Fishing!

 

WE had to do some fishing! Actually the men took the kids down to the lake while we ladies broke camp. I am sad to have missed it, but we were sure glad to get home!
 
 
 

Roughin' it

 

Camping

 

Ok, so camping with 5 adults and 5 children 3 and under isn't a stellar idea, but it was a lot of fun. We all fit in out 7 man tent and had a crazy night. I think next time we will find a more remote location, Tenna was quite dissapointed that she wasn't able to pee in a bush.

 
 
 

Zebra

 

Camping, visitors, etc

 

Well, our house is offically empty! We are so sad that all of our visitors are gone, but we all need some sleep and I need to do some deeo cleaning. Andi had a great B-day party, though her real Birthday is tomorrow. I promise to post more in a bit, but I have so much cleaning and canning and planting to catch up on I just can't bring myself to spend the time to write it all up! Thanks to all of our fun guests! Let's do it again soon!

Camping!

 

Sorry that the first parts of this post took so long! Busy day! It was a perfect trip. We had some light rain and a lot of cloud cover. We had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa Noyes, Velden and three dogs! Tenna even learned to evacuate her bladder in a bush!

 

Andi's camping experience

 

Andi had a very different experience than Tenna. She was most content pantless and playing in the car.

 

Attack of the Butterfly

 

Andi was enthralled with the bugs when we got situated to camp. She was always on the look-out for butterflies. A large yellow one started to head right for us, to her delight, until it got to about 3 inches of Andi! That was a bit too much for her!

More fishing

 
We may have finally found something that Tenna likes enough to sit still to do.

Family pictures

 

Albert made us take a family picture, and I am so glad! We haven't had a family pic in ages! Good job babe!
 

Last Good-bye

 

This little Cat-face spider didn't want us to leave. He had a very hard time saying good-bye.

Time at the Aquarium

 

AKA the fish park, according to Tenna. BTW the reason I don't have more pics of Tenna is because I couldn't keep up with her! I think I need to get a double leash!

 
 
 

The aftermath

 

The kids were all a bit high strung this afternoon, so there were a few skirmishes. Amazingly Clark jumped into the brawl...once. I went to get my camera and take a picture of Andi and Clark on this little stool. The pictures are of the scene when I got back. Andi got her revenge in no time. Poor Clark, maybe some day he will even up.

 

Because we have too many earwigs

 

I am so tired of trying to get the pool out only to find it full of earwigs. I decided that we just needed a sprinkler, and since it is almost the end of summer everything is on sale! Here is some sprinkler fun!

 

In other news, I went to go pick apricots at a new old friends house yesterday. Not only did they let me pick all the fruit I wanted (all I brought was a jar of pepper jelly), they also gave me several raspberry starts! I was so excited! I got them in the ground yesterday and I am just hoping they take off!

 

A pony party

 

Well Tenna has taken to giving more life to her ponies recently. She decided that mommy pony was having a birthday today, so we got out some party favors. My favorite thin is that she recently named Andi's puppy "Pencil!"

 

I am a slacker

 

I have been so bad at taking pictures this past week, but I have a few good stories. This pic of Tenna is before her first dance class. She was so good at following instructions. I am so excited for her to be able to dance!
We finally put the last of the windows in this week. We still need to frame them in, but they are a fantastic improvement. Unfortunately, Andi is almost two, so she likes to draw on them with CRAYON! So, how do I get it off? I can't use GooGone because of the low-E coating on the windows, any suggestions?
The best story of the week comes from Tenna though. The girls MUST take all of their bedding off of their beds several times a day so they can jump on them. After about the tenth time putting stuff back on I stuck Tenna in our bed to sleep. I was so tired and ready to be done. Blessedly, Tenna was quiet and seemed to go to sleep quickly. She called for me about 15 min later(as usual) to go to her bed. I walked in to get her and she wanted to show me her fingers. Oh, yes, she had found my tub (yes TUB) of vasoline that I use for my lips (and my teeth, since I am a beauty queen and need my lips to slide of my teeth when I smile. Ok the teeth thing is a joke) and lathered everything in it. From head to toe she was caked in vasoline. It was on my sheets and pillow cases. She got her first shower that night, she didn't love it.
Now don't blame Tenna, I should have known to have NOTHING on my headboard with her. She did end up eating a third of a bottle of tums a few weeks ago. Luckily the only side affect was strong bones (yes, I think she really is made of bricks) and side-walk-chalk poo. Serves me right.

The American Dream

 

I love that my girls are so imaginative. They love dress-up. As I was hanging the well used Cinderella dress to dry it occured to me that this was a small glimpse into the American dream. We work so hard (not that hanging laundry is really that hard) to give our children the chance to imagine, create, and enjoy the arts that we could only afford to have as hobbies.

 

Albert and I love to see the garden develop. The blessings that come from a connection with the Earth are so fulfilling. I want my girls to develop that connection and to understand that this is REALLY where food comes from. The EARTH! Tenna was so pleased when she was able to eat the first ripe cherry tomato.