Princess Party

 Lily got invited to a princess party.  She got all dressed up for the event.  They had refreshments and little activities.  She got to have her picture taken in a castle.  She got a pretty little crown.  She made a blue flower barrette.  She got a wand.  She frosted her own cupcake (her favorite part).  And she made a shell necklace.  We also read some princess stories.  The best part was it was just her and Mom that went.  She enjoyed having Mom all to herself!

Youngest

O' to be a little sister

 To have water poured in your eyes

 To be shoved into a box

 And carted around the house; like a toy

To wonder:  MOM!!!  WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO SAVE ME!

We sure love our Katie!

Blue Bonnett Pictures

 Here in Central Texas we get lots of wild flowers in the spring.  (Yes, I know summer is almost over...)  Most families have a tradition to get pictures of their kids in a field of blue bonnets, which is the most common wild flower.

 One day while picking up Ollie from school, I decided we would stop and take some pictures in the field.  The kids were not too happy...  The sun was much too bright to look at Mom.  Claire refused to not have her purse.  Lily wanted to hold a bunch of yellow flowers.  Katie was needing a nap and not happy Mom wasn't holding her.  Ollie wanted to run and play.

 And of course there is the choice of attire for these wonderful pictures...  Two of the kids are still in their pajamas... at 3:00pm.  :)

 You must love the faces, if they even look at the camera

 Here's a cute one... minus the cute Ollie.  :)  Oh well, we tried.

A funny side note...  After I got done taking these pictures a friend stopped by with her four children.  They are the exact same ages as mine (or pretty close).  They were clean.  And matching.  And had props for pictures.  They were not in pj's.  I'll leave you to guess whose pictures turned out better.  :)

Pinewood Derby

 Obviously we haven't been up to posting lately...  But we have been busy living life.  :)  Here's a few pictures of Ollie's cub scout pinewood derby.  He had a lot of fun making his car.  He wanted to paint it his two favorite colors.  He named it the "Green Tiger".  He got the award for the most futuristic car.  He had lots of fun racing it!  He won some races and lost some races.  :)

Lily quote

Today I was helping Lily clean the bathroom.  As we were rinsing her feet off (after being in the tub to scrub it) I commented on how long her feet are getting.  She said, "Yes Mom.  My feet are long and they take so much longer to clean now."  I just laughed and agreed that long feet take longer to clean than short feet.  :)

Ollie's happenings

The older your kids get the busier they get.  Ollie had a school project to make an animal habitat box.  He picked an owl.  He had to show the habitat of an own.  He had fun researching it and he had lots and lots and lots of ideas.  We narrowed it down a bit and this was the final product.  He was really proud of it.  :)

Ollie loves art.  Living in Texas...  let's just say there is a LOT of sport emphasis here.  We found a Saturday painting class and signed Ollie up.  He painted this picture.  It's his first time with paint.  He usually draws with pencil.  We hung the picture in his room.

For one of his cub scout arrow points he needed to plant a flower garden.  I helped him a bit but he did most of it on his own.  He was especially happy to pick the flowers to plant in it.

Our cute 8 year old is happy and keeps us busy!  We sure love him!

Butterflies

We did the growing butterflies thing again.  We did it about four years ago and really enjoyed it.  We decided to do it again since only Ollie really remembered it.

It was really fun to watch them eat and grow.  They sure grew fast!

Then they went into their chrysalis. 

Then we got beautiful butterflies.  We watched them for a few days and then released them.  It really is amazing to watch their life cycle.  It reaffirms my belief in God.  There is no way this happened by chance.  It also makes me think about how a little gray caterpillar can turn into such a gorgeous butterfly.  What can I become???