is a basketball player . . . although Mitch wouldn’t have been disappointed!), so he decided at the last minute to go.  He is very glad that he did, and so are we!  He learned some great skills and his confidence grew.  He is excited to keep practicing!
• The Reptile Man visited Dallas.  This is always SUCH a huge hit!  We’ve been going to see the Reptile Man every summer (except last, when he didn’t come) since Grant was 2.  Mitch even takes time out of his lunch hour to come with us.  This year, both of the boys were called up to hold snakes!!  It was THE coolest thing!  Grant held a white snake (which I’m sure he could tell you the name of, but I am clueless) and Cole held the ginormous boa constrictor.  What I loved most:  The Reptile Man would give us clues about the next animal he was going to pull out of the box and Grant would turn to us and name the animal.  He was right every time!  {heart singing!}  Ever since he was 2 (when he discovered a DEEP love of sharks) he has been visiting the animal science section of the library to check out his books.  It actually wasn’t until this year that he became interested in story books, since Mitch has been reading the Narnia series to the boys.  My child is ALL about science!
• We took part is ALL kinds of Summerfest festivities including walking through the booths, getting free stuff, and attending the Rubber Duck fundraiser race (where two of Mitch’s ducks won prizes: a gift card to Goodwill and 10 games of bowling . . . guess which one he is giving to me!!).  We went to a great concert at the Rotary stage downtown, cooled off with free snow cones (at our dentist’s booth – imagine the blue teeth!) and watched the hydro cart races at the fire station.  Just before the big parade, the boys ran in the kids fun run.  Cole insisted on holding daddy’s hand the whole way (poor Mitch!), while I ran along the end of the race route in my Crocs trying to capture a picture of Grant.  The race wasn’t “officially” timed and there were only participation ribbons, but MY OLDEST SON came in first place in his age group and whipped a bunch of older kids.  I’m so stinkin’ proud of him!
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• The next day (which was actually August 1st, but since it is part of Summerfest weekend I’ll talk about it here) was the BIG Breakfast In The Park and Tom Newton Car Show, both put on by Dallas Rotary.  Did I mention that my amazing husband is this year’s Rotary Club President?  Yes.  He is.  Amazing!!  He was also one of the main guys in charge of planning the car show (which is a total understatement, actually) so we hung out at the car show most of the day.  Mitch was SUPER busy, so I occupied the boys, but they did great.  I was so proud of my husband and his professionalism and attention to detail.  Plus, he looked hot (literally and figuratively!) standing next to the trophy winners and their cars as they took pictures during the awards ceremony.

And THAT was July.  It was an incredible month!