Sukkot 2013 -The Oaks in Southbend, IN

This year we celebrated Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) closer to home, which was really nice.  We met lots of new friends, some that live closer and some from further east.  It was such a blessed week!  Four mornings we organized a children's devotional time with our friends, the Brothers.  We did music, stories, and then some sort of activity.  We also were in charge of worship for 2 of the nights, which was wonderful!  We took one day and drove to Valpo to celebrate with another fellowship over there.  We met some folks from the group The Twelve Tribes.  We spent most of our week with them as they also traveled over to Valpo for the same day that we went.  What a sweet group of people and so enjoyable to fellowship with.  Just after 1 week, they felt like family.  Was a blessing to get to know them and their children and spend this week of joy getting to know them!  One of the families had an autistic son, which brought back many memories for me in working with Danny, the boy I used to work with.  We grew very fond of Hoshua during the week.  He loves music, so he fit right in with all of us!

There a load of pictures, so I hope you'll take the time to enjoy them all.  If you have questions on any of them, just leave a comment.  I don't have time to give a caption to each one.  It was all I could do to find time this evening to get blogging done for the whole summer.  Time just passes way to quickly.   

 Must caption here: This boy would go get his own hot dogs and once came back with the ketchup already on them to grill over the fire.  Silly boy, and a creative idea.  

 Graham cracker sukkahs.

The night sky looked like this every night.  I sure would have liked for my camera to take better night shots, but this will have to do.  We even got to see the meteorite that shot through the sky with the green tail.  No pictures of that, but it sure was a beautiful and surprising sight!

 Apple trees galore!  Made for some yummy apple crisp for supper one night and applesauce when we got home.

 Gagga Ball

 Much Dancing!

 The Twelve Tribes' Bus.  What an amazing set up and beautiful interior.  Lovely people!

 Glad you could wake up from  your nap (JB) and join us for the day!  

 A much deserved nap for the lady running the kitchen morning, day, and night!

 This boy woke up from a nap, put on his sister's pants, backwards, and came out of the tent.  It was so funny, I just had to get a picture before I hauled him back to the tent to put his pants on.

 The outside temps were warm enough for swimming, but that water was freezing!  Only children can tolerate such temps.  We all did enjoy watching them and getting to have some water fun!

 At Valpo playing family games. 

 Preparing for Sabbath meals.

 A little science experiment.

 Friends!

 He was so blessed!  What a reward to see his face play that drum one more time before leaving.  What a joy to have him around during this week!  

 Baby getting rolled up in sleeping bag!

The next pictures were taken by others.  Thank you for capturing some great moments of the week as well!

We definitely had a week of JOY!  We learned a little in different areas, and met new people, and worshiped the Father in song, in teaching, and in living!  I pray HE was blessed with our celebration of one of HIS appointed feasts!

A Partying Summer

This summer was so full with celebrations.  We celebrated a new baby to a sweet family.  We celebrated finding out the gender of my good friend, Casie's baby to be.  We celebrated Casie's Aviyah's 2 year birthday. We celebrated the circumcision of the baby that was in the momma's tummy below.  Boy time sure flies and baby come and then feel like they've been a part forever.  I'll post the link to our CeLeBrations blog of that party if you'd like to see more details of each party.

Sadie's Pregnancy Celebration

  See more details to the 

Feather her Nest Celebration.

The Brothers' Gender Reveal

 What's the Scoop details...It appears as though I never blogged about this one.  How can that be?  I'll have to keep searching and maybe do a late post on it.

Aviyah's Your are my Sunshine 2 year birthday

 More pics and details of lots of Sunshine.

Royer's Circumcision

What a great summer we've had celebrating with friends and family.  It zipped by so quickly, but now we are enjoying fall and all that it has to bring.  Thankful for all of our blessings especially in the new little blessings to our friends.

Produce Cart 2013

We had such a great summer!  The children have wanted for quite some time to set up a stand and sell produce.  Well, this year we finally grew enough in our garden to actually let them do that.  We included some baked goods and some jams.  The girls also made necklaces and bracelets that were a big hit as well.  For a first time, they did really well selling, and made a nice amount that we are hoping to put towards blueberry bushes.  Don't worry, they got paid too for their work,and had some yummy ice cream treats as a reward for their hard work.

I hope you enjoy some of the snapshots I got of them.  Thank you to all who came by and supported them. They greatly appreciated all the business they got!  

Will they be out there again next year?  I hope so!  They learned so much and the regulars seemed to really enjoy not only the produce but seeing the children every week too. 

 Reading a book to pass the time.

 The cinnamon rolls were the biggest hit of all.

 We didn't sell these elderberries, but we all went picking one evening and got enough to can several jelly jars of sick syrup for this winter. And we canned pears for the first time too from my parent's trees.  They turned out so good!

 This wasn't as dangerous as what it looks.  He didn't crash and had a ball doing it "all by my myself".

  

 I picked cantaloupe and sat her in there with them.  She found one that was a touch too soft.  She poked a hole in it and kept licking her finger.  That was the tastiest wagon ride she had. : )

 My scrunchy faced smiler.  

Loved seeing all the color displayed on the cart.  

I'll try to post next summer when we open again.  You won't want to miss out on fresh, organic produce from the Bovee children.  It's a treat you'll want to come back for more of.  : )