Life: Simplified and a Princess Party

If you follow this blog at all you probably noticed I have not done a post in the past couple of months.  This fall came bringing new commitments and rearranging priorities.  I am now going to school every weekday morning and homeschooling Sweet Lily Girl.  So in order to keep up with everyday household, parenting and wifey type responsibilities I have streamlined my priorities.  Unfortunately this blog is not close enough to the top to make it into my day to day life. 

However today is the first day of my Thanksgiving break from school and while I still have a stack of books on my desk that need to be read I am allowing myself this time to do a few blog posts.  Yea!

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I will start with an update for that chandelier I posted about previously.  If you remember it was for the then upcoming now past princess party.  I really like how the whole party turned out.  My parents were able to come to town again for the girls' party again.  The party was back in October it was a perfectly beautiful day for 17 little ones to be running around our back yard.  Yes you read that right.  We had 15 little Princes and Princesses join our two little princesses.

Picture above & below taken by Danielle Huddleston 

Our youngest princess in attendance:

Blankets, Pillows And The Great Outdoors

My good friend Danielle over at Danielle Huddleston Photography and I have been planning this photo shoot for months now.  For one reason or another it kept getting put off.  Today was the day, and while rain in the forecast made it look like we might have to put if off again, we had perfect temperatures and partly cloudy skies.  A little more cloudy than desired but better than rain.  I can't wait to see what pictures Danielle captured, I'm really happy with how mine turned out.

The quilt used for the tent was made by my grandma as a wedding gift.  She made one queen sized quilt for each of her 5 children and 10 grandchildren.  As well as throw sized for her 11 great grand children.  Each one is machine sewn and all except the most recent little ones, have been hand quilted.  She does amazing work.

Love these shoes.  My mom found them at Children's Place last year. For $2.50!!!! We have them in size 6, 8 & 10. My mom is an amazing shopper!  Thanks again mom.

This is a favorite book of the girls.  They can also be found reading it here.

The pink lemonade was a big hit!

Thanks Danielle for all the hard work getting this shoot ready and keeping your back yard so photo friendly!

Cranky to Thankful

As I sit here at my computer the temperature in my house is rising.  My air is not working properly and needed to be turned off.  Last time I looked it was 87 degrees in here.  I don't want to look again.  Here in Tulsa we have been setting records.  Staying above average for heat and below average for rain.  I'm feeling cranky.  I don't want to hear anymore about it.  I'm feeling cranky.  I want to sit in front of my fan and not move, and please don't anyone touch me.

Then I look at my girls still playing overall pretty happy.  And as I go through pictures sorting what I might still want to edit from our vacation and the time my mom was here I found these:

I'm done being cranky.  We are going outside and we are going to make the best of today.  And we are going to be thankful we have been given another day.

Me & Lily

Lily made this with my mom while she was here and I'm just finally getting around to putting them up.

When Sweet Lily Girl brought it to me to show me she said "this is you mom"

This one she brought and said "this is me because it has a bow"

I of course tried to just laugh a little and say some loving motherly response. But then I thought I do where hats a lot so it is pretty appropriate, maybe I should get a hat like the one she made.

A Day Of Firsts (More From Our Michigan Trip)

Who could ask for a better day?

Boating.
Fishing.
Swimming.
Michigan Sweet Corn.
Ice Cream.
Friends who have known me my entire life.

These people are the kind of people who are like rocks.  Solid. Dependable. Not going anywhere.  I have always know there are certain people who I can count on in life. Jim & Vicki are some of those people. (It's still weird calling them by their first names even though I was told 14 years ago when I turned 18 that I could drop the Mr. & Mrs. M)  They are the kind of people who you would call if you were in trouble or who call you on your birthday to sing a horrible rendition of Happy Birthday.  The kind of people who encourage and uplift you and tell you the same story about how honored they were to be the first people to ever babysit you.  The kind of people who see children as precious and valuable and treat them that way.  My girls knew after a very short time that they were loved and treasured and quickly became comfortable and made themselves at home.

Until this day my little girls had never been on a boat, never been fishing, and never eaten Michigan sweet corn (of which I did not get a picture because I was to busy eating 1 1/2 cobs full).

Thanks Mom for helping me and my kids remember that I was there.

She caught at least a dozen fish!

(It helps that they regularly feed them right there from the dock.)

We'll be signing her up for boaters safety soon.

I think she could have fished all day.

My only regret from the day is not hearing the story about the first time they babysat me.  Next time I will have to make a request.