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!