Wild Flowers

Today, for our activity (aka - We Have to Get Out of This House at Some Point Today) time we went to the back yard and picked wild flowers. Norah made three bouquets, which we put in little plastic cups because the stems were so short. I wanted to make one big, sweeping, slightly wild bouquet of random flowers that I was able to get a hold of right outside my door.

Here's what I learned:

• It's not as easy as it looks to make something look beautiful and wild and thrown together all at the same time.
• I don't do asymmetrical and chaotic very well.
• Sometimes, the most beautiful side of the bouquet is the one I'm NOT looking at when I'm arranging it.

This made me think a little about life in general.

Maybe all that we see as

wild,

thrown together,

       chaotic,

unbalanced,

really takes a lot of work on Someone's part.

Maybe the most beautiful parts of my life are the ones I'm not focused on controlling.

Maybe God is a better florist than I am.

Good Eats

My parents took us out to eat Friday night for Mark's birthday. I promised Norah that if she was good and listened AND ate enough of her dinner, she could have her own dessert. She listened, she ate dinner, so she got to order her favorite dessert from the restaurant where we were eating.




Can you tell what it is? Yup! A simple ice cream sandwich, right out of the box.

Just goes to show ya, presentation is important!

By the way, aside from sharing a bite with each of my parents, she ate the ENTIRE thing.

Summer Days

That's my little water baby.



She sure knows how to chill in style.

Hap-ppeee Birfday!

Mark's birthday is July 3. Because it's so close to the 4th, we rarely do a party because everyone has plans. This year, for the Big Three Oh, I told him that I had asked all of our friends and they were busy so we were just going to have to plan something for the next weekend.


Then.... SURPRISE!!!!!!


I wanted to do something really special for him, and I couldn't think of anything more special than giving him the chance to spend his actual birthday with good friends who love him.

I got very few photos, since I was trying to pull everything together without Mark finding out. My friend Jill took this one on her phone.



In case you're wondering, everything went off without a hitch. He really had no idea what was coming. It was so much fun planning something just for Mark without him having to worry about the details at all.

I had a couple of girls come and hang with all the kiddos downstairs during the party. My second favorite part of the whole event (after the surprise, of course) was after all the grown-ups sang "Happy Birthday" upstairs I heard Norah's sweet voice from downstairs exclaim, "Guys! It's time to start the party!"

Right now, officially in our thirties, it is indeed time to start the party.

Fourth of July

Everything's a toy... Even camp chairs!

The Camera-less 4th

My camera wasn't in my purse when we drove over to Silverton for the fireworks. Oops. I can only post one photo at a time so I might do a couple of posts. Anyway, here's one of the better phone pictures I got. Isn't she all patriotic and stuff?

Teething!

Penny has enjoyed her first frozen wash cloth. So begins the teething for my poor little drool bucket. At least this time I have a few tricks up my sleeve...