End of Year Wienie Roast

Waiting for the fire to be ready for wienies and marshmallows!

First course : wieners

Finished product..Mom got the spicy hot dog and it was so good!

Second course: Marshmallows!

Yummy!

Gourmet S'mores...This was a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup S'more..Troy said it was awesome! I went with the traditional-Hershey Bar, marshmallow, graham cracker..

Hopefully we make this a yearly tradition as we had a lot of fun.

And so it begins....

Soccer that is! Wyatt is in his first year and I've heard that coaching this age group islike herding bumblebees, but, I gotta say, these are the cutest dang bumblebees! Most of the kids have no flippin' clue as to what they should be doing. They're told to get on the field, stand "here", watch the ball, get the ball, kick the ball. It can be very overwhelming for these little guys. But Wyatt was a trooper.It probably helps that his been on the sidelines for the last two years watching his sisters' play soccer, so the whole concept wasn't brand new.

I love this photo. It's like watching all the dots get connected as he focus' on the ball and what he is supposed to do with it.

So here's to soccer, that which will consume my life every Saturday through November!

Birthday Celebration part 2

We have some very close friends that always treat us like princes & princesses on our birthdays and Sophie's day was no exception! We met at a local pizza place in a historic district where the service was excellent and the food was great...Sophie was surprised with mini cupcakes from a cupcake store and of course she chose chocolate and vanilla.

Here's the birthday girl...

and Maddie

and Wyatt

I have so many photos with the girls doing this.. When I ask them to pose, they put their arms around each other but they stand inches apart. I tell them to act as if they like each other and then this is what I get.

And her is the clan...Thanks friends for the nice day out! We love spending time with you and always wish we had more time together!

Day Hike

Summer is winding down quickly and we feel like we need to cram a bunch of stuff in at this last minute. Today's activity was a hike at a local camping/recreation area. We took one trail that went along the water and wound up and around. It was a pretty walk but hot as some of trail wasn't covered.

We then drove to another area and followed a trail to the above waterfall. It was an easy 1 mile hike and it was very cool and shady.

The kids and Troy hiked across to the waterfall while I stayed with Murphy.

Our attempt at a self timer portrait LOL

Troy does the dumbest poses. This is his ranger face...

It's a Double Rainbow!!!

Otherwise known as Sophie's 8th birthday! The first photo is an overview of the basic set-up. The empty areas were absolutley laden down with food(i failed to take a photo): fruit platter that looked liked a rainbow, veggie tray, salad with salad fixings, chicken, chips & dip etc..

The banner I made..I plan for this to get lots of use over the next few years!

Candy that I seperated by hand to make a rainbow..yes I have problems LOL

Homemade sno-cone syrup in all the colors of the rainbow!

Something Fun and Yummy!

Birthday Girl Making a wish!

My beautiful 8 year old Sophie...All our favorite people(minus 3) were there to share her day, and we are so lucky to have her as our daughter.

Keepng you updated Missy!

Put my new camera to use yesterday..Maddie eating the Ice-Cream in a Bag that they kids made. Lots of fun and something we plan to do again...

MMM-Vanilla ice cream with Butterfinger!

Wyatt shaking it up..

Maddie and Dad

Wyatt at his Auntie's new pool.

Long day yesterday. Kids didn't make it to bed till after 11pm and the last child got up at almost 10am! We're laying low today, resting up for our 1st official swim lessons tonite :) The kids don't have regular access to a pool so we they have sort of learned the need-to-know swimming moves ie treading water, doggy paddle, floating on their backs. Now it's time to get the real basics-especially for Wyatt. He hasn't learned anything yet and he is very hesitant and cautios around water. He generally won't go father than the steps.

Sophie and I are also starting to plan her birthday party. We won't be doing a friend party this year, just an all inclusive family/friend party. We've decided on a rainbow theme! Lots of color and balloons ! Will post pictures of the progress and the party!

I got a new camera!!

After a major customer service issue with my old camera in repair, I ended up getting a new camera! I am so excited about my new Canon Rebel T3-I orignally wanted a Rebel but Troy bought the Nikon as a surprise and I didn't want to dissapoint him by exchanging it for something else. So I've been playing with it for the last 2 days. Above is one of our cherry tomato plants. We're getting ripe ones in bits and pieces and they are so tasty!

My pretty purple flowers from the 99cent store! I can't believe how hardy this plant is! I don't always water is daily and it pops right back to shape when i get back to it.. love it! Used my automatic macro setting and this SOOC! Love the color and the blur!

My Sophie riding bikes with the neighbor kids. She had a flat and was walking it back to Dad.

So my friend turned me onto this blog about family photojournalism. The thought of the bloggers is that we need to capture our families as they are, day in and day out. Don't worry about the mess on the floor or the table or the clothes(or lack of ) the kids are wearing. Get photos of the stuff the kids will remember-the couch that was so ugly, the placement of photos and bricabrac around the house. So here is my 1st take on this topic. Maddie and Sophie watching tv on the Xbox360..netflix on demand has changed the way my kids watch tv!

Camera is set on auto..Wyatt in the garage playing with a buddy. While not technically perfect, I don't mind the blur of his toy--toys are meant to move!

Murphy-our poor, brainless, loved mutt. He has issues. but we love him.

Maddie in her true dorky-ness. She's not mine. She's all Troy. LOL.

Needless to say, I'm in love with my camera. It's so user friendly and it has a cheater mode! Well, actually it's called Creative Mode and it allows you to set the blurry-ness of the background so you don't have to mess with the aperture settings..Brillant I tell ya! It allows for color change-soft, vibrant, etc..so cool.

We are down 32 days of our summer and have 46 to go. No major plans.With going to Disney last year, and planning to go again this Christmas, we are going easy on the summer plans. Sophie had a week of basketball camp and all 3 start swim lessons on the 5th. We have been thinking of camping but Troy can't commit to a week off yet..

I'm also planning some home improvments. Sophie is getting a room makeover as part of her birthday gift from us..She wants a soccer room but her room is pink and we aren't repainting. We've decided on pink and black polka dots with soccer accents(framed art, photos of her playing etc). We will be painting her trim and chair rails this week. I hope to pick up a new lamp/shade, a mirror-we actually don't have a single full length mirror in this house! and some pillows for her bed. oh and curtains!

Re-organizing is also on the list. I have one of those worthless cabinets that go back and deep in the kitchen. I really have nothing down there at this time except my handtowels and dishclothes right at the opening. I plan to move my serving dishes that I don't use often into the space. I don't use my gravy boat but a few times year!

And scrapbooking- I go once a month to a CTMH club where i basically glue down pieces of a pre-designed layout but I haven't done much of my own work lately. I want to finish Wyatt's books since I stop the individual books once they hit kindergarten. I'd like to be at the point that I'll only have family books to add pages to. I worked on 3 layouts today, completly finishing one. I got the bug I guess to get things moving.