My Favorite thing about summer.....

I love flowers. I love to take pictures of flowers even more. Playing with my camera is one of the things that I do to pass time. The flowers and the garden are my saving grace and taking my camera with me just makes it even better.
Today I was playing with different settings and such on the camera while taking pictures of flowers. Look at some of these. I think I may need to have some of the printed out for on the wall to decorate in the house with!
This is my Columbine that is lavender and white, taken in both the chrome setting and the black and white setting!


And this is the Hydrangea


And some others that I think are just gorgeous! I love pansy's which shows in the flowers we planted for Mothers Day! There is also daisy's which I love as well.
I enjoy using the black and white setting on my camera, saves me time so then I don't have to use editing software to do it and I think the defination is so much better!

Rainbow Birthday (only a month behind)

Nevaeh turned 4 in March and her request was a RAINBOW birthday party. So that is what we did!
It was a lot of fun to get ready for the party since there is so much you can do with a rainbow.
We decided to have them finger paint a big picture to put on the wall for her. I got a rainbow of shirts for them to wear over their clothes and we embroidered the shirt for Nevaeh. They were so cute in all the shirts.



We went on a scavenger hunt and found pots of gold. The kids thought this was great.

We had a Rainbow cake with confetti Ice Cream. The cake turned out perfect even though the hubby thought it was going to be a muddled mess.

For the favors, we did a rainbow of sand buckets with rainbow colored bubbles, a twisty straw cup, some rainbow colored candy, a rainbow pinwheel and a unicorn shaped crayon with paper.
They had so much fun.
I honestly can't believe my little girl is 4 years old already. Where did the time go!
Here she is in all her 4 glory in the shirt I appliqued for her and the capris I made to go with it.

Playing in the mudd

The weather was nicer today and the kids NEEDED to get outside. So out they went in mud boots and coats and boy did they have fun, so much so the end result was a bath!

Personal Pizza's HOMEMADE style!

The kids love to be involved in the kitchen and the other day we decided to make personal size pizzas and it was such a hit.
For starters we used all cast iron pans to make them which made the BEST pizzas ever!
Each kid go to make their own and even little Carter had a blast, and man do they ever eat them better than even moms!



We made lots of toppings and they went at it.
We have done it again since this and they loved it just as much. I am hoping that we can continue to add more things that they can help with to our dinner menus because it seems to be a great way to get them to eat more variety!

A day in the SNOW

Well it has been brought to my attention that I have not posted in forever on here and tho I have a ton of things to post about, this was our fun day today!!!

We had a great day of almost 40 degree weather so we played in the snow, making an awesome snowman with the kids.

I came into the house and got a scrap of fleece to make a scarf, found a hat that was too small and a pair of missmatched mittens to keep his/her hands warm. Add a carrot, a couple rocks and some fabric dye and you have something fun that looks like no other!

Going to the Pumpkin Patch

The kids got to go to a total of 3 pumpkin patches this year. The first one wasn't much of a trip, they didn't have anything fun for the kids to do, no hay rides and you couldn't even pick your own pumpkin.





So we decided it was time to go someplace with things going on and off we headed to Deals Orchard. The kids had a great time. They got to listen to music, go in a Tee Pee, ride the pony's (the girls loved this, Carter was petrified), the petting zoo wasn't much but the kids thought it was fun. We rode on the hay ride that was pulled by draft horses to the patch and picked out the perfect pumpkins. Then off to the little store for a sample of apple cider and a free apple. We go a carmel apple to share and the kids thought that was pretty cool too.









Then the next weekend we went to the Berry Patch with their Aunts, Uncle and cousin. They had fun there too. Got to pick another small pumpkin after riding the hay ride out to the patch.







The best part of fall, going to the pumpkin patch did not disappoint yet again!

6 already and a friends party too!

How does it happen that they grow up so fast? My little girl was just a baby not so very long ago and now she is 6, in school full time and ready to be a grown up.
The week of inductions to try to help you along, the day at the pumpkin patch, scaring the tractor driver when we went to pick out the perfect pumpkins. The feelings that you were never going to come. And now you are here, you are perfect in every way. You know what you want and have no problem questioning something if you just don't think that it can possibly be the right way. All the qualities I hope you have as an adult you have already. You drive me to the brink of craziness with them now but all I can hope is that you keep them as you get older and don't let anyone tell you its wrong.

We had purple cake on your birthday along with your favorite...LASAGNA! The cake wasn't the greatest but it sure was pretty!!



You got to have your very first friends party and what a party it was.
The ice cream party was a huge success. I spent many hours preparing for it.
It all started with the invites!

I then made a banner that said happy birthday


We set up everything to look like an old time ice cream parlor. We had old jars for the candies, we ate our ice cream out of old ice cream dishes. I got lemon drops, sour cherries, mini unicorn suckers and marshmellow ice cream cones for treats.




We put the toppings in old mason jars and you got to build your own sundaes, out of homemade ice cream of course. What could be better than Homemade ice cream from fresh milk?

We played pin the cherry on the sundae and everyone put their names on the cherries. What a great way to remember your party and who all came to enjoy it with you?



We had ice cream cone cupcakes that most didn't eat, the ice cream was so much better, but they sure looked cute!


Then we opened gifts and boy did you get some great ones.


After that we decided since it was so beautiful outside we should go out and play. The kids had so much fun. It was fun to watch them cycle through all the fun stuff outside, from playing frisbee to the riding the rope swing, playing on the playset and of course the sandbox was a hit too.
I also made the gift bags from ice cream fabric, added ribbon hair ties and the kids loved them.