Burpcloths and Salad Sisters!

Our friends Liz and Matt, are having TWINS!  We are very excited for them.  So for our baby shower present, the kids stamped burpcloths!  They all had a fun time and all the kids designed their own.

For Girls Camp this year, the girls had to make up a skit to go along with the song "Sister, Sister" from the movie White Christmas. So Carina and her tent mates are the "Salad Sisters"  

They are cucumber, tomato, carrots, celery and onion.  

Annie, Jared, and Kathleen helped practice!  Annie made up a vegetable machine!  

Big finish!

Backyard beauties

I have not been able to keep up with my vegetable garden for a few years, and my flower garden is currently non-existent also.  So I decided to let the vegetable garden go back to grass.  So Michael pulled up all the border bricks and stacked them up on the driveway.  Than we mowed the weeds down and the result was a lovely nice open space in our backyard.  

I must admit that I really like it.  I don't feel as guilty about not having a garden when it is not defined with bricks!  I love the feeling of openness that we have now in the backyard.   Our forest friends are also enjoying the backyard also.  We took a few pictures of some of the various signs of nature that you can see in our backyard on a regular basis!   

Bird... I know, I'm so specific!  Can you tell me?

Robin's nest in our plum tree.  It had 3 eggs in it earlier!

And of course, our resident bunnies.  This is a picture of one of them.  

We usually have 2-3 that love our yard. 

Music and Awards!

The last week of school was very busy with talent shows, chorus performances,and award ceremonies.  Of course, these did not get in the way of the obligatory End of the School Year celebrations in the kids various classes!  Everyone did very well with their various classes and talents.  Michael and I are very proud of them for all their hard work this year.

Carina showing off her All-State medal at her chorus concert.

Carina and her 8th grade Chorus

(Carina is in the top, far right corner)

Carina and Ms. Greer, her Chorus teacher

Mrs. McKenzie and Kathleen at the 3rd grade talent show!

Peter showing off his award for Math Olympics!

He won the Gold Medal!

Kathleen showing off the radio she won in her class awards.

David showing off his certificate at the 6th grade awards ceremony!

Of course... now that it is summer, we are hoping for a little rest!  Ha!  Ha! 

Jared!

Jared stamping!

Jared is proud of his accomplishment! 

 He got down the ink and stamp all by himself!  What a smart boy!

I love his big blue eyes!  This killer smile gets me everytime!  

Kathleen's hairdo!

Before..

After!

Our beautiful Kathleen loves to do her hair in various styles!

This day we played with rollers!

Carina is 14!!!!!

Happy Birthday Carina!

Carina turned 14 on Friday, May 16th!

She had her very first slumber party, it was lots of fun!

Andrea, Carina, and Heather watching the arrival of the birthday cupcakes!

We had a little dance party after dinner!

I took this picture at 11 pm when all was NOT quiet from the girls room!  They did settle down afterwards.  Everyone was having such a good time talking together!

Happy Birthday, Carina!

Nope, you can't make me!

Our James is a very active little man!

He is working very hard on trying to crawl, so we have a half crawl/commando movement happening right now.  The one thing he refuses to do, is to SIT!  

James tenses up his entire body like a board and if you even manage to get him to bend a little he immediately pops back up into a standing position!  It is so funny!

James laughing at me trying to get him to sit!

Nope, I can't get him to do it this time either...

However, James is perfectly happy to work on his walking!  

Tornado in Carrollton!

On Mother's Day, at 4:30 a.m., a tornado touched down in Carrollton.  It caused a lot of damage in several neighborhoods.  Ours was one of them.  This house was 3 doors down from us.  We spent the morning helping them clean it up.  Luckily for our neighbors, no one was home when the tornado struck.  They have elementary aged twin girls.  

This street had downed power lines and trees.  We couldn't even go down it.

The tree snapped during the storm and pinned the power line down

This house is in our neighborhood.  All the Bradford Pear trees were just snapped off.  It had been one of the prettiest houses in the neighborhood.  

People blockaded off streets and parking lots with everything.  

Kmart used their shopping carts!

Michael helping Mr. Randy cut up his tree

We rescued a turtle that was in the driveway and released it into the forest.  

Jared was fascinated by it.

There was a lot of damage and we were very blessed and protected.  The best part of the day for me was seeing my family willingly help out.  Especially my kids.

  That made it a GREAT Mother's day.  

Almost Crawling!

James is almost crawling! 

 This picture was taken on Friday when he had achieved this: elbows and knees!

On Saturday he was on his hands and knees and trying to move!

As you can see he is very, very, proud of himself!

Good Job, James!  We are so proud of you!

Little accomplishments!

David made this great tie-dye t-shirt at Art Club!

Annie did her own hair all by herself!  Cute ponytails!

Popsicles!

First comes rice cereal... than of course, Popsicles!

Yummy, drippy popsicle!

My turn, Carina!

Sweet James!

James' first food!

On Sunday, we gave James his first bite of rice cereal.

  These fabulous shots of him taking his first bites were taken by Kathleen!  

This is my favorite shot.  I love the cereal dripping down the chin!