Finding Joy

I was hanging out in the hammock earlier this week, watching Hannah and Lizzie pour watering cans full of water over each other, shrieking with laughter. It was one of those moments where I just wanted to freeze time and live in the joy of that moment forever. I think that's why I enjoy photography so much. Videos can record an event, but really, if you want to freeze a moment, you've got to have a camera (or a really good memory.)
Earlier today, my dear friend Rachelle, sent me this movie that captures not only gorgeous moments, but couples those photos with inspirational words. Here's the movie. It's only a couple of minutes long, but I think you'll enjoy it. I tried to figure out a way to add it to the blog, but apparantly I'm still too technologically challenged to do that, so here's the address. You should be able to just click on it, and get to the movie.
http://www.findingjoymovie.com/

More painting

Here's my 'painting' of Hannah and Lizzie

Brenna

I've been playing around with Photoshop and having a great time with it. Here's an attempt to take a picture and turn it into a painting. It's of my niece Brenna ... aren't those blue eyes just scrumptious??? Her brother has them too ... watch out when these two reach high school!!

Getting the Point

In addition to the birthday fun this past weekend, I was also introduced to the Wii which I thought I'd go out and buy until I saw the pricetag and wasn't sure if I had THAT much fun. I especially tanked on Guitar Hero, which, since I've played guitar for 40 years or so, I should NOT have been booed off the stage.

Yet I was.

I thought I was off the hook when my sister Tally took a stab at it. While she, too, got booed off the stage, she beat me by ONE POINT.

For those who know us, this is the story of my life. Even Tally's birthday is just a couple of weeks ahead of mine. Tally got 99s on tests and I got 98s. She was the majorette out in front of the marching band, I wore the way too hot red and grey knit suit and oversized hat to play the flute in the band.

Things haven't changed.

And neither have they changed so much that I'd be above putting a silly picture of her on my blog. Here's Tally beating me (by one measley point!) in Guitar Hero.

Oh, and for those keeping score (like T.A.) T.A. did kick both our butts in Guitar Hero.

Birthday Extravaganza!

We had a great time in New York this weekend, helping Tommy to celebrate his 6th birthday and T.A. and Tina celebrate their (well more than 6th) birthday.

In the interest of saving gas, Rob decided to take the teeny tiny Civic and DRIVE THE SPEED LIMIT (well, you know, ALMOST the speed limit.)

We discovered that by driving 60 to 63 for the entire trip and back we saved a good quarter tank of gas. However, we also discovered that my bladder is much more primed for 70 mph or more. :) Oh, the trade-offs we make in life!

The party was a lot of fun and Hannah and Lizzie just LOVED playing with their cousins. Brenna seems to adore her Uncle Bob, while pretty much barely tolerating Aunt Tracy. Everytime I checked to see what Rob/Bob was doing, Brenna was taking him on a walk or talking to him. Once, when he was sitting on the deck, Brenna was banging on the glass slider door trying to get his attention. Clearly she doesn't yet understand that AUNT TRACY is the one who picks out all cool and expensive gifts .... but whatever ... she'll learn. :)

Here are some photos...

Tommy blowing out the candles on his pirate cake:

Here's a close-up of the cake (which was delicious, by the way!)

The kids all got to go on a treasure hunt and then paint their own personal treasure box, into which they put their treasure. Hannah and Lizzie both collected 5 pieces of treasure, which Rob promptly put in the bank and told them they could have when they retired...

After the party Tommy opened his presents (Hannah and Lizzie gave him a tent) and there seemed to be a Star Wars theme. Here he is wearing his stormtrooper suit (NOT A COSTUME, PEOPLE!) with his groupies.

Here's just a nice picture of Hannah, Tommy and Lizzie. Brenna was being camera-shy...Until, of course, we let her sit with Uncle Bob...

Lordy, Lordy

Guess who's 40!!

UNCLE DUDE!!!

Here's our special birthday message for you...

Meow

The first week of summer vacation is upon us and Hannah and Lizzie have decided that if they cannot HAVE cats, they will BE cats. Even if it's 87 and humid outside.

Aren't they just purrrrfect?? :)

Happy Father's Day

Here'a a short note from Hannah and Lizzie to their Daddy:

PS: Contrary to the way I am dressed, we have not moved to a trailer park in Mississippi.

Graduation!

Hannah and Lizzie are officially done with Preschool. They celebrated by getting up on Friday morning at around 6:30 a.m. to begin summer vacation. I, however, didn't want to get up until 8 a.m. WHERE are those LAZY days of summer? Not here.

Graduation was cute. The class sang several songs and performed the deaf alphabet and then we adjourned to drinking lemonade and eating Munchkins. As you can see I took lots of photos (surprise, surprise!) and had intended to take some video but couldn't find my battery charger. I attemped video with my cell phone, but (similar to when I take calls on my cell phone) you really couldn't hear the singing above the static.

So here's a re-enactment, provided by Hannah and Lizzie. (Of course this was sung by seven children, none of whom were wearing Ariel bathing suits...) This is the 5 Little Ducks Song.

Imagine these kids...

singing this song...

Hannah and Lizzie each got a bouquet of flowers from us after they finished the performance. The hats they are wearing are their official 'graduation hats' and each child in the class signed the hats. That was such an awesome idea!

It was, in fact the awesome idea of the girls' teacher, Miss Nikki. They LOVE Miss Nikki because she is creative and smart and not nearly as mean as Mommy (that's pretty much a direct quote). The girls have learned so much in school this year thanks to Nikki. They can count up to at least 30, sight read a whole bunch of words, use scissors (and not on their own hair!) and actually have some nice manners. Hopefully this won't disappear over the summer when I'm in charge.

Graduation also included a most delicious snack of munchkins and lemonade. Here are Elijah, Skyla and Addy (in the blue dress) loading up their plates.
Graduation was attended by Aunt Terry and Aunt B. The girls were thrilled when they saw them because really, Mommy and Daddy are kind of boring. Terry and Bethany were a real treat.Addy, Hannah, Lizzie and Peyton have been together for three years at the Tot Spot. We seen everyone grow up in those years. Addy has a new sister and Peyton has a new sister AND another baby (a brother) on the way. Time marches on. We followed the graduation with a little party at home. We had Happy Meals (well the girls did ... I had my usual snack wrap!) followed by cake and ice cream. Aunt B joined us for lunch and singing and gift giving. It's great to be five since the girls were very excited to get their presents from us: a mylar balloon, bubbles and a large pack of bubble gum. Rob said he didn't think we'd get away with that at their next graduation!Here they are, just about to dive into their cake. Don't they look older to you? (WAAAAAH!!!!)

Blooming

Two posts in two days -- oh how I spoil you!!

One of the great things about moving into a new home is that you get to discover all the things that are growing there, as winter turns to spring and summer. The people who lived in this house before us put together some beautiful garden, enhancing the God-created beauty that was here all along. Here are some pictures of some of the things blooming around out house.

Wild roses are everywhere and one of the only things I actually like about the humidity is that their scent stays full in the air instead of being blown away on the breeze. We have them in the front by the stream and in the backyard where we have strategically placed the hammock.
Honeysuckle also grows by the stream. It's growing in and around the wild roses and every once in a while you'll get a whiff of it. I used to wear honeysuckle scented perfume (back when I had time to get gussied up!) so I clearly spend a lot of time down by the stream.

I don't knjow what these are, but I just love this picture with the little wood nymph dancing in the background.

Here's another shot of the dancing wood nymph (Lizzie was inside watching television when I was doing these pictures because she was too hot!)

I don't have any idea what these are, but they are purple, so of course I think they're wonderful! They are growing around the well pump in the backyard. Some animal has been nesting there, or else we have our own little backyard crop circle. But I did manage to get a picture of some of the flowers that weren't smushed.

The day lilies are just starting to bloom. They're all throughout the front garden, but only a handful have bloomed thus far. I can also see where we're going to have a couple of sunflowers in the summer and then black eyed susans in the late summer.

Here's one more for you readers who don't give a whit about flowers, but love to see pictures of cutiepies. Rob and Hannah (the cutiepies) have been reading together on the front porch in the mornings when it's nice and shady. They move to the backyard when it gets shady in the afternoon. Hannah loves book and loves making up the stories in them. Rob is just faking it here with Road and Track, he's actually reading "The Federalist Papers." Seriously I can't believe that even the founding fathers read them all the way through, but Rob's giving it a try. I will say that when the girls are being naughty and won't go to sleep at night, he reads a few paragraphs to them and they are OUT! So I must thank the founding fathers for that!!

Feelin' the love

Last night was my Moms Club year end banquet. Put simply, it was great (and I'm not just saying that because I helped plan it!) When I joined the Moms Club almost four years ago, I didn't really have high expectaions. I figured it was something I had to do for Hannah and Lizzie because they needed to have friends their own age and I didn't have any friends with kids in that age bracket.

Yet from the moment I went to my first meeting I felt welcomed and a part of the group. Now I'd say I spend just about as much time gabbing with my friends as the girls do playing with theirs. The Moms Club has offered me a circle of friendship and support that I never imagined, or really thought I needed. I was wrong, of course, as this brilliant, strong, wonderful women have encircled me with just those very things and I have embraced them, too.

Here we all are, with the exception of Melia, who took the picture and promises us she will photoshop herself into the photo --we even left space for her!So last year about this time I was getting ready to begin my term as president, or, as I preferred to call it, my benevolent dictatorship. Last night I realized that my time is almost over. We'll install the new board at our meeting in a few weeks, and I know we're going to have another great year.

This is what we did at the banquet.

We held the banquet at my sister Terry's horse farm. We put the room together in the early afternoon, and each place setting got two favors, a DVD slideshow and a glow bracelet.

Here are the favors. My friend (and Moms Club member) Stacie is a Stampin' Up consultant (and the reason you all get nice cards once in a while because she helps me make them) so she designed both favors. The flower pot is painted and hand stamped and we planted them with pansies. The clipboards are actually for photos. Stacie designed them to fit our theme, Growing Friendships, and cut all the stuff and then several others of us did some stamping and then glued them together. Now that the banquet is over, you can take off the program and instead place a photo there and display it. The little tag in the upper left hand corner says "One of a Kind." I loved these favors, even though I'm sure my plant will be dead in about a week. But that's just me:

Those of you who were at Hannah and Lizzie's christening party will remember how beautiful Terry's barn is. (THANK YOU AGAIN TERRY!!) We started with cocktails out on the patio in the courtyard. Some of the members had made appetizer type things, brought wine, etc. The weather was gorgeous in the early evening with a light breeze. Very nice way to start things off. Dinner was a catered buffet with a choice of chicken florentine on a bed of vegetable risotto or fettucine with asparagas, pine nuts and marscapone cheese (there was enough for everyone to have BOTH!), a huge green salad with lots of fresh vegetables and a great cranberry balsamic dressing (there was ranch peppercorn, too), rolls with butter and a dessert tray (as well as some homemade peanut butter cups made by Kristen, who has to give me the recipe (Mom you would LOVE them!!), with bottled water.

Here is Lizzie enjoying the fettucine the next day at lunch:

During dinner every member won a door prize donated by members. They were things like a Stampin' Up stamp set (won by me!), lots and lots of Arbonne products (friend and member Clare is a consultant), some body shoppe products (friend and member Amy is/was a consultant), a cookbook and a few other things. It's always nice when everyone can win something.

After dinner I made a whole bunch of presentations, blah blah blah ... you all know it's hard to keep me quiet so you can just imagine how much I had to say!

Then the membership gave ME the most wonderful gifts. Seriously, I was so touched. They gave me about 47 roses, a second bouquet of flowers, a crystal vase that weighs about 200 pounds it's so large and dense, and a fountain.

Flowers:

More flowers:Fountain (yes those are all real amethysts!) Isn't it stunning. It sounds really nice too, although I had to get used to the sound. For most of the morning I thought someone had left the water on in the kitchen!

After all the gift giving and speeches, I premiered the DVD slide show I'd made of my past three/four years with the club. It's amazing how the children have grown up even in the short time I've been a member. It's NOT so amazing that I took about a gazillion pictures over the past several years. It came out nice and made me cry to watch it, even after I'd watched it about 150 times while putting it together.

Then everyone helped clean up (YAY!!) and we chatted for awhile and then we had to get back to our homes and families.

I was exhausted when I got home, but not too exhausted that I couldn't eat a few of those peanut butter cups. Did I say YUMMY!!!??? They really are. I would post a picture of them, but they are now all gone.

Now the next big event in our household is preschool graduation, which is next Thursday. Good thing I have some kleenex left over from the slide show!!