Fireworks

That night, after celebrating birthdays, we headed down to VA Beach.  My SIL sings professionally, and we went to watch her sing with Symphonicity.  After finding parking, walking (it felt like) several miles, traipsing through the sand, and waiting (because you get there early to get a good spot) I am kinda glad I did it, but don't feel the need to do it again.  I have never been super fond of the beach anyway (can you say sand everywhere?!?), but a well known tourist beach on Independence Day weekend?!?!  That stuff is just nuts!

We did, however, enjoy the show.

Not everyone played in the sand.

And SIL did a fabulous job.  As always!

Then it was time to try out my camera on the fireworks.  I have never been able to get good fireworks shots, and have always been jealous of those who did.  I had the camera out at the very beginning, and took several, several shots.  

I got tired about halfway through and put the camera away.  In hindsight, I probably should have waited until the finale.  More going off at once, you know?...  Oh well.  You live and learn.

Happy (late) Fouth of July!

Visiting VA

We had a lot of fun visiting with family while we were up in Virginia for a few days!

Here is three generations of....  well...  would you say "Smiths" even though their last name isn't the same?  Someone please enlighten me.

A handful of grandkids for Pop!

 It was a celebration of Pop's birthday too, as his and Kaitlyn's special day are just 1 day apart. (Again, grammar check on that sentence.  I ain't no grammarian.)

 Happy Birthday!

 Doesn't Taylor just look so excited?!?!

 See Kelsey?  This is how it works.

 You try...

 And the blowers were a success...

...and a good time was had by all.

Happy #6 Kaitlyn!

For vacation, we went back up to VA for a few days, before we dropped off the kids, and left for a few days by ourselves.  We ended up driving 14 hours on Kaitlyn's birthday, but she was nice enough to allow us to celebrate her birthday the following day.

 She was spoiled with presents.  Including this "cross stitch" from S & M.  She see's Kari doing hers, and really want to as well.  It is actually some plastic canvas as we thought that might be more on her level.  She is planning on making a jewelry box that has a lid and is kinda fuzzy.

 She got a new Tinkerbell cuddle toy, which is appropriate since her nickname is Tink.

 She also got this headband set from Nana.  She plays with it a ton already, and loves being able to customize her own head bands and clips.

 She also got a new back pack, as her last one had broken.  She is such a princess :)

 Then it was time to move onto the cake!  Looks fabulous, doesn't it?

Photo Session

For Father's Day, I wanted to update hubby's tie selection.  He previously had a tie that featured a photo of our 3 children, Dylan as a chubby bald baby.  Needless to say, it was time.

So, I tried to get a few good ones of my kids.  This one isn't bad, except Dylan is slightly out of focus.

This one is absolutely adorable, what with Kelsey screaming her head off and all.

A few days later we tried again.  Not too bad.

We ended up using this one (cropped of course).  Smiles all around, heads close together.  It turned out to be a bit darker than I wanted, but in hindsight, I should have noticed and changed that.

I see other peoples photo sessions all the time, and think, why can't I get mine to do that...  Any body else think that?  Bueller?

Helicopter

A credit card company at hubby's work was trying to schmooze his company into 

using their card, so they sent a few gifts.  

 Somehow, hubby ended up bringing home the remote controlled helicopter.

 Poor Kelsey.  Couldn't come outside.

 Me thinks he may need to go to flight school.

 He was never really able to control it in the air very well.

 Do you see it?  Approximately in the middle of the picture right below the power lines.  And don't be too worried.  The power lines are actually across the street, while the helicopter is in our yard still.

Thank goodness it was free, otherwise it could have been a fairly expensive practice exercise.

Activity Day Girls Camp

The same week that Kaitlyn had Dance Camp, Kari had camp for the Activity Day Girls.

 At our church, Activity Day Girls are a group for girls 8-11.  The get together twice a month to do activities that will help them grow physically and spiritually.

 Kari's camp was only 2 days.  And on the second day, they invited everyone to dinner and put on skits of some of the things they learned for us.

 Kari's group chose to act out the story of Esther.

 They did a fabulous job!  Well deserving of a bow!

I was able to stay and help for one of the days, and the ladies organizing it did a fabulous job of keeping things on the girls level and on the move.  Kari had a great time.  And I think she may have learned something too :)

Dance Camp

I am recently returned from vacation.  Pardon my absence.  But I am back to real life and fighting it. :)

Kaitlyn has always been my favorite projectile.  As in, she isn't my most coordinated child, and we have been waiting for her to grow out of her clumsy stage for years now.  However, she has also shown a rather large preference for dancing, and we thought it might help her improve on some simple skills, such as walking and breathing at the same time ;)  After looking around on the internet, I found a week long Princess Dance camp that I thought would be perfect for her.  I made the mistake of telling her that I had signed her up and ended up answering "not yet" for nearly half the summer.

Finally, the prescribed week arrived, and Kaitlyn was off, dressed to the nines (as usual).  

The days began with some warm up hula hooping.  (Please note the underwear below the leotard line "hidden" by the pantyhose.  Thank you).

 The teacher was nice enough to let her siblings warm up as well, so long as we kinda stayed over in the corner.

 Cute Kelsey!  She was surprisingly good at it.  Not.

 Neither was Dylan :)

Kaitlyn, however, was quite good at it.  They had a hula hoop competition the last day of the week, and Kaitlyn got third out of (maybe) 20 girls.  She can move those hips!

Then it was on to dancing!  They did a little jazz, tap, and ballet.

 One of my favorite moves :)  I believe it is entitled "airing of the armpits" though when you say it in French, it sounds waaaaaaay better :)

 She loved to "skip" around during one particular part of their routines.  It is actually a fancy ballet term, but I am not even going to attempt to spell it.

 After a few minutes, if they did a good job and paid attention, they earned a happy "dot".  At this point Kaitlyn still hadn't earned her hair or earrings yet.

 Kari kept herself busy drawing a picture, which I thought was actually quite lovely.

At the end of the day, they ended with some stretching and acrobatics.  Nice bridge Kaitlyn!

They didn't have a recital, so I was kinda lucky to come the last day and take some pictures and video.  I unfortunately missed the ballet routine :(  But following are jazz and tap (if you want to wade through them.  Also, sorry there is no music on the jazz one.  Youtube said that the owner had filed a complaint against the use of the song and automatically muted it.  Which is funny, because I couldn't even tell you what song it is...  Very 80s.  What is a dance routine without music?  Sorry.)

Tap.  Keep your eyes out for the "sugar, sugar" move.  She still does that around the house.

It was an excellent experience for her!  While I don't think she would have been ready for a recital after one week, I think she is warming up to it and would be ready at the end of a years worth of dance.  Which is to say, she better if she wants to continue.  Because if she doesn't do the recital, momma ain't payin' for the dance.... :)

Do you ever wonder...?

Do you ever wonder what a 16 month old sounds like when she "reads" stickers? (I love that she screams every time Kaitlyn tries to "help" her)

Do you ever wonder what a baby girl looks like when she is really thirsty? (No, I don't let her drink out of my water bottle.  She just wanted to cuddle with them)

 Do you ever wonder what a toddler looks like with too much make up on one eye?  (She totally even did the model pose.  Too bad it is a black eye...)

 Do you ever wonder what a 13x9 Pyrex pan looks like if you drop it on the ground outside?  (Surprisingly to me, it didn't just break or crack, it shattered!)

Well.  Now you know.

Bubba

I told you we were getting a new truck, right?  Remember how I said that we sold the old one, knowing that the truck that we ordered would be in a week?  And then, the Chrysler/Dodge people seemed to loose their heads for a while and we ended up re-ordering it, and what was originally supposed to take 4-6 weeks took 10 weeks instead?  You don't remember that?  Needless to say, I am not super happy with their customer service.  What I AM happy with is the truck itself. This is what it looks like according to the Ram website (because my hubby keep reminding me that Dodge no longer sells trucks, even though that is not what every insurance or vendor site says).

This is what it looks like in real life.  The color is Black Gold Pearl.  Which is essentially a black base coat with a coat of gold glitter.  Heaven help me if my husband ever heard me describe his truck with the word "glitter".  It is beautiful!  Sometimes it is black.  Sometimes it is a nice chocolate brown.  Sometimes it is a greenish.  It is fairly unusual and makes us feel unique (until 8,000 other people order the same color).

 We ordered it from a dealership 2 hours away, which at the time wasn't that bad of an idea because hubby was travelling through twice a week.  Hubby was able to pick it up on one of his last trips through, so it turned out well.  He has already turned it into his portable office.  And he like the hands free blue tooth phone option (he is on the phone in this picture).

 One of the reasons we had to order instead of picking off the lot was because of the Rambox System.  Apparently, they aren't super popular in the southern states (which is beyond my ability to understand).  They have quite a decent amount of space (they can hold up to 140 cans of "soda" boasts the website) and on the new 2013 model, they unlock and lock with the doors and key fob.  Which is awesome!  Hubby also waited until the 6'4" bed was available.  He is happy that it makes the truck look more proportional, as well as allows him to carry a full sheet of plywood with the tailgate down.

 We got the Crew cab.  We also opted for the bench seat in the front so that we can carry all 6 of us at one time, which we couldn't previously do.  Having now ridden with all of us inside, we fit quite well, with enough space for a backwards facing car seat behind the driver with no adjustments.  (See, I told you he had already turned it into his portable office)

 It has some neato looking gauges and the screen in the middle not only has several menu options with lots of information, but is customizable as well.  (Picture stolen from the website)

 The trim package we ordered also includes the touch screen in the middle.  It might be slightly unnecessary as all of the controls on the screen are also available in the form of knobs underneath.  But it looked cool, and we wanted to "upgrade", so why not.  This trim package also includes satellite radio (which hubby already sings the praises of) and navigation abilities, which allows me to inherit the previous GPS system hubby had... which is a pretty fabulous thing if you know my sense of direction.  Which would be hard to do since it practically doesn't exist. (Picture stolen from the website)

 One weird thing is the shift knob.  Yes.  Knob.  Not lever, not stick on the wheel or in the middle.  Just this little knob.  It works just fine.  It just doesn't feel particularly manly...  Instead of jerking it into gear, you genteelly turn the knob.... (picture stolen from the website)

 We feel very spoiled.  I encouraged hubby to get a brand spanking new truck because I hope we will keep it for at least the next 10 years.  Plus, he is such a hard man to please and so into customization (hello!  Can you not tell that from the house), it would take forever to find just the right one.

Now, if only I could convince him that the truck looks wonderful as it is.  Instead he wants to add things like bug guards and window vents and mud flaps.  I know we live in the south, but I don't want no Bubba truck....