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.

Weekend Stuff

As you know, labs are infamous for being lovers of all things water. Murphy is no exception to that rule. It started with him pawing furiously at his water bowl, splashing himself as well as the wall, the floor, etc. Then he discovered the sprinklers. Now he has discovered the lake.

Here is after a tentative walk into the water.

While, not a technically perfect photo, I thought this was cool..you can practically see the individual droplets of water as he wrings himself out!

Very dreamy ..I like it.

Wyatt on our walk at Mather Lake.

A beautiful shot of Sophie. The wind was terrible that day. I had already been to the zoo with Wyatt and then the lake...My face felt sunburned by the evening.

Maddie, playing at the lake. She really wanted me to help her put the small log back into the lake but I refused. She's a great explorer outside. She's willing to check out just about anything..I like her adventurous side because she doesn't show it very often!

We also brought home ticks from the lake. We had already pulled one from Maddie and one from Murphy earlier in the week. And those were just from our yard! Since going to the lake we have pulled 3 from Murphy and two from me. I also found one just crawling on Maddie's bed covers today. UGH UGH UGH! Gives me the heebies. We treated Murphy last night and I think we may need to fog the house soon if this keeps up.

Plans for the week: Teacher appreciation week so pretty busy for most days.

Coffe run on Monday

Car wash gc Tuesday

Door Decor on Wednesday

Gift day on Thursday

Luncheon on Friday- Im making pinwheels for the decor and we will decorate in red white and blue-school colors.

Oh and my phone bit the dust. Troy is trying to string me along for another week or so until Im elegible for an upgrade. I cannot wait. If I'm not home, there is no way to reach me. Troy just doesn't understand that a Mom needs her phone dammit!

Hi Auntie Mimi!

Of course all the pics are out of order. I always forget to load them backwards.

Wyatt learned how to ride a two wheeler this weekend! Huge event here because he's been begging for us to help him, but he hasn't really ridden his bike recently. We wanted him to familiarize himself to it again before we took his training wheels off. Finally Troy just did it and he took off after just a few passes with Daddy's help! So now it's all about riding his bike for Wyatt! He's been so determined that he can now take off all by himself..that was the toughest thing for the girls to learn.

Maddie

So I should probably just write my blog as if I'm writing to you Mimi. Would make my writing more purposeful instead of self appreciating ! And the disjointed manner, type, photos, type, photos, absolutley fits the way I think LOL

Wyatt

Sophie

So here all the kids on Easter Sunday. It was such a relaxing day. Just my parents and us, we sat outside for a few hours enjoying the weather and each other. The mood was awesome-no one to compete with for conversation, no one-up-manship from anyone, just great!..The only thing missing was you Mimi!

The kids head back to school tomorrow. Today I've spent time getting them ready-laundry, cleaning rooms, did some math practice with Sophie. She's grounded today and usually has to be in her room but since she worked well on her math, I'm allowing her one tv show. Then it's back to her room!

Hitting the fridge and narrowing down dinner choices for the week. Many will contain ham(that's what we had for dinner on Easter) and hard boiled eggs LOL.

MPM

The two dishes I looked forward to last week I didn't get around to making! So Chicken & Dumplings will be back on the list(and in the same spots!) along with the Honey Hoisin Pork Loin.

Check here for more recipes and menus!

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Sunday-Spaghetti

Meatless Monday-Pancakes and Eggs with applesauce- I'm making extra pancakes for breakfast this week.

Tuesday-Sloppy Joes with Corn

Wednesday- Buffalo Chicken, oven fries, & broccoli

Thursday-Fend for yourself/Leftovers

Friday- Chicken & Dumplings

Saturday-Honey Hoisin Pork Loin with Rice