A little beach fun...

Our little beach is just perfect for hot days. It doesn't get much sun in the late afternoon.

A little bonding...

The girls and I went to the zoo yesterday. We had such a great time. We saw just about everything that we missed last time. Peyton was most excited about the flamingos and Bella really liked the black and white monkey.
Both were very impressed by the brown bears!




Jaguar!

This was not staged by mom! They were so sweet to eachother all day.
We saw the butterfly exhibit this time. It was great! I needed a much more powerful camera to really catch the beauty of all the different butterflies. This was just one that I got close to before it flew away.
We even got to the petting zoo this time. The girls thought it was great!

Goodmorning...

We saw this lamb a couple of weekends ago - the girls were absolutely in love. Peyton has decided we should have a farm with horses, sheep, pigs, bunnies and a dog.

We woke up this morning to 4 dear in our yard. Fortunately for them, they were not eating any of my plants!

Tracy has me hooked...

Among all my lovely gifts for my birthday (I've used every piece of running gear already - thank you very much) Tracy and Wes gave me a couple of cookbooks. This one, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, is fabulous and now has us hooked on fresh bread. It really is that easy!

I'm a big girl...

Peyton has been doing swim lessons at the gym for a couple of months now. Bella has very patiently sat and watched. She finally got her chance to have her own swim lessons this week. Tuesday started out great - she was jumping up and down and so excited to go to the pool and have swim lessons like a "Big Girl". Then it was her time to get in the pool... It took about 5 minutes to convince her to actually get in and another 5 to warm up to the teacher.
Getting ready to blow bubbles...
Now on Thursday, you can see she is loving it!

Hold on...

Poor Bella. She didn't want to take a nap... so what's new. She fell asleep in the swing this afternoon. She tried so hard to stay awake.

Doesn't get much better than that...

Our good friends Jon & Kerry had a 5th birthday party for their son Parker this weekend. It was really an amazing party in a fabulous setting. You just can't beat 4 and 5 year olds on a farm. There were burlap sack races...
smores....
tire swing...
pony rides...
and more pony rides...
parachute games, and the list goes on. Chris took about 175 photos! When I have time to go through them some more I'll post more. The girls had a blast, as you can see from the pictures.

The ship has landed...

7 months later and we've finally completed the excruciating, painfull process of installing the hood over the cooktop. I must say it looks darn good! We had beam issues, trim issues, ducting issues, brain issues....

Little bit of sea air...

and breakfast! We love to take the ferry out to the island and have breakfast. The girls love the whole thing - the ferry ride, the beach, and the breakfast.

Are those pearls....

We had a visit to the dentist last week. Peyton did great - as always. Bella got her first chance to sit in the chair and try on the fancy shades - and that was it. She wasn't having anything to do with the dentist or any of the hygenists.

Happy Birthday Poppa...

Now that Bella can hear she is saying new words every day. Her newest is Ceci. If you ask Bella who her buddy is she'll answer Ceci!
Poppa got his coconut creme pie!