Mother - Daughter Art Night

We had mother/daughter Art night at Foothills on Friday night. It was a blast!! It was run by Abrakadoodle and we did our version of paintings inspired by Georgia O'Keefe, who we learned grew up in a rural area where there wasn't much to do so her mom bought her lots of art equipment and she spent lots of time creating.

We are sooooo ready to paint!! Maddie, Devin and Marian.


Erin and Maddie.


Laura and Marian talking about color. Marian mixed some of the most amazing colors!



Devin working hard on her portrait.


Marian's masterpieces!! She did one for her mom too.



These are our finished masterpieces! They'll look so great in our newly painted basement!

Devin's first soccer season has begun! We are doing the Tri-City Baptist soccer league, which has been fabulous. They play two games a week then all compete in a tournament at the end of the season. The kids are also earning a bible memory medallion by reciting a memory verse at the beginning of every game.


It's so fun to watch this age because they try so hard to run up and kick the ball and many times they kick right over and can't figure out why it's under them now!
Devin and Ian are on the same team, dynamic duo!


We won!!!!

My friend Diane makes the most fabulous pasta salad, I had to share with you all -I made it for dinner tonight with watermelon for dessert, yummy!!!!

Diane's pasta
Sweet italian sausage
Pasta of choice, but she makes it with the spirals
String cheese, cut into bites
Diced onion
Zucchini, that's been sauteed after the sausage
Grape tomatoes (may fav!)
All tossed with Italian dressing - I think she uses Paul Newman's but I just had Wishbone and it was wonderful
Served cold, but if you can't wait like me semi-warm
Diane, let me know if I left anything out!!

Some things I love about summer...........
Cooling off at night with a cold shower after being hot all day and slipping into clean sheets -
Waking up with the sun already up and the birds singing, even at 6:00 am
My kids being home, and a lighter schedule
Going camping with good friends
A nice cold beer
The smells of fresh cut grass and watermelon

One of my favorite memories from my childhood was going miniature golfing with my family in the evening. We went last night and had a great time.....

We've adopted!!

Two new beautiful sister kittens. The one on the left is Princess Buttercup and the one on the right is Princess Serefina. Sorry, Diane. I guess we have to hang out outside or I have to get you Benedryl for Christmas.

Another amazing Fourth of July picnic at the Wallers!!


We had a water balloon toss, where it came down to the Prathers and Davis', the Davis' were victorious by only one toss!
















Some very brave adults decided it would be fun to get the teenagers on the porch wet, they stealthily crept out of the garage and blindsided them, (one of them literally got blindsided - but that's another story) soaking them all. Then of course, ran like crazy!





The volleyball match was by far my favorite, Steve had many spikes, three of which were given to each of the Davis'....................






































The kids made yummy 4rth of July desserts






























The fireworks were amazing this year, I thought they would go on and on. My favorites were the waterfall ones, they seem to better every year.



The night was finished off with sparklers (shhhhhh, don't tell) in the backyard and trying to hustle all the tires kids (and adults) out the door. Thank you, Wallers for another amazing 4Th of July!!!!

Devin's last swim lesson

Devin's last swim lesson was today - she has learned so much in the last 6 weeks. She's not afraid to put her face in the water or jump in anymore. She's doing great with the backstroke and is able to swim several strokes with her face in the water before coming up for breath - her very favorite part though was "the warm shower at the end."

Teacher Miss Jamie.