A New Fence

Phil's at it again with another great project! He tore down the chain link fence on our patio and he's replacing it with beautiful cedar fencing.

Power tools and little helpers can make a mommy nervous.


Good job, Lily!

We had a few problems this morning...

The girls made a girls-only fort in the living room...


...and Jared turned his attention to sabotaging their efforts by spying on them with his periscope.

I heard screaming in the living room while making lunch. I went to investigate, and this is what I saw upon entering the living room. How could I tell him to stop?

Slip 'n Slide

Remember these? My Auntie Clara gave me one for my ninth birthday. I used to love my Slip 'n Slide!

Tonight I made one out of garbage bags for the kids. It took the boys a few tries to get the hang of it. They would get a good running start and then stop right in front of the slide instead of take a dive (I would, too!).

The girls, on the other hand, sat down on their bottoms and inched their way down the entire slide. The boys were very patient with them. I guess we won't need to water the lawn tonight!

No Babysitter? No Problem!

As you can see, we're really enjoying our new swing in the backyard. Tonight Phil downloaded the newest episode of Monk, I made a bowl of popcorn and we sat outside and watched the episode on his laptop computer.


Can you see the full moon between the trees in the background? It was so nice to sit outside and cool off after such a warm day. I believe today was our hottest day so far this summer. It was still 103 degrees at dinner time!

Tic Tac Toe

Gracie and I played Tic Tac Toe this morning. I was "x" and she was "o." Didn't she do a good job? Yes, I did let my 2 year old daughter win. :)

Seasons

Winter...

Spring...
Summer...

Fall...
Isn't God's creation amazing?! What's your favorite season?

Our New Swing

How do you like our new backyard swing? We were very happy to find a good deal on it at the ranch supply store.

Come on over and swing for a bit. We promise that there will be lots of entertainment, and maybe a glass of lemonade!

Kids' Day in the Park

We had a great day at Riverfront Park! Each year the park hosts Kids' Day in the Park with a special show hosted by Gordon from Sesame Street and his friends, Elmo and Cookie Monster. It was so much fun for this mommy to sit on the lawn and sing songs like "The Sesame Street Song" and "Sing, Sing a Song" along with my kids and Gordon (songs I used to love to sing when I was young).

There were several game booths and activities for the kids to enjoy before and after the show. Lily's trying a few gymnastics moves as Gracie waits in line for her turn. The boys were on the giant slide in the background.

Here they are after a long day. Time to go to Sonic for slushies!

Anne

Tonight our local PBS station will air part 1 of the Anne of Green Gables series. Part 2 will air next weekend. I wish my sisters were here to watch it with me. Liz, what snacks shall I prepare for the evening? Raspberry cordial? I'll pass on the chicken salad (mostly because of my aversion to mayonnaise).

Watching Anne always makes me miss my friend, Katie, from Jr. High. Our weekend sleepovers consisted of watching several hours of it late into the night.

My Favorite Things

I was feeling nostalgic tonight, so I started thinking of some of the things I used to play with when I was a little girl. I loved these Gingham dolls!

I remember having 4 boxes of these paper dolls. Each box contained one of the dolls, and the gingham on the box was the color of the doll's dress.

I remember playing with my Sunshine Family paper dolls in the 70's when we lived in San Francisco.

I also had this Holly Hobbie Easy Bake Oven. I vaguely remember putting my little sister, Emily's hand inside of this while it was hot. Maybe I didn't. That sounds so cruel.

I LOVED these! Each Sweet Treat opened up to fit the little doll inside.

I'm pretty sure I had a My Friend Jenny doll, too, because when I saw this picture my heart fluttered. Mom, did I have one?

Kids R Cool

I forgot to post these pictures from last Wednesday night. We were invited to our friends' church for their summer Kids R Cool program. We ate dinner there at the church. Gracie is sitting next to her little girlfriends, Emily and Molly. Their dad, Cory, who is sitting next to Molly, is in Phil's class.

After dinner, the kids went upstairs in groups (teams) of 6...

...to enjoy a fun song time and a puppet show.

We spent the rest of the evening outside with each of the 6 teams rotating through 6 different stations. Here's Jared racing a scooter.

The boys were on the same team, and they loved the parachute station!


Gracie also loved playing with the parachute, but it was much too windy for Lily. She preferred her daddy's lap, instead.

Here's my precious Caleb going down the water slide. Notice he's wearing long sleeves. This was an unusually cooler evening. I wasn't sure if the boys would want to go down the water slide, but they did.

Brrr!

A couple of random photos from our evening...

Lily wanted to help me make muffins for the morning in her swim suit and sunglasses.

Any guesses?

It's a fat free hot dog. Apparently they don't take as long to grill as do hot dogs with fat. They had only been on the grill a few minutes before we found the poor pathetic things looking like this. We cleaned them up as best as we could for the kids, but Phil actually ate this one.

Black and Whites

Ahh...The Life!

The kids talked us into letting them eat breakfast in front of the t.v. this morning so they could watch Bugtime Adventures and Auto B. Good. There's nothing like a Saturday morning in front of the t.v.!

My New Necklace!

Look what I got in the mail today from my friend, Wendy! Thanks, Wendy...I love it!

Anyone interested in these cute necklaces? Go to http://julieann.etsy.com