Happy 4th Birthday, Lens Baby!

Can't believe it!  Our photography playgroup, Lens Baby, is four years old already!  What a gift this group has been to both me and the kids.  Evie and I had a great time celebrating at Celebration Park (what a perfect name!).  She was a little tired from not sleeping the night before, which explains why she's the only kid on the splash pad with a binkie and blankie!  At one point she also plopped herself down on the concrete right in the middle of our little bunch of moms and kids, ready for a nap!  She still managed to explore every inch of the massive playground and wolf down a cupcake, though.  Thanks Lens Baby for another fantastic year.  Happy Birthday!

1-2-3-JUMP!

Gram and Pops came over for a swim Saturday.  Evelyn jumped and jumped and jumped.  Forward, backward, "wahn, tuhoo, eee, SHUM!"  When we got home, she ate half of her peanut butter sandwich, but that was all she had energy for.  Once her head hit the tray she was out.  It's hard work being a busy little fishie.  

Arboretum

As soon as school was out for the summer, we headed to the Dallas Arboretum with Gram.  She's an Arboretum expert, having been so many times with her students.  She knew all the best places for the kids and I to try during our first visit to the new children's area and I have to say it was

really

cool.  Everybody had a blast and we can't wait to go back in the fall when the weather is nice.

Evie at Fifteen Months

With my computer issues, it's hard to get to these posts, but I do take Evie's chair photos each month.  I'll go back and add her stats and milestones later, just for her to have and read later.  But for now, here are each month's photos.  It's hard to not share when she's so cute. Sorry for clogging everyone's feed. ;)

A Story and a Slice

I took my little birdies to Denton yesterday.  We went to Recycled Books and Records to get Sam his first reading reward for the summer.  He chose an old Syd Hoff book, The Horse in Harry's Room and then the kids did their general running-around there, mostly in between the shelves in the reading nooks with the awesome green shag carpeting.  We were all starving after playing around at the bookstore so it didn't take much convincing from Sam for me to make our next stop J&J's Pizza.  They have a booth now, right by the big window, so of course, we had to sit there - great light!

After lunch we walked around the courthouse, as we always do, and Sam slid down the concrete staircase railings and chased squirrels around the lawn.  We decided to pop into the old-fashioned candy shop, but just to look!  Our last stop was a store called "Scrap Denton" where people can donate fabric, yarn, and other craft supplies they don't need so that people can purchase them inexpensively for whatever project they're working on.  We found a tub of bottlecaps in between the wine corks and the random puzzle pieces, and since Sam has started a collection we had to grab some, especially at only 25 cents a handful!  I grabbed a handful and counted them - about twenty - then put them back and told him to pick out his favorite twenty.  He was excited to find one with a Texas!  All that made for a busy afternoon for us, so we headed home for naptime, all of us (but especially Mama) 

completely exhausted

.

Garage

reposting after a little color-fix...

We played in the garage this week - Sam, my camera and me.

Whoa.  

I love the light in my garage, and the light in my garage loves Sam's blue eyes.  

Look at those things.

Thank you garage, we'll see you again soon.