4th of July

I have a ton of pictures to post. So, I am going to take the next couple of days and catch up! I know family will appreciate getting caught up with pictures, but it might be quite boring for some of you! My blog is usually the only "scrapbook" that I am always up to date on consistently. That is the best part of having a blog!! When it hits my one year mark of having the blog, I plan to make it into a book so my girls can have an entire year worth of a journal/scrapbook of sorts from mommy! Don't you just want to go start a blog RIGHT this second! Hence my guilt and need to catch up on posting pictures!

I am not doctoring these pictures at all! You will see dates, background, and completely unedited pictures!:) It's part laziness. It's part that dang project calendar keeping me busy. It's part distraction because of family coming in town. And the BEST part? It's my Little Bit's birthday week! She will be two on Thursday! We love birthdays here and celebrate big...meaning I have to do lists on top of to do lists!

Here are pictures from the fourth of July. That is my second favorite holiday...just love it! We had so much fun, especially since it was on Sunday. We had the opportunity to celebrate at my parents' house all weekend...lots of swimming, lake time, movies, playing, and enjoying the days! My parents live on the same lake we do...just on the other side. It makes visiting great because we are close enough to run home when we need to rest or get something. Plus, they have all the fun "big toys" that we get to enjoy like the pool and the boat!:) My mom is one of five girls in her family. When she cooks, she cooks for an army despite how many people will actually be eating. She and my dad shopped and had SO much food for the weekend! I think I ate and snacked all day...and probably gained a gabillion pounds! It was fun though!

Robert carrying our stuff in for the day! Kids are so little, but they NEED SO much stuff! It feels like we are moving no matter where we go because we pack so much stuff!

LaLa and I made a yummy flag cake. She was great at decorating. I was throwing the blueberries on the top while she methodically placed each one! Little Bit was "fired" from helping by LaLa because she kept "accidentally" getting whip cream on her.

Fun playing in the back yard.

I was trying to pose the girls to get a few pictures in their "Dependents" Day dresses (their name for the 4th). You know how that goes...one looks while the other looks away!

Looks so sweet! She was looking at the geese across the cove.

Little Bit is such a mess! She would have jumped in the lake if we would have let her.

Hmm...almost a good picture!

Fishing at the dock. LaLa caught a fish off the dock last year on Easter...the only fish she has ever caught off the dock. However, she never forgets that one time and always thinks that fish will bite her hook again! My brother "caught" my ear when we were little while fishing with our grandfather. My ears get the "ibbyjibbies" every time someone casts a pole...even years later!

Popsicles and waiting for the fireworks. I make the girls, especially Little Bit, wear swimmies on the boats...just in case. I keep their life jackets on hand too, but they will wear their swimmies longer. Our neighborhoods do something really cool. Everyone pays in a certain amount to go toward fireworks for the community. On the fourth, everyone goes out in their boats to see the firework display they do over the lake. It's great...no crowds, kids are contained (for the most part), and it is really a great show! I have great memories of doing this as I was growing up on the fourth...so it made it extra special to get to do it with my girls! Good things of that night? It didn't rain. Little Bit didn't try to jump off the boat (I was worried.). You dock your boat...walk up to the house...and go to sleep!

My two little fireworks on the boat. They were so excited for the fireworks. LaLa thinks Tinkerbell has something to do with ALL fireworks. Little Bit covered her ears and fell asleep during the fireworks!

A great, great day!

Easter Memories

Come 'on girls...SMILE!

Look this way...

How hard do you work for smiling, posing pictures of your kids?

Hmm...almost. Sweet at least. I didn't post the one of Little Bit pushing LaLa away.

I told LaLa to try to keep her eyes opened. She was squinting them in the pictures. This was the result of that request.

The girls and I. Little Bit is looking at an airplane.

Little Bit...need a quicker shutter on my camera!

Cute pose, LaLa...Robert's hand in the corner trying to catch Little Bit from walking in front of the camera.

I love this picture. I took this before church without LaLa noticing. She was checking out her Easter Basket. She insisted on wearing her gloves all morning. Little Bit and LaLa both were hats to church too. They looked like little princesses!

After Robert and I worked so hard to catch these snapshots of the girls, we were exhausted. We walked in asking...Is it nap time yet?

We enjoyed a great Easter service at church, fun searching for hidden eggs, and a family lunch...and we all did get to enjoy a nap...that's a good day for parents with young kids!

Words from LaLa on Easter evening...

"I'm so glad that Jesus woke up on Easter."

You know mama, He did that just because He loved me so much."

I'm glad He did too, LaLa!

Easter Cuties...

We enjoyed an Easter party last week at my friend's Hope's house. She is like me and loves parties. We had so much fun! She had an egg hunt. I think each child filled TWO buckets of eggs! She had them decorate little "egg" cupcakes. Each little girl brought their dolly as their guest to enjoy the party as well. The girls also had stickers to decorate their "Easter" basket, which was a pail & shovel (great idea!), before the great hunt! The little ladies at the party had a great time playing together and enjoying yummy, kid friendly snacks!

Our host, Hope, then gave each guest a goody bag (PACKED full of everything imaginable), their eggs, their decorated pail and shovel, a mini cupcake to decorate at home with their dolly, bunny or lamb ears, and a day full of wonderful memories with thier girlfriends and their mommies.

I snapped this picture of Little Bit running after eggs. She would shout, "FOUND YOU" and put each egg in her bucket. This was her first 'official' egg hunt because she was so little last year. She figured it out pretty quick by watching the big girls. The bigger girls were so sweet to her. They would drop an egg or two in her bucket or point out a hidden egg for her. I was so impressed with their thoughtfullness, especially at such a young age.

LaLa's little bunny expression posing for a quick picture with her doll baby, Lily.  She was the youngest out of the "big" girls, but she loved following them around and playing pretend with her baby doll. The other little girls were so cute, but I'm always cautious of posting pics of other people's kids without asking...so you'll just have to take my word for it!

We were so shocked to receive a package a few days later from our friend, Mrs. Hope. Do you know what it was? A beautiful collage of each of the girls! Hope has wonderful talent with her camera...and capturing their personality in her shots. It was a great way to welcome in Spring and enjoy the day with friends!

St. Patty's Day Fun

Don't forget March Giveaway is going on now. Click here to enter. It's easy & quick! Plus, I get giddy when I have comments...even if it is bribery!:)

LaLa's teacher requested these "Taste of The Rainbow" cupcakes on Family Fun's site. Now, I am not a baker by any means! My first thought when she said "rainbow cupcakes" was I would just march my happy self to Publix and get a nice baker lady to make some cupcakes with rainbows on it. She might even throw in some rainbow sprinkles. So, I went home and looked up the cupcakes to find a surprise. The batter of the cupcake was the rainbow. Hmm...how would I do that?

I read on to find out that multiple bowls would be involved and mixing of colors and careful layering of batter in little bitty cupcake liners would be involved. On top of this today we had ballet, I flooded my kitchen (forgot to turn off the water...can you say this mama needs a nap?), my Little Bit opened the fridge (so not normal for a 19 month old & is going to start a whole new mess of chaos) and dropped a bottle of syrup which cracked and exploded everywhere. The syrup explosion happened while I was leaving a message for one of LaLa's preschool parents. Yeah, they might think we are off our rocker over here in this house after that message. I have mopped and mopped and mopped and mopped. It's still sticky?!

This chaos seems to be our normal though so we just try to roll with the punches! Determined me (maybe stubborn would be a better word) still went against all odds of this crazy day to make rainbow cupcakes. Uh-oh...only two eggs! I needed one more. Off to Kroger we all go! Okay, so now we're home and I begin again. All my bowls...all my mixing of colors (This would be a great activity to do with a kid to teach color combinations! Not this mama though. I definitely did not have enough patience for the project much less to encourage a little helper on this day!) and I began! I think my oven preheated for over an hour while I meticulously dropped precise numbers of food coloring to make the six colors. For a normal person...in a normal house...with no interruptions, this would not be too difficult. It's a lot of extra work, but they end up looking super cute and unique. I am cautious about giving LaLa a lot of dye though...and these cupcakes definitely have dye in them! On a side note, you also have to use different spoons for each bowl. Yeah, they mess up your colors. It looks pretty with all the bowls...except when they were in the sink to be cleaned!

Then, you take each color (which by the way is the actual order of the rainbow) and layer the cupcake liners. Make sure to spread the batter of each color to the edge. Now, I have been known to be a perfectionist. This drove me crazy a bit. I think a few cupcakes might be missing a few colors because I would run out of batter of a one color by the time I got to the end.

Next, you cook just like the box says for cupcakes. You let them cool, remove the liners to see your amazing rainbows, and ice the top to look like a small cloud (according to the directions found here.) I have to say that their icing cloud was better than mine. However, despite the excess of dishes...despite the distractions...despite the frustration...despite reading the directions over and over...

I am quite proud of the results! I patted myself on the back and went to blog about them!

 I hope LaLa' preschool class enjoys them...

and my family since I stashed the extra to save for tomorrow's dessert and ate two while cleaning up...

and ultimately, I think they will make some proof of how wonderful mommy is fun memories of St. Patty's Day!

Check back tomorrow for the final result of my baking ordeal masterpiece!