Summer 2014

On Friday, August 1st, I thought to myself, “Whew.  I made it.”  Months in advance, I have to plan out the summer, arranging for camps and activities for the kids.  We are on the home stretch now, as the last week of summer is Mom Camp.  More on that later.

We started the summer with the Balloon Glow.

balloon

And some dress up from the favorite new movie.

annaelsa

 

We’ve done A LOT of this:

Spool

In fact, Samantha learned how to jump off the diving board this summer.  It’s about time.

This one, on the other hand, has been doing it (with her float) for a while:

Epool

She has had a few lessons this summer, and might be a fish, just like Samantha.

 

We haven’t done enough of this:

lake

We’ve also seen most of the children’s shows at the library.  Samantha got picked to be a volunteer in every show that made requests. This one was Billy Jonas.  It was a new show for the library, and what a wonderful surprise!

billyjonas

And we couldn’t miss Roger Day!
rogerday

 

The girls have spent lots of time on this:

ferriswheel

 

And even got to ride on one of these:

IMG_6070

 

And because we didn’t already have enough going on, we scraped the popcorn ceiling off in 4 rooms.

ceiling

 

I think that about sums it up.  I didn’t intend to let the whole summer go by and not post.  Hopefully, this summer in pictures captures it all.  School starts next week!

Painted Ladies Round 2

Samantha received a butterfly kit for her birthday last fall. I chose not to redeem the coupon for the mail order caterpillars because I was afraid that by the time they turned into butterflies, it would be too cold. Instead, we waited until spring. (Also, I wanted to hear about why we couldn’t order the caterpillars every. day. during the winter.)

When the caterpillars arrived, we thoroughly enjoyed watching them grow and turn into Painted Lady butterflies. We released them in the front yard, but I don’t think we’ve seen them since.

Samantha was determined to get more, so she saved and saved her money so she could order more. She continued to loose teeth at such a rate that it wasn’t long before she had enough money.

We are enjoying the caterpillars once again. I hope we have the same success with the butterflies.

20140612-181909-65949378.jpg

My Mother’s Day

I had a great Mother’s Day hiking around Mt Cheaha.  I didn’t really know what to expect since we had never been before, but it turned out to be a great day.  The hikes were all pretty short, with some decent views, so we got to enjoy most of the park.  Thankfully, the girls love to hike.  Climbing up the Observation Tower was another story though.  Samantha was very nervous.  I think she might be afraid of heights (like some unnamed father of hers…).  We stumbled upon the best view while on the Rock Garden Trail, so we decided to have our picnic lunch looking out towards the lake and the waterfall.  It was lovely.  Thanks Brian and girls for making my day special.

IMG_5056

Ellie’s 4th Birthday

When did this houligan get to be a big girl?  She’s spunky and fearless, and definitely a hoot.  I hope she keeps up that great sense of humor.

f13945988

f14479620

Her party was very low key, but it did include a fun round of “Pin the Kiss on the Frog.”

f17038084

 

Her cake was supposed to be a “Frozen” cake, however, I was pretty disappointed in the result. It certainly tasted good, but it was lacking in the characters and scenery that would have made it much better for the birthday girl.

f17774660