Lost camera photos

I think I have mentioned it before but our good camera was out of commission for some time.  We aren't really sure what happened to it but the good news is they finally fixed it and we have it back!  Woohoo!  And, even better, the pictures were still there.  So here is what I found on the camera.  Some of them are from months ago but better late than never. 

Busy weekend!

Last weekend was quite eventful for us!  We started off Friday with a rummage sale that promised horseback rides (but when we got there they said it was too hot for the horses so we just got to pet them),

then we went to the spray park,

and finally ended at the library for movie friday (which I didn't get a picture of for obvious reason). 

That night my friend and I decided to take the kids to an art walk in town.  Both of our husbands were at work so we loaded all the kids up in my new van and went to the First Friday Art Walk.  It was nice and the kids had fun. 

It is a family atmosphere but I think it would make for a good girls night or date night.  We will be trying that next time.  When we were done walking around in the heat all the kids cooled off with a Snowcone. 

The next day daddy came home and we got the opportunity to go boating.  Some friends from church invited us to go to ir father's cabin on a local lake.  The cabin is small but pretty cool.  It is old prison barricks that they sold in the 1990's.  People bought them and renovated them however they pleased.  I told myself I was going to come home and research more of the background of the barricks but I haven't yet done that.  Then two weeks before the trip our friends informed us that they bought a boat!  That made us very excited!

The girls hadn't been on a boat in over a year... and they were very hesitant then to do anything more than sit there.  As you can see they weren't so hesitant this time around. 

Bumpkin and Troublemaker had a blast.  They never once acted scared and were willing to go out on "the hotdog" whenever there was an open seat.  I was pretty impressed.  And I must say it was fun to have them old enough to be adventurous.  Towards the end of our trip Troublemaker turned to me and asked if we could get our own hotdog.  I told her we had to have a boat to have a hotdog and she just gave me a sheepish smile and turned back around to enjoy the rest of the ride.  Mimi didn't have as much fun as the other two but she was tired and restless. She did love the wind whipping through her hair though.

As you can we we had a great, eventful weekend!

Mimi is walking!

We have a walker! 

Mimi,

You have been up on your feet for awhile but you recently started letting go.  For some reason you prefer to walk to daddy over mommy but I just don't think about that.  : )  You still drop to your knees and crawl when you want to get to somewhere in a big hurry but you are walking more and more each day.  Yesterday we walked the entire length of the kitchen to show off to Bumpkin.  I couldn't believe it because it was twice as long as you have ever walked before. 



It won't be long now until the crawling days are completely over. 

Love,

Mama

Branson 2012 Part 2

I promised these a while ago but here are the final vacation pictures from Branson.  Most of them are self-explanatory in the pool or roasting marshmellows but the last couple are Aunt H, grandma, and I ziplining.  Daddy got a video of grandma going for the first time (and screaming all the way down) but it was one of the lost videos from when he jumped in the pool with his iPhone.  :(

Catching up

Ok, so I am a little behind but to be honest it has taken me longer to "get behind" than I ever thought it would.  So even though some of these pictures are from a few weeks ago, I'm doing good.  :)  And honestly, I have some pictures on my phone that are from even longer ago but I will get around to dumping sometime..... I just have to send them to daddy's phone, save them on daddy's phone, which then puts them on Icloud, then email then to myself because for some reason my Ipad won't upload pictures to blogger, then save them to the computer, then post them on the computer.  Easy right?  Well it should be a little easier I would think! 
But on to the pictures I do have ready to go....

We went bowling for the first time last week.  After a couple tries Bumpkin took to it pretty well.  She even got a couple spares and strikes, I was impressed.  Troublemaker had more fun being silly but what is to be expected.  She would just chuck the ball down the lane but then she realized that if she hit the bumpers just right they would fall down.  Then they fell down multiple times....

We also went to a music festival here in town.  It was a Bluegrass festival.  It was fun but I was surprised it isn't bigger than it is.  The city should really work on it because it has great potential.  It is at a local historic site that also had some places for the kids to explore.  Here is Troublemaker being herself. 

Bumpkin got her hair cut last week too.  I took her in and told the lady that I didn't know what to do.  We settled on layering it and making it a little shorter.  When it dried it just started to bounce up. 

On July 4th we had a fun family activity day.  Well sort of family day; we did spend a good portion of the day with our favorite neighbors.  In the afternoon we went to water park and had a blast.  We even got the girls to go down the big waterslide for the first time ever.  It was one where we could go as a group so it wasn't as scary for the kids.  Then obviously during the evening we had fireworks.  It has like nothing I have ever seen in our neighborhood.  I tried multiple times to get a good picture/video of the activities but it didn't work.  However, I did get a couple semi-decent picture of setting off a lantern (which after it sinking multiple times I really think they should be illegal....)

And finally, proof that we have been having a fun and active summer.  Something I should be doing right now.  Troublemaker got up to go to the bathroom at about 10 one night.  She walked out of the bathroom, layed on the chair, and fell right back to sleep.  I'm not sure she ever really woke up. 

In this picture I was reading to the girls and the phone rang so I went to answer it.  I was gone about 30 seconds and came back to them both passed out.  It was 4:30! 





Ariel Cake

I made this cake for a friend's daughter 4th birthday. I had a ton of fun doing it. I can't wait for another cake challenge to come my way! 

Fun Factory

Bumpkin (and Hoppy Bunny) did a summer camp a few weeks ago called Fun Factory. It is a memorial to a little girl who was killed by a drunk driver some 40ish years ago. Each day the kids do all the little girls favorite activities as a tribute to her. The activities include dance, choir, art, drama, and keyboarding. It was right up Bumpkin's alley! I was so lucky to come across it at the last minute and it will definitely be a staple next year. Troublemaker was upset she didn't get to go but next year she will be old enough.

The last night they had a performance for the parents to show them what they had learned.  Hoppy Bunny and Bumpkin were so excited to show off their new skills.  We did record it but unfortunately we had an accident with daddy's iPhone and it meet an untimely death at swimming lessons.  So we only have pictures.