July is already gone!

We have had a wondeful July! Last week, Robert went to camp and this week Maddie is going. But let me start at the beginning of the last two week! I have already mentioned that Mr. Handsome bought me a new cell phone. It is great. I don't even have to transfer my photos from my phone to my e-mail to my computer! How cool is that?! They go from my phone to my blog!!! Yup! That's it. That saves me a huge hassle, only I didn't realize it did all this until this weekend. I kept getting messages that my pictures were transferred successfully to google+, whatever that is. But I had this idea that google+ was somehow connected to my blog because blogger.com is a google program. And rather than taking 30 minutes to almost an hour and a half to transfer photos, they are already done for me. I have been able to keep up with sales a lot easier with my phone, too. I love love love love love that! Well, here is our week:

This is Buffy the wonder dog. She is eating a pig's ear and she really dislikes people pestering her while she is eating it. We are good friends with her owners. Glenda and Jerry are great!

This is our new friend at the nursing home. She built her nest between a window pane and the screen in the room where we have our services. She has a nest full of babies but I couldn't get a photo of them.

Here is Rachel after lunch at Grandma's. We are headed to our house.

a week and a half ago we celebrated Maddie's birthday with a birthday party. I love parties but they are a lot of work to plan and this one was no exception. My sister friends all came over early to help. The night before the party I made this watermelon cake. It is made entirely out of fruit. We also had spring rolls for lunch. Everyone really enjoyed it. Maddie picked a luau theme.

Here is one table. I am thankful that my children are not bound by age barriers. Maddie invited Kristinie the Great's bff and she invited my sister friends!! Our age range for the party was from 1 year old - 13 years old with kids and then adults. There were 19 children!!! 

These are Maddie's two best friends. She has grown up with the young lady on the left. They met when Maddie was 1 and Bailey was 2. And Maddie met the young lady on the right through homeschooling. Bailey, left, Rachel, right.

And PJ, on the far right, is Bailey's little sister. She and Robert are the same age and have known each other since they were born pretty much. And actually, the running joke her mom and I have is that she and Robert are already spoken for. When PJ was about 2 or 3 and would come over to play, she would always insist that she and Robert get married and Bailey and Maddie helped plan the wedding. And she would tell whoever would listen that she was going to marry Robert! Robert would probably die a thousand deaths if he knew I put this in my blog but it's so cute I had to.

Here are some more of her friends. Toni is seated. In the back row: Rebecca, Victoria, and Zoe (all sisters). front row: Beatrice, Carmyn, Beaker, and Lindsay. The blur is McKenzie!

The little fella in the back left is Beakers' bff. He is Brayton.

And here is his little sister Kenleigh! She is worn out!

Maddie and I getting ready to go to her basketball game.

Megan and Lindsay watching the bride (the lady who is holding the guy's arm: that's her son.) go down the aisle. On Sunday afternoon, two of our church members were married. They are a sweet couple, too.

Beatrice's favoritest person on the planet!

Here are two of Robert's buds, Jared, in front, and his brother Jacob. Notice the tinsle on the table? Yes! It was the most annoying decoration EVER. It got stuck to my cup, my food, my fork, EVERYTHING! Note to self: Never use tinsle on anything but a Christmas tree even if it looks beautiful on the table!

And after the wedding, we had church. And here is what happens when you are so tired but want to go pray at the altar during invitation.

Our trip to the movies to see Spy Kids. It was very cute. 

And the rest of the girls. Robert is at camp.

After sewing class we went to the park only to find out it was 100 degrees outside! YIKES! We high tailed it back home and played at the house.

We went to visit a friend at a nursing home and they have a bunch of ducks. 

Thursday was dinner at Oz and Dorothy's. So Lindsay and I made an olympic theme cake. Only when Lindsay made the candy clay, she misread the ingredients and put 1.25 teaspoons salt instead of 1/4 teaspoon. YES, it did make a big difference.

This past Friday was a big day. We started out by going to Uncle Chris' to make a loft bed for Maddie's American Girl doll. It only took us an hour and twenty minutes. We're getting quicker.

Here is Beaker wearing bumblebee's mask. Note the long sleeved dress and winter slippers. I know, crazy, right?!

Here is the almost finished bed.

And voila! The finished product. From this point forward, our day was one big race to prepare for our Olympic party. We had to go food shopping, get party supplies, decorations, and eat lunch with Dorothy. We have a family tradition of celebrating the opening ceremonies of the olympics with LOTS of junk food. We do this because we don't eat a lot of junk food as it is and it's a great time to enjoy it and we have fun. Well, this year, Mr. Handsome and I decided to ask our friends Jerry and Glenda to come. Somehow, the little girls, Beatrice and Kristinie the Great, got the idea everyone in church was invited. So last Sunday evening, the were inviting everyone! It was sooooo cute, too. It didn't bother me because I love a great fun party but I had to make sure Mr. Handsome was OK. And he was. He's such a good guy. So we spent Friday preparing for the party:

I won't list all the names but my brother Tom is in the back next to the wall.

I must have thought I messed the picture up and took a second one. So you get to see it twice. Note the American flag in the background on the right. It is to the left, slightly higher then the OTHER flag! Which you will see below.

Here is another view. AND the Norwegian flag on the left BUT to the right of the American flag! 

Two of my AWANA buds!

Mr. Handsome with our friends Melissa and Robbie, who are expecting a baby in February. We are so excited for them. They are going to be awesome parents.

Evanne cutting her homemade Olympics cake. Not only did it taste great but it looked great!

Beaker's new friend, Mr. Philip!

Beatrice and Megan

The kids got the floor.

Kenleigh likes Sarah!

Saturday was a fun but relaxing day. I cleaned out my sewing room and rearranged it to try to make it uncluttered. I think it worked. Here is Lindsay on the slip and slide.

Maddie

Our neighbor Logan

Robert, whom we also had to pick up in the middle of our day Friday. He had a great time at camp.

Beaker did not go very far on the slip and slide and she was very disappointed everytime she went down the thing. 

Our neighbor Sydney

Megan

Beatrice

After church Mr. Handsome took us to Andy's. Robert showing off his mustang!

Tonight in church the boys were given the opportunity to be the ushers. They are all Roberts' best buds. On the left is William, then Jared, then Jacob, and Robert. I know I am probably being irreverent by taking photos during church but this was such a cute photo of these guys. 

I am very sad to see Maddie go to camp but not for her; for me! I will really miss her. She is such a terrific kid. she is growing into such a sweet young lady. I am looking forward to seeing what the Lord does in her heart at camp. She is going with one of her good friends and Jacob and Jared. She is very excited and packed yesterday. She doesn't leave until tomorrow afternoon! 

A month's worth of busy - or it's never occurred to me I can't do something

I thought about getting on here last week and ranting about how awful a day could be because I proved how awful a day could be! But I decided I needed to cool off before I wrote. Because, who really wants to listen to someone complain on their blog? Not me. Well, I don't mind hearing my self rant because it's me. But that's how I roll. It's been a busy month. I think the last time I posted was Beatrice's Birthday, which was around June 21. So it's been almost a month but I have worked hard to document it in living color. And I will start with these:

Our final set of banners - I think! :) (Ignore the children who appear to be disobedient and running around the platform - it is NOT Sunday morning so they are allowed up there if I am up there. Which, I am not at the moment because I am taking the photo.) I thank the Lord for the hands that made these banners. If it were not for my sister-friends, there would be NO banners! 

Here is some of the best bread EVER! I mean, EVER!! And boy is it easy! I may have posted this photo but I can't remember. 

http://simplysogood.blogspot.com/2010/03/crusty-bread.html

Here is the recipe. It's great. AND easy. I know I said that but it really is.

One of my sister-friends likes to pin these really cute dresses with "easy" tutorials. Bea's dress is the end result of the "easy" tutorial. It was supposed to fit Kristinie the Great. It is not as long as it appears on Beatrice either. But it came out sort of cute and was different from any dress I had ever made. Next time I will use lighter weight fabric and not make such a big swoopy pattern so it's easier to sew together. Beaker is wearing a simple pillowcase dress. Bea's dress was not an "easy" tutorial, by the way.

Her is Rachel, Krsitine, and beatrice dancing to something. I am not sure what. Kristine looks like she got whacked in the face but I think she's laughing.

This picture should be above the others. But I had to sub for my sister-friend at the nursing home two weeks ago and Beaker gets nervous when we go to the nursing home. She doesn't mind the assisted living place but she gets intimidated so she would NOT let me put her down! HA! Is that multi-tasking or what?! :) 

Here is what we saw before the service started. The picture below was what is to the right of this sign. I thought it was pretty funny and I was cracking up. The birds were NOT quiet. But I guess they can't read so they don't know.

We met Grandma at Sawmill Grill. They make the best fried porkchops. But I didn't have that this time. I forget what I had. Dorothy is talking to Kristinie the Great and Rachel.

Here is how we go to the pool. The Clampetts meet Richie Rich!!

After the pool, we went to Orange Leaf, one of a million yogurt places in Wilmington. They are like gas stations now. One on every corner.

Lindsay loved the big bear. 

The week of Fourth of July we went to Myrtle Beach with Mr. Handsome's family. Maddie made a Fourth of July cake. the candy clay (aka stretched flag) was a bit softer than it needed to be. But the cake tasted great!

Maddie was snot expecting a photo but I bet she is thinking, "If I could break that camera and all the cameras in the world, I would do it. In a minute." Our children have been trained from a young age to despise the camera. They are like all kids. Enough with the flash already! 

This is what Myrtle Beach looked like on the night of Fourth of July. Everyone waiting for the fireworks. There was some *guy* shooting fireworks right NEXT to the dune so I went and asked him if he was local. He said yes and I told him that with it being so dry here lately, he probably ought to go closer to the ocean and shoot them. He said OK, Thank you, thank you thank you. He moved TWENTY FEET. THEN a half hour later, set the dune on fire at the neighbor's house! Not kidding, true story. If he did that where he was, he would have lit the house on fire! 

Here is Lily's cake she made to celebrate Maddie and Beatrice's birthday. She did a great job with it, too.

Our family is just an untapped wealth of talent. Lindsay showing off her skills.

Upon arriving home, we had to immediately begin making Maddie's birthday cake. Lindsay and I did this. It is a tie dye cake. But not really, I was afraid to swirl the cake batter because it might have turned bleh.

Maddie rolled out the marshmallow fondant that Lily told us about. She wanted that tie dye too. It was fun to make the cake. 

Happy Birthday Big Sister!! :)

And here is what the inside looks like!

Yes, it is edible. OH - and we were not done on Maddie's birthday. We still had to go to Dorothy's for the present piece de resistance!! I have been waiting all year for her to get this and almost started crying when she opened it and jumped around the room screaming and yelling!! (Just for the record, I would NEVER do that over a doll. A stuffed animal, YES, but a doll, no. But our girls? They love dolls and you will see how much in just a bit.)

Maddie got the American Girl doll Julie. We have always told our children we want them to be what God wants them to be and with that was the freedom to be themselves. So I have not had an influence on their personal likes and dislikes to the point where I wanted them to like what I liked. But it was so sweet to see our Maddie overjoyed to receive this present. 

Maddie's sparkler candles and cupcakes at Dorothy's.

This is Kristinie the Great (on the left) and Uncle Chris working on a set of bunkbeds for her bitty baby twins. YES!! Uncle Chris is teaching ALL OF US (except Mr. Handsome but that's another story!) how to wood work. We put it together in 2.5 hours, with a very brief intermission of entertainment by the Great and Marvelous Oz. He was kind enough to saunter in, tell us it was wracked (twisted for you novices out there - no, I didn't know what he meant either- I thought he said wrecked!) and he picked it up and started whamming it on the workbench. Imagine a short little guy picking up a child's toy and banging it like some maniac on my brother's workbench and you have my dad! Chris and I nearly had a heart attack! We both were trying to get him to quit it and tell him he was going to break it. He did stop and we finally got to explain it was our first one, we didn't sand, we knew it wasn't going to be perfect, but he was already muttering something and left! But Chris, being the talented guy that he is (even though he DOES get on my nerves sometimes), fixed it. He put the bottom on the bed and pushed it in place. Just like that! Kristine was thrilled. Our next project is a loft bed for Maddie. Then two more bunkbeds for Bea and Lindsay. Then a replica of the Taj Mahal. Nah, just kidding about all those bunkbeds! 

We also went swimming - and I had more pictures but I do not know what happened to them. Mr. Handsome bought me a new phone and it is like learning a new language. But I love it! Well, not as much as I love Mr. Handsome but the phone helped me have a stress free grocery shopping experience. I even got a free set of headphones with it and they have this cool little volume control on them. 

This past Friday, Maddie, Lindsay, and I went to Golden Corral. That was LOADS of fun. They had two helpings of cotton candy. That was the only reason we went. (OH - the bottle in the photo is ROOT beer not to be confused with the OTHER stuff.) I only got one helping but really wanted two. Don't worry. We ate dinner first.

And here we are. I tried my camera backwards which was a bit strange looking at myself in a camera. 

It occurred to me some time ago that I am not very adventurous anymore in the areas of skiing (because I don't do that anymore), sports (because I CAN'T do many anymore), and any other fun stuff that puts me in danger. It's not because I don't want to be but I learned that I have an extreme fear of heights. As in, if I am on a tall building I start getting dizzy, the earth spins, my stomach gets upset, I feel awful and all I want to do is stop the feeling. This is how bad it is. Robert and Lindsay were asking me if a person could live in a house with a glass floor on the second floor so you could see through. And while I was explaining that yes you could, and then discussing with them that you could see everything on the second floor, I started getting sick and dizzy!! I told them they needed to quit talking about that. I am a baby. Well, after I had this epiphany, I realized that I may not be able to be the daredevil I used to be but I can do all sorts of things on pinterest. Like learn how to make bunkbeds, make bread, and do all sorts of stuff. So, I am happy to report my adventurous self has not left me, it is just taking me other places with my five children. Hey! Having five children within 10 years is adventurous. Tomorrow is my next adenture: teaching sewing to five excited young ladies. Sharp objects, fast machines. Oh yeah!! Maybe I will juggle the scissors before I being just to impress them!

On another note, I said earlier that Mr. Handsome was not involved in the bunkbed making experience. He was at work. Our children's oldest and best friends came over Saturday and we ate lunch with them. Mr. Handsome was helping them and I was working on my cookbook shelf while listening to them. They were impressed with our bunkbeds and proceeded to tell us about all that their Dad has made. He is very talented and makes things all the time. So, after listening for a little bit, our Beatrice says, "Yeah, my dad is lazy. All he does is sit around and watch TV all the time!" I about fell on the floor laughing!! Mr. Handsome is the hardest working guy I know! And it's true, he does love TV. Well, he LOVES PBS. It's great sleeping medicine for me, thank you very much.