Birthday Girl!!

This girl has just gotten cuter and cuter as the years have come.  She is so little here!

She is such a fun, happy, sparkly, vibrant part of our family and we love her bunches!!

Birthday Girl loves presents!!

These butterfly cupcakes were super easy to make and adorable, if I do say so myself.

We started the party off at the park early in the morning to avoid the heat

I cut butterfly shapes on black scratch-off paper that they could decorate.  This activity went over much better than I anticipated.  You just never know.

Such a big girl!  She was so giddy over her cupcakes (she's got a bit of a sweet tooth).

Enjoying cupcakes with lots of fun, cute little friends!!

I gave them each a squirt bottle filled with water so they could cool off--yes even by 10am the playground was getting warm!!  Birthday girl had SO much fun with this activity and many of the kids, including her, took it to the next level and were dumping water out on each other using water from the drinking fountain.  She got absolutely soaked and loved it.  It was hilarious!  We all had fun celebrating her!!

Summer Fun!!

It's been 2 weeks of summer already and we are having super-lota fun!!  Here we are by the campfire in Maple Canyon to camp and climb with friends.  

I led for the first time in quite a while.  It was only 5.5 and I felt totally comfortable. 

The group from above.  

We missed getting any pics of our adventure the evening before.  We started hiking about 8pm or so on just a short hike to a cave.  Once there we climbed up about 15-20 feet with no harnesses--just using the rock and a rope that had knots in it.  By this time it was dark and we entered a cavern that was quite dark.  We turned the headlamps off and told stories.  Some of the little's kept their light on though--it was about all they could handle just to be in there.  Spooky & terrifically fun!

Spiderwoman

Swinging is my favorite!  She's getting to be quite the climber too though.

Our little town has a new splash pad area that we checked out one afternoon and the kids had a blast while I read a book.  

I love all the little statues around town so I was pleased as punch to see that they put some in the new splash pad area too.  

6:30am this is where we were as part of Art City Days.  It is really fun to see the balloons fill up and take off!  It was a really lovely day for it.  

We took yogurt and fruit and had breakfast while watching them go up, up and away.

So funny.

Here we are taking off on a tethered ride!  Little J wanted to stay on the ground so I taught him how to use our camera while we waited for our turn and he snapped some great shots for us!

Grotto Falls hike.  Recommend!!  It is short and sweet.

The Falls.  They are not the most spectacular falls but the spot is so cool and so easy to get to that it is a pretty popular trail.  

Big J was the only one who braved the chilly waters for longer than running through.

The kids enjoying catching water skeeters

Master bug catcher at work.

Rock collector.  Her top braces are off--can you see?!!

The camera is on the wrong setting but it just looks like an action shot and it proves that I did it.  Three times actually.  Then the goose bumps started and I decided to warm up.

Other than that B's already done golf lessons last week and this week is swim lessons.  We've played lots as a family and with friends and we've worked lots with our new family work program.  We had our first outing to 7 Peaks last week and had a blast.  Little J is in coach-pitch baseball this year until the end of June and Little A is performing in "Cinderella" this weekend.  We also went to several Art City days things this past week such as the Art Festival and parade as well as the balloon fest and carnival and we voted in the cake decorating contest.  We also went to a cool kids garden class about how plants--more specifically weeds--move.  We are having a blast!!!