Fourth of July Festivities

We had a fun, relaxing Independence Day weekend with friends and family.  Saturday night we went over to our friends, Doug and Stephanie's, house to have dinner and watch the Bartlett fireworks.  Kevin went to Cotton Cabin and bought a variety of different sparklers and poppers for Ava to play with and some fireworks for us. After dinner, we took her outside to play with them.  "Uncle" Doug helped Ava get started with her sparklers.

Ava loves using sparklers to write her name.

Kevin and Ava having a good time.

The caption for this next picture should just be "TROUBLE"

Kevin showed Ava how to shoot a bottle rocket.

I took my camera to take some pictures of the fireworks.  I have really got to learn how to use this thing so that next year they will look better.

Sunday, after church, we went over to my aunt and uncle's house for a barbeque.  We spent the afternoon in the pool while the food was cooking.

Ava showed off the swimming skills she has been learning to her Neena.

Then it was time to eat.  Kevin, Ava, and my mom took a break from swimming to chow down on some ribs that my uncle smoked.

My grandparents hung out on the porch all afternoon and watched us.  They also enjoyed some of the many desserts.

After we ate, Ava and Lawson played ladderball and tee ball while they let their food digest.

Then, it was time to hop back in the pool for a volleyball game.

Once it got dark, it was time for fireworks out on the driveway.  I love how Brittany has this "I'm so excited because we are about to blow stuff up" look.

TJ and Brittany bought enough fireworks to last us a looooong time.  Everyone gathered outside to watch, then would go inside for awhile, then wander back out.

We always have such a great time when my family gets together and this was no exception.  Lots of good food, laughter, and fun.  I am so blessed to have been born into this family.  Monday morning, Kevin got up early to play golf with his buddies.  Ava and I woke up and took the dogs out and happened upon a little family of three caterpillars.  Ava said it was a family just like us. :)  We stayed out there for quite awhile just watching them.

Later that afternoon, we had planned to go with Doug and Stephanie to Doug's parents house to eat, fish, and relax.  However, Ava ended up coming down with a virus and has been sick most of this week.  So much for our other plans for this week.  Kevin was out of town so Ava and I just stayed home for four days.  It was nice spending time together but after a couple of days I was getting major cabin fever.  Ava's furry brother and sister were so worried about her.  They are not used to her just lying around.  You can tell how concerned they were in this picture.

They are the sweetest pups.  We are also blessed to have found two wonderful dogs.  Fortunately, Ava seems back to her old self which is good because we have a busy week coming up!  Ava has both dance camp and art camp this next week and I am going to spend the week getting ready for a wedding shower I am hosting here next weekend.  Blogs about those things later! 

Flower Child

Here in the last few months, I had developed a fascination with flowers.  I have always liked them and thought they were pretty but now I have this obsession with wanting to try my hand at planting and growing them.  I took pictures of some different projects I have been working on involving flowers.

We have several of these in our backyard and I think they are so pretty when they are in bloom.

My favorite flowers are hydrangeas.  I planted several of these along the side of our house a couple of months ago.  I got very small plants so it will take them a couple of years to really get big but they will be gorgeous when they do.  I can't wait until I can cut some and keep them in vases all over the house.  

This is my first hydrangea bloom.

The leaves are looking a little rough on this plant but you see where it is about to bloom all over!

I wanted some flowerpots for the front porch and decided to make my own.  I just got the regular orangey clay pots and then got to work painting.  I am pretty pleased with how they turned out.

Ava is really into zebras so I did this one for her.

I wanted to do a fun one with our monogram.  Just added some ribbon around the top and some flower clips and voila!

This one has Celtic crosses all around it as a tribute to my Irish roots.

They were really fun to do and I added some cheery, bright yellow marigolds to complete the look.

On a side note, I ordered a headband for Ava a few months ago from The Gap.  Sometimes she wants to wear a headband and other times she refuses.  I paid $18 for this headband and then thought when it came in the mail, I think I could make this.  So I went to my home away from home, Hobby Lobby, and found the materials to make them myself.  I made three headbands for $8.  Can you tell which one cost $18 and which ones I made?

A Girls' Weekend!

This Friday morning, Kevin left to go on his annual golfing trip with his buddies to McKenzie, TN.  Ava and I have had the whole weekend to ourselves so we decided to make it an all girls' weekend.  Friday night, I took her shopping at Target for a new float and things to play with in the pool.  Then, I asked Ava where she wanted to have dinner and she decided on Quey's (Huey's, to the rest of us).  I enjoyed my burger and she scarfed down her mac n' cheese.  It is so funny to me how stuff must just taste better to her at restaurants.  The macaroni was the Kraft kind from the box and I'm sure of this because it says so right on the menu.  About halfway through our meal, she looked at me and said "Mom, this is soooooo good!"  She has eaten that hundreds of times at home and never got that excited about it.  After Huey's, we headed over to the movie theater and saw Mr. Popper's Penguins.  Ava had a fairly lengthy internal debate between popcorn and "MM's" but finally "MM's" won out.  The movie was fairly cute and we enjoyed our girl time.  The next morning, I had to work for a few hours so Ava spent the morning with her Neena (my mom).  Mom brought Ava her favorite chocolate donuts from Howard's for breakfast and then they went to get their nails done.  Ava picked out a hot pink color for mom and red for herself.  They stopped by Sam's to get some stuff on the way home and Ava told my mom she was going to hold her hands out on the handle of the cart so that she could show off her nails.  They walked past one older lady who stopped and said, "Why sweetie, don't your nails just look so pretty!"  She then laughed and said to my mom, "She's sitting there blowing on her nails like she's drying them."  Ha ha!  She's such a girly girl.  After work, I went to pick Ava up and we all had lunch.  Then it was time to go over to my sister-in-law's parents house for my niece, Leah's, family birthday party.  We celebrated her birthday last weekend with her friends, but this time it was a family affair.  We had a great dinner and the girls had a wonderful time playing together.  Ava and Mallory were very curious to see what Leah got for her birthday.

Mallory and Ava also got a couple of gifts to open so they wouldn't feel left out.  

Showing off a couple of her little treats.

Today, we had a playdate with my best friend since we were nine, Amy, and her daughter, Hailey.  We went over the Botanic Garden as soon as it opened and spent most of the day wandering around in the fresh air and nature and getting our exercise.  I took the new camera that Kevin got me for Christmas and took tons of pictures which I am about to share :).  I have been intimidated by it because it is a nice Canon digital SLR camera and it has a lot of features which means lots of buttons.  I couldn't do anything too fancy with it yet but at least I am practicing.  

Posing with the roses on our way to My Big Backyard

Playing on the treehouse

Working on their balancing act

Playing on the "spiderweb"

Amy and I were sitting at a picnic table, enjoying our pink lemonade, by the spiderweb when I happened to glance up and see this:

It scared the mess out of me!  I actually grabbed Amy.  Spiders are one of my worst fears--I am terrified of them.

The girls played in the wormholes

Stood in a bird's nest

Dressed up as wizards

Sat in a rowboat

Had a sack race

Played instruments in the music house

Relaxed in the hammock swing

Watched the fountains

Played in the "thunderstorm"

and went to the pond and fed the koi

These are just pictures that I took that I thought were pretty.

I thought this was interesting...this is how a pineapple grows

When you pay your admission at the Garden, you get a map showing you where all of the different flowers are on the grounds.  I dragged Amy and the girls all over the place looking for the hydrangea displays because they are my favorite flowers.  We finally found it after wandering around aimlessly to the point where Ava asked worriedly, "Are we lost?"  

We decided to go in and cool off and have a fancy lunch at the Garden Cafe, Fratelli's.  We had a lovely meal where Amy declared their signature "tea tasted like perfume and their pasta salad tasted like bottom".  Appetizing, right?  The girls enjoyed their sandwiches and fruit.

At this point, we were all tired and HOT.  So we decided a trip to YoLo was necessary on the way home.

We had such a fun time!  If you have kids and haven't been to the Botanic Gardens, I highly recommend it.  Admission is inexpensive ($8 for adults and $5 for kids) and there is lots of stuff to do.  It's also a great place to take photos.  

Ava and I have had a wonderful weekend but we are ready for Kevin to come home!  Only about 3 more hours until he arrives and we can tell him all about our fun weekend!