Party Woes

 So, as I'm going through my photo folders, I find that I never even made mention of this little sugarplum's fourth birthday party:

 

In case you haven't been here very long, Miss Tay is my spirited child.
She . . . knows what she wants, and the exact time in which she wants it.
To say that she had been counting down, for MONTHS, the days until her birthday, would be an understatement.

Each day she would ask, "how many days till MY party?", and I'd have to answer with something like, "187, sweetie".  And she'd let out this big, exasperated sigh, then huff, then cross her arms, and end with "UGH!  Why it take so long????"

So imagine my joy when the calendar was coming up on June 18th!
Only.  Wait.  Jeremy was scheduled to work on her birthday.
The mama dilemma.
Lie to her almost four-year-old, and tell her her birthday wasn't until the 19th
{the day Daddy gets home from work}?

OR

Try to explain to her {the Queen of Jekyll and Hyde, herself} that her actual date of birth is the 18th, and while I would celebrate her just as much as I could on that date, we wouldn't actually open any presents until the following day, when Daddy gets home. {Not to mention that her party wouldn't happen until DAYS later on the 21st}

Well, Grandma has started a tradition of bringing roses {one for each year}, and balloons on the girls' birthdays.  And I thought that would brighten Miss Tay's day, so I went ahead with the option #2, and broke it to her that she would just have to wait patiently for the 19th to come.

Never has a day lasted so long, people.

But FINALLY.  Finally, the 19th arrived.
Daddy came home.
Presents were opened.

And she got JUST what she was hoping for:

 

A baby "Spike" from My Little Pony.

And blessedly, Party Day came as well:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And all is right with the world once again. 

 

 

 

 

Waaaaaay Back Wednesday

 

 

 

 

 Circa March 2009 . . . Look at those tiny pumpkins!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family Camp 2015 ~ Part 1

 After a crazy-busy May, and a crazy-busy June, things *finally* started to slow down.


Ha!  Just kidding!
There was no slow-down.
We just jumped full speed ahead into July.

After celebrating a nice, quiet Fourth, we packed up the trailer and headed east for our annual camping trip, and family reunion.

We've had a very dry year here in Oregon. 
Our Spring months are usually very wet, and June . . . June can have crazy amounts of rain.
But I'm not sure we had one drop of rain in June, so by the first of July we were getting kind of used to the hot, dry start to Summer.

Until we hit the road . . .

 

 

When we took off from home, it was 90+ degrees.

When we pulled into Madras {a town about halfway between home and our camping destination}, it had dropped from 92 to . . .
 

 

Holy Moly!
 

 

And the rain!  We hadn't seen any in such a long time.
And certainly never in July on our drive over.
 

 

By the time we reached our campground, the weather had settled, and it was actually very refreshing.
 

 

And it made for a gorgeous sunset, once the sun actually, you know, came out.
 

 

We spent the first few days wandering around, catching bugs {as fishing bait},
 

 

and fishing with the Daddy.
 

Sissy killed it!

 

And then there were chipmunks.

 

 

Kam and Kenners were soooooo patient.

They'd just sit and wait for hours for a chipmunk to come around and take a peanut.

Jeremy taught Kam how to get one to come up on a lap, and she thought that was the coolest thing EVER!
 

 

They got friendly REAL fast, once they knew you had their favorite food.
 

Ahem.
Real friendly.

 

 

 

 

 And then we waited for the rest of our family to arrive for our reunion! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Much Ketchup

 

Woah! 
I have so much catching up to do! 
We, quite literally, have been gone more than we've been home the last couple of months,
which has been making it hard to fall into a routine.

But it's making it real easy to take 4 million photos, and not have time to edit or post them. 
Sigh.

 

So, here we go. 
My attempt at organization. 
Again.


We had my most favorite kind of Fourth of July ever!
We stayed home :)
{I'm kind of a home-body, can ya tell?}

 

 The girls and I baked and prepared food for a BBQ we'd have
with the grandparents later that evening.
 

I just {FINALLY} got a Kitchen-Aid for my birthday!
I've wanted one forever, but I could never justify spending all of that money just because.

 

But let me tell you, it's going to get a LOT of use!
Tay likes to be in charge of it ;)

 

Tay actually likes to be in charge of most everything.
So when it's time to give someone else a turn, she breaks out her grumpy face.

 

 

Once Kenners was done frosting the cake, Tay put on her happy face again:

 

 

 

 Because that meant it was time for her to arrange the blueberries.

 

Then it was back to grumpy because Sierra was in charge of the raspberries.
You get the idea.

 

 

And this year's cake went so much more smoothly than last year's.
Tay actually said to me:
"Mama, I thought you said we would NEVER bake this cake again"
{I love how she can remember words I said a year ago, but can't remember what I've asked her to pick up two seconds ago}.
Ahem.
Yes, I think I did utter those words when last year it was a huge fight as to who got to do what.
Kenners stormed out of the kitchen.
It was not the family togetherness I had planned in my head.
{It usually isn't.}

 

 

But we did it!
With no fuss this time.
And it probably helped just a touch that Kam had gone to town with Daddy to pick up fireworks.
That left one job for each, without having to share.
 

Later in the day, we had my parents and Jeremy's parents over for a BBQ and fireworks!

And our favorite:
 

Sparklers!

The girls got the hang of making shapes . . .
 

 

. . . and letters. 
M for Makenna, of course.

 

Then we played a game where they had to spell out a word, I would take a picture, then I'd have to see if I could figure out what word they were trying to spell.
 

 

I think the "e" is backward here, but still pretty easy to figure out that they were spelling LOVE.

 

 

And . . . POOL!

The perfect Fourth!

And then we hurried our booties around packing up the trailer, because we headed out for a week-long camping trip a day and a half later.

Those photos to come :)

 

 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Summer Sunsets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 4th!!

 

   

 Wishing you a day filled with family, food, and fun, as we celebrate our freedom!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Road Trip!

 

 Last weekend we were heading to Medford again for another wedding!

Side note: I love weddings.
I love, LOVE.
What an amazing thing to be able to witness two people pledging their lives to one another.
To be a part of a fresh, new beginning.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Anyway.
Another road trip.

 

 

We knew we were in for a hot weekend, so we tried to plan accordingly.
On Friday night, we met up with our Medford fam for pizza, and then back to "Aunt Suzi's" for some running through the sprinklers.

Last month we attended Mackenzie's {pictured below with the girls} wedding.

The girls are pretty smitten with her ♥
 

 

 

 

 

 

The wedding didn't start until 6 on Saturday evening, so we got to spend the morning doing a little shopping, and then the rest of the afternoon at the hotel pool.

 

Thank goodness for that pool!
Saturday's forecast was 106*.
Yikes!

 

 

We brought water, spray bottles, and battery-operated fans to the outdoor ceremony,
and still it was a sweat-fest.

But so so beautiful.
A beautiful sweat-fest.

And we were in sleeveless dresses. 
I don't even want to know what it was like to be in a suit!
 

 

 

Poor Miss Kam had a hard time with the heat
 

 

 

 

But once the sun set, it was much more manageable, and we got to enjoy the festivities.

 

 

 

{It looks kinda like rain, but that was just the field sprinklers}  

 

 

 

 And a quick shot of cousins before heading home.

What an amazing weekend celebrating love and family!