Diving into Summer!

We are gearing up around here for a full summer.  We have enjoyed the last couple of weeks having Daddy around a little more while he was in between semesters....but the break is now over.  Over the break we enjoyed some swimming, picnics, playing, and plenty more (plus some good ole lazy days too).  Michael is now in class mode, and an intense class at that.  Sounds like he will have his work cut out for him on this one, but he likes that kind of stuff, right? :)
This class is a 3 weeker intense (did I already mention that?) then we are headed out of town for 2 whole weeks!  We will spend 1 week in Illinois with the family I nanny for watching their daughter while they sail (in a race) throughout the weekdays.  We are looking forward to staying at a fun lake and making it into a little bit of a vacation for ourselves too.  The family I nanny for said they might even be able to take us out one afternoon/night on their sailboat!
So we will be there for a week, then from there head straight down to Alabama for a week.  So very excited about this :)  I am ready to see some Alabama folks for sure.  And take care of some long awaited cravings.  hehe.  So far, I have discovered that we will be in town just in time for some good friends wedding at our church and we will get to see Act of Congress play at the Trussville 4th of July celebration!  So exciting!  We can't wait to see everyone and introduce Evelyn Joy (meaning my big ole belly) to her Alabama family and friends ;)
Oh, guess I haven't mentioned that our little girl is named now :)  Sarah Kate is so cute saying her "sissy's" name.  So, let me formally say our baby girl will be named Evelyn Joy.  We aren't 100% sure what she will actually go by yet.  We were like that when we named SK too.  We like Evelyn, Evie, Evie Joy.  We shall see what sticks, but we are excited to be calling her by name and be able to pray for her by name now.
Once we get back from Alabama, Michael will be getting ready to head on his trip to South Africa!  My dear sweet hubby will be gone out of the country for a grand total of 19 days!  19.  Not looking forward to being here without him, but so very excited for him to go.  He will be going with a church here in town to join with some MTW missionaries that are in Cape Town doing campus ministry at the University of Cape Town.  He also will get to make a little pit stop while flying through London to see some good friends of ours, Trace and Ginger who have been in Manchester, England for almost 2 years. 
After that we will have a few weeks till fall classes begin.
Whew.  Quite the summer right?  I am planning to try and get out to do some fun things while Michael is in class every morning. 
We are gearing up too for SK's 4th birthday too, which is next Friday!  I can't believe my baby is going to be 4.  When did she get so big???  She has requested a princess painting birthday party and I am trying to make that happen.  It will be very simple, but cute and fun for our seminary budget :)
Papa and Nana will be in town for it and she is super thrilled about that!
Off to fold some more laundry....hope everyone else is gearing up for a fun summer too!

Oh!  And I can leave you with a couple pictures.  I have been horrible about picture taking lately, but we did go with some friends last week to Shakespeare in the Park down at Forest Park (about 15 minutes from where we live).  It was craziness since we had 4 kiddos between all of us, but the kids did great and made it all the way till intermission (about 9:30 p.m.!) 

the kiddos (minus 1) reading up before the play started!