Random summer pics

I have a bunch of random pictures and I don't want to do a separate post for each set so I'm regurgitating them here =)

 Playing at the pool

 Even my dog likes to play on the slides.  She would slide, go jump up the stairs, go through the tube and then slide again. Silly mutt!

 Me and my baby girl at the Terrace Days

 Me and my little man at Terrace Days.  We were going to stay and watch fireworks but Brenna had a meltdown and threw a fit so we went home.

My big helper!  He loves eating cookie dough!  Notice the big cocoa mess....that was him dumping out my cocoa in an attempt to help.. Notice the HUGE lollipop...he would take a bite of dough, lick the sucker, east some dough, lick the sucker.  Can we say sugar high?!

Love the mischievous look here!

Slip and slide! We used it twice before they broke it.....

 Ian loves to help "fix" things.  Whenever Jason (or me) gets the tools out, he has to grab a tool and help us.

This is a new game invented by Ian.  Not sure what to call it....It's kinda like baseball, only you hit the ball on the ground, but not golf because you use a baseball bat, but not baseball because you use a soccer ball......

This is the end result whenever we go to the dog park.  No, that is not dog poop!  He likesto play in the dog water dishes, which are usually in the dirt...so, you mix water and dirt and you get a whole lot of fun for Ian!  Not to mention he gets to chase around all the dogs and he LOVES it when they come give him kisses =)  Brenna likes to go take off into the trees or go make new friends so I can never get a picture of her.

Playing in the helicopter at Terrace Days.  There were lots of buttons to push =)

Stay tuned for more pictures!  Maybe next time I'll actually put them in the right order......

Last but not least, here is proof that I can actually grow flowers! True, the previous owners planted them, but I've watered them (ok, so the rain did that for me), but the amazing part, is that they are still alive!  Everytime I get one of those potted flowers for Mother's Day, it's dead within a few days.

Here is my gardening: get a bunch of wildflower seeds, throw them in the dirt, water them, and cross your fingers that they grow.  I thought the rain had washed them all out, but then they started popping out everywhere!  I love wildflowers (mostly because they are low maintenance).  I love seeing the mixture of all types of flowers.

Another milestone reached =)

My goal for this summer was to get Brenna riding a bike without training wheels.  I figured it would take most the summer to accomplish.  She is such a fraidy-cat at new things, but once she can get over that initial little bump, it becomes the coolest thing ever.  I thought it would take her a while to get over the "bump."  Then one day, she saw her friend, Olivia, who is younger than her, riding her bike all over without training wheels.  Brenna made up her mind that she was going to do it too. 

(this was one of her first attempts, no pedaling)

It started with her just sitting on the bike and pushing off with her feet to get her balance.  She did this for a couple days and then one day while we were outside practicing, she decided to put her feet on the petals as she was coasting and try to petal.. This was all on her own, I wasn't pushing her to try it yet.  She did a few turns before losing her balance.  Then, the next day she wanted to practice some more and I was in the middle of doing something so I couldn't help her so she went out on her own.  Then she comes running inside, all excited.  "Mom! I can ride all by myself now!"  I was thinking, okay, she made it past the neighbors while pedaling.  So I went out to watch her and she was riding up and down the street, turning around while pedaling and was even steering! (the day before she kept running into curbs because she couldn't steer).  Now she has spent her every moment outside riding her bike, up and down the street.  She loves it!  Especially since all the other kids in the neighborhood ride their bikes around and she was feeling left out before.  I knew once she got over her fear of falling over she would do just fine.  So from the time I started working with her until now, it has been maybe a week, but she didn't try every day.  I think it only took her about 3 or 4 days of trying to get it down, and on those days she only did it for about 15 minutes before she would get frustrated and stop.  Now I can't get her off the thing!!

Of course, Ian is not one to be left out.  Every time Brenna goes out, he gets his "motorcycle" out and rides up and down the street with the rest of the kids (of course I'm out with him).  He thinks he is sooooo studly riding around.

A new blog =)

A group of my neighbors and friends have decided to start a new blog. We are going to list recipes, crafts, tips, treats, you name it, we'll tyr it. There are about 8 of us contributing and we each have different things that we're love to do. I'm so excited for this new blog so for awhile, I may be doing some double posting =) Feel free to follow us! There are some amazingly talented ladies and I can't wait to see all that they come up with.




http://talentedterracegirls.blogspot.com/

Brenna's Pirate Party =)

When I asked Brenna what kind of party she wanted, she said a pirate bbq.  Sure, why not?  but do you know how hard it is to find girl pirate decorations?  I found 1.  The rest I had to improvise, and i wish I would have taken pictures but I forgot.  But I think her cake came out not too shabby.

Have I mentioned before that I am not a cake decorator?  (one of the teeth is bigger and looks funky.....) But It tasted really good!

These were the cupcakes to share. It was supposed to be a heart on them....some turned out. But the coolest thing about these....

I loved how fun these were on the inside!  Tie-dye =)



 

This is my cute girl the day of her party. 

We played "pin the eye patch on the pirate."

Earlier in the week I ran into a pirate and he told me he had some treasure he would hide and he left some clues. The kids had a lot of fun figuring out the clues and running place to place for them. The treasure was a box I had made for Brenna, and it was filled with candy and play money for them all to share.

This was them running to find another clue.

Such a great group of kids!!  They were all so much fun and were all so good!  I think we had at least 15 there =)

Brenna trying to blow out the candles.  It was kinda breezy so she didn't get to really blow them out because as soon as we lit them, the blew out.  Oh well, she still loved her pirate cake!

 She was excited to open presents.  She got some pretty good stuff this year.

Here is one of the only shots of Ian.  He decided to take a nap right before the party started and missed most of the fun.  There were still a few kids around when he woke up so he got to have fun too.