Remember these???

Today I was at the library looking for good books for our two weeks at camp. There is a section of the library where they sell used books for really cheap. Occasionally they also have free items. These caught my eye right away.

I immediately made a Bee-line to the desk and asked if they were really free. They were so I snatched them right up. They took me right back to elementary school! I can't remember if we had a set of these at home or if I just used the schools a lot, but I remember doing ALL kinds of reports using this exact set of encyclopedias! I was so excited to find them! Although they are somewhat outdated, they still have a lot of interesting information in them. Only the #13 book is missing so guess we'll have to do without that information.

Playin at the Public Pool

My memories of public pools really aren't too fond. They were really crowded and usually had hair, bugs, dead flowers and other nasty things floating around in them. Ewww!!! But tonite, after living 1 mile from a gorgeous public pool for two year and never having been, we went! There are a few reasons it has taken so long to get to this pool. First, the window of opportunity is so so so small for the pools here. They are open from June to mid August and not on Monday and only from 1-7 pm the other days. It's ridiculous. Secondly, it costs money. I have a hard time paying for pool usage when I have a little blow up pool in my backyard. But, it is beyond the normal hot here, my plans of photography were canceled this evening, Elle needed to get comfortable with this pool before her swim lessons, and really, I just wanted to go swimming!!! So after begging my not-fond-of-public-pools husband, we packed up the car with towels and $7 to get in and took a 1 mile roadtrip to the pool! We were really excited when we pulled up and noticed that a large group of people were leaving which meant it wouldn't be too crowded. Everything went wonderfully! The girls hopped right in and loved every single second of it! I think we'll make at least one more trip back next week before leaving for camp. This was a wonderful way to end a long week!

This is how Elle held her nose and eyes(?) when she went under the water.

Purplicious

This morning Shawn made us pancakes and let Ava pick the color. Many times Elle gets to pick the color and she always picks pink. But today, Ava forged her own path, which I'm pretty sure I'll see her do for the rest of her life, and she picked purple. The pancake color turned out great and they were delicious too!

Also, as promised before, here's a picture of the cake I decorated for the shower today, and an example of the invitation that I was going from. I loved it! It took 4 lbs of icing!

Neglected little Blog

My blog is getting a little bit neglected. I want to blog every day, but facebook, emails and other blogs pull me in and when I finally decide to do it, my time is gone. So, I have a few minutes and I'm dedicating it to my blog. It helps that I had no new emails, only 2 blog updates and not much going on, on facebook. So, let's see....where are we.

We are at 1 week and counting till Blue Haven. This time next Saturday we will have been on the road for about 1 1/2 hours, which means the excitement and newness of the journey will be getting old and we still have the entire day of driving ahead of us. I am working fast and furious on all kinds of travel stuff for the girls to keep them somewhat entertained. When I take pictures of what all I'm making, I'll post them.
Today, I have a baby shower to go to and I was in charge of the cake. I bought an uniced sheet cake from HEB and decided to tackle decorating it on my own. I made it look like the invitation and I have to say I'm very happy with it. Again, I'll post pics when I get them off my camera. Later this evening, I'm going to be taking a family's pictures and it's not just any family. It's one of my very good friends from back in my ACU days that I reconnected with on Facebook! :) I'm excited to see him and meet his family. Hopefully I'll capture some great shots of his family.
Lastly, this past weekend Shawn woke us all up and declared that we were going to go find "the lost pond." Not too far from our house, there is a dam that you can drive to. Not too far from the dam, their is a pond that isn't accessible. Since we moved here, we've wanted to explore and try to get to that pond. So, we packed up the girls and some water and headed out to explore. Two gallons of sweat later and two tired little girls, we found it! The girls were so excited! The water was crystal clear and the whole area was just very unbothered by humans. We had a lot of fun exploring that little area.

HAIRCUT-E

In an effort to save us some money, I've put off getting a haircut WAY longer than I should have. When you have short hair, you have to get it trimmed regularly and I didn't do that. It was getting flat, oily, limp, and hard to fix so today I finally got it cut!

What a Weekend!

Shawn and I really know how to squeeze every second out of a weekend. We love our free time and this weekend was no exception...and it's not even over! Thursday my sister and nephew came to spend a few days with us and we made sure they didn't get too bored.
Here's a list of what we did:
played outside
ate hotdogs and popsicles
watched bad storms and took pictures

went fishing

Went swimming

Went to the park and ate pizza

Fed ducks

Ate watermelon

Played Played and more Played!

We were all worn out by this morning. Then Laura and Hayden headed back to Tyler and we headed to a VBS workday. Now we are home and I'm downloading pictures, Shawn went fishing, Elle is having roomtime, and Ava is napping. Back to the regular program.

It wouldn't be a visit if we didn't feed the ducks.

Two views of the lightning and storm. Tornado's were around us, but we were safe!

The best part of the fishing trip, was when Laura fell in the water. I can only laugh because I've been there before! The kids didn't quite know what to make of this. Thanks for the laugh!

We went swimming and played with all the ride ons until we were REALLY sweaty!

Ava showed us that she has a natural ability to climb! Must take after Uncle Chad....she scaled this thing 2 or 3 times with no help! You Go Girl!

It's amazing how easily entertained we are. The watermelon hit the spot!

Two sisters....a little older, a lot hotter! The sunburn may have had something to do with that.

The Last Hurdle

Elle accomplished what I considered to be the last hurdle to Kindergarten today! She can now officially wear shoes with laces when she starts school because she has learned to tie her shoes! Why am I so excited? I don't know. Maybe it's because I thought this would be a pretty difficult thing to learn. But as with just about everything else I've tried to teach Elle, she picked it up very quickly! I'm so proud of her! Now we will work on all the extras for Kindergarten like learning how to do a cartwheel and whistle. :)

The long overdue Wedding Pics

And here they are.....hope the build-up doesn't leave you less than impressed. And for total strangers who want to steal these, don't. They are copyrighted so back off! But, if you'd like to use my photographic services and live near Austin, email me!