Church picnic!

I just wanted to make a quick post to show you what we've been up to.

Mom took me to several different stores to look for graduation announcement cards to put my senior pictures in to mail to people...but we were a bit late, of course. The stores were all sold out, so I made my own instead. 

First came the designing..

And after I figured out which way to put the card paper in to get it to print in the correct area...

Came the fun part: folding. :)

People from my Aunt Doina's church wanted everyone from ours to go there for their church picnic. Everyone from our church backed out at the last minute, but Laurisa decided to go along with Esther and myself anyway. We're so glad we went!

Minutes before we hit the road, Dad caught this interesting lizard with a forked tail. Our guess was that his first tail had been part-way broken and that his new one grew off of the broken part even though he still had it attached.

 We had been invited to go swimming with my cousins at Aunt Doina's as well as spend the night, so we arrived Saturday about lunch time.

They had moved approximately a year ago to their new house, but this was our first time getting to see it. (Note: this is just the side view by the garage where we pulled in. ;))

There was a beautiful lake right off their back yard.

After a fun time of swimming in their in-ground, 10 ft. pool, we played some balderdash together, then ate pizza, and after helping our aunt prepare some food for the church picnic the next day, finished the evening with a movie.

Directly after service the next day, everyone headed over to the fellowship hall for the picnic.

We had a wonderful time!

There were several young children who immediately hit the playgrounds.

After talking and letting our food digest, we played many great volleyball games! (No pictures of that since I was obviously playing.)

A sister who had recently visited our church had her baby nine days before we got there, and when she told her husband she was fine with us coming over to see the blessing, we definitely took up the invitation!

My cousin Katie holding Lilian.

She's kind of making a face in this picture, but she's a very pretty little baby..There was hardly any acne at all on her face, just a few tiny bumps on her nose. 

With the 4th right around the corner, and visitors soon to come in town I'm sure there'll be plenty for me to post, so thanks for stopping by and do check back again!

Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

                                                                                                                                  

Father's Day~Class of 2014!!

After church Sunday morning, we headed out with several relatives and Grandpa to a Japanese Steak House to enjoy the Hibachi grill. 

Apparently before we left, though, the boys did some arm wrestling. ;)

The restaurant had some really neat decorations.

We want our food! ;)

Laurisa next to the...Samurai.. thing.. O.o

At this restaurant you watched the chefs cook right in front of you on a large grill just inches from your plate.

Poor Bella was terrified of the fire they cleaned the grill with, so before we even had went inside, she was close to tears.

Our first Hibachi grill experience was definitely a good one, as the chef entertained us while he was cooking. He decided to pick on me quite a bit, which included nearly throwing a huge, long spatula full of scrambled eggs at me to catch in my mouth, barely giving me any rice, stealing my plate after it was full of food, putting "pepper" in my water, ect.

After the restaurant, we drove back to Grandpa's house with everyone else to spend the remainder of the day there. When we got home, my siblings and I took turns giving Dad a well-deserved foot rub. He was totally enjoying it. ;)

I'm so thankful to be blessed with a caring dad!

Well, guess what..

I've Graduated!!!

Tuesday, mom drove me to meet my Uncle William at Heritage Park in Foley to get my Senior pictures taken. 

I had never actually been to the park until that moment, but it was even nicer than I had anticipated. It's always better that way than the other way round!

Mom thought I should post a few of my senior pics, and YOU, all the readers, are to leave me a comment below this post, telling me which is your favorite! :)

It's really exciting that knowing I'm all done with school!

Remember to let me know in a comment right under this post which of the pics you liked the most! ;) 

Thanks for stopping by, and please come back soon! I should have more posts up within a week. :)

                                                                                                                                    

The Event-filled Month of June

This month, Laurisa began painting a cover for her latest book she wrote. 

I THINK this is her finished book cover painting, but oil paint never completely dries until approximately 26 days, so she might make a few changes. It's always hard to say with an artist. ;)

 This past weekend, dad tackled the project of installing the AC unit in the etsy shop. 

Can he do it?

Yes, he can! 

A few days before that, Mom was headed out towards Mississippi, so since the blueberry farm we go to every year was in that direction, we made a stop there for about an hour. 

My sisters and dad were at work, so it was just Mom, Gabriel, and myself, but the weather couldn't have been better for blueberry picking! Truly it was the coolest day we have been there so far, and the berries were HUGE! Several were split, though, from holding so much juice.

The nice thing about Betty's Blueberry Farm is that you can eat allll the berries you want while you pick. That's always a bonus! =D 

Want a bite?

We picked 2 1/2 buckets full of delicious berries!

This calls for cobblers, pies, muffins, and more! ;)

While Esther and I were taking a walk together one evening after she got home from work, she spotted a robin's nest in one of the fern trees she planted a few years ago near our chain link fence.

I wasn't really able to get a better picture than this because she said a mocking bird was eyeing me, and I didn't want to get dive bombed! xD

Yes, you just don't understand all the risks I take to acquire the pictures to show you on this blog. :P

Aside from those things... we had a birthday this month! 

Behold! The evolution of the bday cake..

Mom worked really hard to get Laurisa's requested chocolate raspberry coconut cake done

And then it was complete... With twenty-two candles atop it!

Her birthday was actually on June 11th, which is a Wednesday, but of course we had church that night, so we didn't celebrate until Friday. Op! there she is--the birthday girl!

The first gift we had her open was one I picked out especially for her. ;)

Hmm...What could that be... 

She busted out laughing when she saw the gift.

Oh, yes..She liked it... xD

It's what we all thought she's needed for a few years now. You know everyone has a blonde moment or two at some time or another..she just tends to have them a bit more than others. So we only thought it fitting that she should get her "rightful" hair color. ;)

She still has a gift in the mail on its way, but the second one that had arrived in time was something for her car..

The center of a hubcap! It was missing when she bought it, so now her car is basically complete. ;)

Just so you know, we told her she had to wear her blonde wig throughout the entire celebration..So yes, it will be seen in quite a few more pictures. Bear with us.

So after her gifts were opened, the candles were lit..the cake was spun...(We interrupt this blog post to advise against spinning a birthday cake with flaming candles. The lack of quality in birthday candles today hence causes them to melt with immense velocity, the cake thus being spun allowing wax to depart from the melting candle stick and onto the cake. In short? Bad idea. Unless you're on a candle wax diet, of course.)

Happy birthday was sung..she was embarrassed..and then.. ah, yes, the cake.

(We interrupt this blog post again to draw your attention to the bottom left portion of the picture. Notice the spinning candles...Again, bad idea.) Moving on.

The candles were removed, after which the lady with the blonde hair unthinkingly and ceremoniously whacked the cake into 9 gigantic pieces.. 

It's a two layer cake remember.

Look upon it well...

The aftermath.

Appetizing, eh? ;)

After the little party, they watched some for laughs pranks on the iPad..

While I cleaned.

Hopefully you enjoyed seeing pictures of her birthday at least partially as much as she enjoyed the celebration. 

Check back for a soon-coming Father's Day post!