Farmer's Markets

It's that time of year when all the homegrown vegetable markets are open and filled with beautiful produce that tastes delicious! I love tomatoes in the summertime when they taste soooo good! So we headed out to a big market, not too far away from us, to gather up some delicious produce, pasta and a cupcake or two!

This market has fresh produce outside and many permanent meat, cheese, pasta, bread, etc, vendors inside this building.

Dawson loves peaches and nectarines. I cut one almost every day for her...mmmmm they are good this time of year!

My favorite place to go is to the homemade pasta vendor. I buy a bunch and put them in the freezer for future use. They have so many varieties to choose from...yum!

And of course...the bakery. My girl could not resist a chocolate cupcake!

Puppets

I have a girl that has a huge imagination and loves to do art projects. We must spend part of every single day painting, cutting, gluing, drawing, coloring, etc. You name it and we do it! (Except for glitter...I just can't go there yet!) A few weeks ago we went to story time and made a puppet. With that in mind, she asked to make two puppets tonight for her friends Douglas and Mayna. She cut out all the pieces by herself, but the mouths. Then she glued them on the puppets entirely on her own. Notice the purple gluestick everywhere!

Getting ready to cut...

The finished project! I can't guarantee that Mayna and Douglas will ever see these puppets because she just mentioned she wants to keep them! Well, I guess it's the thought that counts!

Friends

Friends care

Friends share

We need friends

Everywhere!

(and we are so lucky to have Grace and Lynn as our friends!)

Movie Night

What do you get when you make popcorn, buy lots of candy, set up a screen, projector and speakers, invite a few families over with blankets, pillows and P.J's? A TOY STORY 2 MOVIE NIGHT! We had our first annual movie night last night! Everything went off without a glitch but, we did get hit by a quick rainstorm about an hour or so into the movie.

Each family brought their own blankets, pillows and whatever else they wanted to feel comfy! The funny part to me is that at the beginning, each child was sitting on their own blanket or spot watching the movie. They didn't move for quite awhile. It was very cute.

And some of the parents just hanging out.....

Everyone engrossed in the movie....

Dawson and Will watching intently!

What you see above is the wonderful outside movie night. What I didn't take pictures of was the craziness that was happening inside the house when the rain poured down. We headed inside to finish the movie and just have some plain running around fun! I wouldn't have it any other way. We might even be up to another movie night in September!!!

Fun With Friends

We took an overnight trip to a fun amusement/waterpark for younger children. A few of our favorite friends came along also! It was hot but, everyone was laid back and had a great time! We saw a circus, rode the carousel, ate dippin dots, went swimming and hung out with our friends at the hotel.

Here is the entrance to a part of the park known as "Storybook Forest." As you enter through the book, Mother Goose was there to greet everyone. Dawson was mesmerized by her and her goose puppet. We even had to go back later and say "HI" again!

As we walked through the forest, we saw many houses, animals and people from our well known fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Of course we stopped at Dawson's favorite rhyme, Little Miss Muffet. We had to go back to this one three times.

A quick stop to visit the tree little pigs....

Some fun in the hot sun...and WATER!

Douglas just loving the water! He was so cute just swimming around. He went under the water all the time! What a fish!

My girl just hanging out in the water!

Adorable Mayna kept jumping and jumping. She also impressed me with her awesome swimming skills!

Our last ride of the night....our favorite...the Carousel!

After this, we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed dinner and just hanging out with friends. Thanks everyone for a good trip. We had a wonderful, relaxing time!

Blueberry Picking

Have you ever been blueberry picking with a couple of three year old girls and 95 degree weather? Well...Lynn and I got this great idea to go picking today. Neither of us had ever done it before and thought the girls might like it. It was sooooo hot but, the girls actually had a good time. They picked longer than ever I expected them to.

Bucket in hand headed out to the fields.

A blueberry bush....I had no idea what one looked like. They were loaded with berries but they were not all blue yet! I was expecting the bush to be bigger!

Picking away and very focused!

Grace and Dawson looking around for some berries.

This could be a flower but, I'm thinking it was a huge weed! She kept playing with it and laughing!

Now, I think we will take our fresh berries and make some pancakes and muffins!

Window Art....

We love to use window crayons here at this house. As a matter of fact, we like any kind of art project here. I can't tell you how many times a day we are coloring, painting, stamping, and creating things. I found this new picture on the window a few minutes ago. When I asked what it was, Miss Dawson responded, "This is you mom with your mean face." OH MY!