vacation bible school

Maddie and Charlotte participated in a VBS program with a local church. To kick the week off they threw a mini carnival for the kids to attend. It was super hot which made it uncomfortable and short lived, but that also prevented a lot of kids from showing up which meant that my girls went on the bouncy slide a gazillion times and had more than one snow cone each! Nice. It was a good time and a nice start to their first VBS experience. They had an awesome time all week and learned a lot! I was making dinner one night and heard Maddie upstairs singing, "Beautiful one I love, beautiful one I adore, beautiful one my soul must sing....." So CUTE! Of the two of them, Maddie was more into the whole experience and really had a lot of enthusiasm. I'm glad that I signed them up!

Super easy (and useful) summer art project

I am not having a good week. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I know this is going to be a short week and that we're headed to the mountains to go camping this long weekend......but I'm pretty sure that it has more to do with my teething 8 month old and her super cranky, doesn't want to nap, wants to be held constantly neediness. I have to keep reminding myself that this stage will end soon enough, but when I'm knee deep in it I feel like pulling my hair out and often find my patience very short!

On to less crabby things. Last week the older girls and I worked on a very easy and very fun art project. I bought some cheap wood picture frames with magnets on them. I got mine from Walmart, but you can find similar items at pretty much any crafting type store. The frames cost me 59 cents each. I have loads of paint and chose somewhat thick tempera paint.....water colors would work too if you wanted a lighter result. I put down some wax paper to protect my table and gave my girls an array of colors to choose from on a paper plate. They both did a really good job! I was actually surprised that both of them really put a lot of effort into the project and took their time to make their frames look nice. We did find that they finished really quickly so I got my hair dryer out and helped to speed up the drying process so that they could apply a second coat of painting.

The second part of this project involved me uploading current pictures of the girls to Walmart's photo lab. I had them printed as wallets so that the pictures would be small enough to fit into these little frames and I got them 1 hour because I'm impatient. Silly me, I accidentally sent them to the Charlotte, NC photo lab and had to get my mother in law to pick them up and mail them to me.....I guess God was giving me a little impromptu lesson in patience! :o) Once they arrived I cut them to fit into the frames and stuck them up on our refrigerator. Easy peasy. I think they turned out really cute! And it's nice to have some magnets again.....mine have a way of disappearing.

I love that Maddie's art is starting to
have some rhyme and reason to it.

Lovely!

The lake: take I

We had our first lake trip of the season a couple weekends ago. Surprisingly it was way more crowded than it normally is, but that just makes for more kids to play with! We love Jordan lake because it's pretty close to us and the water is crazy shallow. The girls can almost touch all the way out to the buoy. We packed a picnic dinner and ate lakeside before doing some swimming. It wasn't a long trip because about 45 minutes after getting into the lake clouds started rolling in, the sky got dark and thunder started. Once we saw lightening pretty much everyone got out of the lake and headed home. It actually started raining while we were loading up the car! Even though it was short, it was a good time and I look forward to many trips to the lake over the summer!

I think this picture is really funny!
I know, I'm mean.

They look like they are so far out
but they aren't
They can touch!

June's garden

The weather is getting hotter which ultimately means less time out in the yard. I see all the work we've done with landscaping and planting and it makes me sad that everything is going to wilt right before our eyes in the next couple of months. Nearly everything (minus the vegetable garden) will come back next year, but it's hard to do so much work and have such hot dry weather that stunts all the pretty. Our hydrangeas are beautiful! Big, full, colorful. I wish that I could have them all over my yard and inside my house all year long.....they are by far my favorite! I am already seeing signs of them browning and starting to wilt. Boo. When it's nice out we spend as much time as we can outdoors, when it's ridiculously hot we spend time outdoors in little bursts and make our way indoors dripping in sweat and red cheeked. So far this summer hasn't been as bad as last year for which I am grateful.

We got a big project completed the day before leaving for the beach, one we have been talking about for at least a year. Dan built a perimeter around our playset with landscaping timbers and then filled the space in with an enormous amount of mulch. Not only will our girls not get mud all over their shoes from the dirt that used to be under the swings, but this new set up looks so much better and is easier for Dan to mow around! It was a LOT of work, work that I did absolutely none of. :o) Dan worked his butt off in the hottest weather we have had all year and I think all that hard work really shows......it looks great!

The last thing that I am going to blather on about is our berries. I am so incredibly happy that we planted berry bushes last year! They are so big and are producing the sweetest, tastiest berries I have ever had. We go out about every other day and fill up a small bucket full of berries, and that is not including the vast amount that ends up in Charlotte's mouth! The girls love picking them and I love doing it with them. I finally picked enough and got organized enough to make a pie. It was my first pie making experience as an adult, the last time was when I was a little girl and I made an apple pie with my grandma. It was a learning experience for sure, and I think it turned out delicious.....I've made another one since then! lol I can't wait until our blueberries are ripe and I keep telling Dan that we should plant more berry bushes around our property, I don't think we could have too many!

Sage

Purple bell peppers

Our peaches are getting bigger!!

Squash blossoms

Our improved playground area

Rosemary

Berry picking

Lovin' all my roses

Green beans & more sage

hundreds and hundreds of berries

Raspberry

Teeny bell peppers

From berries to pie