Long overdue

Whew, I think I can begin to breathe again! The past 3 weeks have been CRAZY! I have been meaning to post these pictures for quite some time now, but as you can see, I am only just getting to it! The past 3 weeks we have been dealing with Andy swamped at work with summer camps (sniff-sniff, we sure missed him!), a bout with pneumonia (Kendall's 2nd), and 3 double ear infections back-toback and fevers for 3 weeks straight for little Miss MC :(  (Sigh)...I need a vacation...

Alright, enough of that...Here are some pictures from our time at Mimi and Papa's celebrating Uncle John's birthday! The girls had a blast:)

We forgot to do "sprinklers" on the 4th of July (maybe that was because they were in bed way before it got dark...I know, my poor children)...so we decided to do them for Uncle John's birthday:)

Alley was a little timid and wanted someone holding the sparkler with her...

Kendall, on the other hand, would have NOTHING to do with those "sprinklers"

Maybe if I close my eyes they wont be there or be able to see me...

On second thought, maybe I'll just turn around and not look...

Even better, I'll go inside where it can't get me...;)

                                      Alley got brave                      Kendall "bravely" kept the fort down inside;)

Uncle John having some fun too

Ready to blow out the candles with Uncle John

Singing (or staring at the cake)

Blowing out the candles (with a little help for the McPherson girls)

Kendall immediately started crying and we couldn't figure out why. Finally I was able to get it out of her...she wanted everyone to sing to her and SHE wanted to blow out the candles...HAHAHA

cheering up

I made Alley a new shirt for Preschool this year (same as last year, just bigger and better!)

she CAN.NOT.WAIT for preschool...I think my dreams of homeschooling might be slipping away;(

BEAUTIFUL Alley

goodness, I will try better next time at staying a little more up to date with my pictures!

4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July this year! My parents had a little gathering out at their log cabin to celebrate America's birthday:) The girls absolutely LOVE spending time at the cabin. There are sooooo many different things they get to do when spending time "in the deep dark woods" (as Alley calls it!). Some fun activities include: swinging in the hammock, "fishing" in the creek with the statue of a boy fishing, finding all sorts of insects, birds and animals (a turtle being one of their favorites), watering (drowning) mimi and papas plants, helping plant (digging up what papa and mimi just planted), playing musical instruments on the porch (leading the band around the house...and don't you dare think you can get out of playing an instrument and marching..."uh...nope"!), playing with the doll house and all the furniture upstairs, and the list goes on! Anyway, the girls were thrilled to hear they were getting to spend the evening out at the cabin. And let me tell you, they were not disappointed. They had loads of fun with all the people who were there (I mean come-on, they had a lot more people to boss around and to add to their marching band!).

Here are some pictures from the evening. I am so bummed that most of them did not turn out because I had the camera on the wrong setting...ugh! 

The girls all ready for the par-tay:)

MC equally excited

Smiley-Cate acting true to her nickname

"my mimi" and her Virginia granddaughters

family pic...can't believe we are actually looking in the direction of the camera;)!

little blue-eyes...so far we have a child with each eye color...guess we are done having kids, we've used up all the eye colors out there;)

playing an assortment of games all at once with daddy

This is what MC did all evening (when she wasn't chasing balls around)

"what's this?"

"can I eat it?"

"Oh heck, who cares what you say mom, I'm eating it!"