Nephew #3

Okay, this is a late photo . . . but how lucky am I to have three nephews in a matter of six weeks!

 

Meet baby Ansel . . .

 

look at that pucker!

Our Little Girl Turns 6!!

We threw a Brave birthday party for Olivia and her friends this past weekend. . .

and it went on without a hitch.

 

 Here's Miss O posing at the chalkboard door.

 

 I made her a bear cake; if anyone has seen the movie Merida's triplet brothers turn into cute bear cubs in which I was trying to portray!

 

 Games consisted of a whisp find outside in the backyard

(aqua tissue paper with a candy treat wrapped inside).

musical chairs, and freeze dance!

The favorite was when they decorated their own shields

(without swords; I didn't want any parents upset!)

 Make a wish my sweet little lady!

 

After getting a sugar rush the kids danced and giggled and played some duck, duck, goose!

They had a blast and Olivia was a happy birthday girl!



UP, UP & AWAY

 

In my beautiful balloon!

 

Back at the end of July we went to the Balloon Festival in Indianola. 

It was a lovely night and an ideal event for pictures.  Enjoy!

 

 The sunset had a lot of character that night and peeked in and out the clouds.

 

 

 Gentle Giants

 When the sun sets, it's time for the balloons to glow.

A little blurry and never had good timing but here's one glowing.

The Great Outdoors

There are days when I crave the great outdoors.  Sometimes the city just gets too overwhelming and today was one of them. Plus, I wanted to take the kids to do something that was free.

So we visited the great outdoors about twenty minutes away.

Posing at the Butterfly Garden.  Even though there is a drought in our region of the world, the flowers look like they are getting good care.  We saw a black swallow tail butterfly and lots of white and yellow ones.

Saylorville Lake is unusually low this year.  We visited the gentle giant dam and were quite surprised to visit it up close and personal.  Last year, it was rip-roaring loud and too scary to view it up close.

We enjoyed a picnic in the park, the exhibits at the visitors center, and a movie about the wild life in Saylorville Lake area.

A nice little outing and we escaped the heat for a few hours . . . 

Swim. Splash. Jump. Dive.

The first two weeks of July, the kids had swim lessons.

Olivia took level 1 again, even though she had passed to level two.

I thought she needed to go under water without plugging her nose.

Little did I know that her brother would teach her in Grandma's pool!

 

She is my girl with no fear and water did not scare her or slow her down.

She jumped in the deep end without hesitation.

I was so proud of her to just dive in and have complete trust in her abilities!

I love her confidence.

This guy was in level four and worked on his strokes. 

This has been a challenge for him and he continues to practice his strokes and kicks in Grandma's pool.

Hopefully, I can find a level four class this winter.

I also am very proud of this guy who can take the plunge off the diving board

without any fear.



Cousin #13

We were all excited to visit our new family member at the hospital on Tuesday.

We welcomed baby Ben into the world.

 Olivia patted him when he fussed, like a natural!

 Connor is excited that there's another boy!

 We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to swim with new big sister and big brother!

We will enjoying soaking up some baby time now!