Peacock!

So, I've been acting as janitor at our church for the last couple of months. A few weeks ago, as I was taking out the trash, I noticed a peacock in the playground area. The area is fenced in, so I was a little concerned that he was stuck. I took a couple of pictures on my phone and then my Mom called. So, I grabbed my digital camera and snapped off another couple of pictures while talking to her.

I decided that this poor bird was stuck. He kept trying to put his head through the chain-link. There are two gates into the playground. One was already open so I went to open the other one. I was a little unsure about the nature of the peacock (are they mean like geese?) so I grabbed a shield. My shield happened to be the lid to the turtle-shaped sandbox. I walk around the playground, herding the poor bird. He, of course, doesn't go where I want him to and soon he's got me sort of stuch behind the play structure.

I finally get around it and walk towards him. I've almost got him to the gate. What does he do then? He takes off in flight... onto the roof of the church. Here I am worried about this "poor bird" and the thing could fly the whole time! (And later, when relating this story to a friend, he stops me after I tell him that I think the bird's stuck to tell me that they can fly.)

Flower girls.

About a year ago, while on vacation, Adam's cousin, Jared, asked his girlfriend to marry him. They asked if the girls would be willing to be flower girls. After much coaxing, begging and pleading (NOT!) the girls agreed! ;)

I knew that Alyssa would do great- she's such a natural performer, but I was a little worried about Karli. So, we practiced. We made a big deal out of the dresses and how special they were. The girls also had special sandals and headbands to wear. We put them on the week of the wedding and let them throw scraps of paper. It was a riot!



Practicing!

Cleaning up- only to throw them again!

Sadly, I don't have any pictures of them walking down while throwing their petals. I was in the canopied area acting as wedding coordinator and from where Adam was sitting, he couldn't really get a good shot. But, we have tons of pictures of them in their dresses, being their goofy selves!


Waiting for pictures to be taken!

Aren't they cute?

The girls with the bride and their cousins (Kylie is far left and CJ is on the right)

Dancing!

She kept dancing and then sitting down and kicking her legs up.

Jared (groom) helping Karli with her shoes.




Karli did surprisingly well. She walked down and stood with the Selena, the Maid of Honor. She asked for me once and Selena took her out the secret way, to me. She gave me a hug and then walked back to stand with the wedding party. She made it to the very end and then came down the stairs on the opposite side. I was relieved that she didn't yell and scream for me, like she had done during the rehearsal. They both did such a great job and they were so cute!

Tie Dye Fun!

Alyssa asked if we could tie dye some shirts. We found this really cool kit at Wal-mart (on clearance) and bought some plain, white t-shirts. The instructions that came in the kit didn't really explain how to fold the shirts to get the desired design. So, we youtubed it! There's a "tie dye expert" that you can watch. So, we got the shirts rubber-banded and then applied the dye. They came out really cool! Now I just need to get a picture of all of us in our shirts!



The shirts before we rinsed them.

Karli's shirt.

Alyssa's shirt.

Mom's shirt.

Dad's shirt.

Grandma and Grandpa's house!

My girls LOVE going to their grandparents' houses. Probably because each set of grandparents spoil them terribly. My parents let them get away with murder... well, almost. Adam's parents are slightly stricter. But not much. :)

My Mom and Dad had bought an inflatable water slide for a family get-together on Father's Day. Three of my Dad's sisters came and their kids and their kids' kids. It was so much fun! And then the rain came. It poured. And hailed. Then the lightning came along with the thunder... so, needless to say, the water slide went un-used.

So, a couple weeks ago, after church, we went over for lunch and water-fun. The girls were so excited. Well, Alyssa was. Karli fell asleep in the car on the way over. Alyssa was patient enough to wait about an hour before the harassment commenced. So, she woke her up, let her eat lunch and then they were off. The water slide was soooo cool. Literally. My parents are on well water; the water comes out almost ice cold! Alyssa went down the slide (which has a shower of water so you don't get stuck) a few times. We were only able to make Karli do it once.

The swings got lots of use though! Mom and Dad have this "horse" swing. It's made out of an old tire. My grandparents brought it up from California when they came in June. It's so cute!

Mom and Dad bought the girls a growth chart for their "pink room". So, they measured them. Alyssa is nearly 4 feet tall while Karli's nearly 3. Amazing how big they've both gotten!


Splash!

Yeee-haw!

Ride 'em Cowgirl!

Sooo Big!

Growin' fast!

Independence Day!

Ok, so I'm making an attempt to catch up on my blogging after being informed by a friend that I've been slacking (which I admit, I totally have been). Soooo, here we go!

Back in April, we had 3 cedar trees cut down in our front yard. The trees shed pounds upon pounds of cedar needles (?) onto our lawn, block sunlight (causing more moss than grass in the yard) and the roots were causing the walk-way up to our front door to lift (making an edge that people are constantly tripping over). So, we chopped 'em down. And when I say we, I mean Barton, construction/destruction man extraordinaire! A friend of ours took the trunks to use as fencing and was even willing to take all the branches for us. Barton being willing to cut them down (and play with his toys) and Craig being willing to take it all away saved us a TON of money! God is good!

A friend from church offered to help us pull the stumps. He's in the Coast Guard and had gotten a length of mooring rope (I think that's what he called it) from one of the boats. He wanted to use it along with the tow bar on his new truck. We gave him the opportunity to do so. July 4th was the first weekend that Adam had free.


The "after"

Bart in the tree.

Melanie and Karli.

Hard at work?

They bent the pry bar.

After the work was done, we had lots of yummy food and did some fireworks. The kids loved it. After most of the kids passed out, the adults got to just sit around and talk. It was a great day!

The Fairies of Pixiehollow

Alyssa has been taking dance for a little over 2 years now. She started out taking ballet and tap but now only takes ballet. (She didn't like the tapping anyway.) Every year, the studio puts on 2 big shows- one in the spring/summer and then The Nutcracker in November. This year they did The Fairies of Pixiehollow.

Alyssa and her classmates were Dewdrops. They started learning their routine in February! (We had several new girls join the class so they had to re-work the choreography a time or two.) I think this was one of the more difficult ones they've done thus far.

We had a bit of a speed bump when picture time came because the girls' costumes hadn't arrived. We had ordered them from a company somewhere in Chicago and had paid for a rush on the order. Apparently, there was a death in the company that slowed things down a bit. So, we got their costumes a week before the show!

The shows were on a Friday and Saturday. The first night (Friday) was the night that I got to watch it- along with my parents, grandparents and a few family friends. Alyssa was complaining that her leg was hurting her. So, we prayed and I told her just to rest until it was her time to go on and we'd see how she was feeling then. We had a while to wait... there was an "In Concert" portion of the show beforehand (basically, it's just a hodgepodge of different dance routines- totally irrelevant to the show). I went back into the dressing room during the intermission and she said she was fine. So, she went on!

The girls did really great both nights, despite the fact that they'd only practiced on the stage once. The studio that they practice in is a little odd-shaped so it was a little harder for them to find their places at first. But they did wonderfully!

After curling the hair.

Costume- check!

Make-up and eyes are on!

Now it's time to wait our turn.

Perler beads are a great way to fill the time!

The sequin mess...

We smeared peanut-butter on!

The sequins were attached to her forehead with eyelash glue and left a teal green color on her head. You could also see glue residue. Someone suggested using peanut-butter to get it off. So, we smeared it on, rubbed it in, and it took it all off! She thought it was hilarious!

Pizza Pizza!

Adam's been working swing shift since about February. It's been great for us, as we get to spend more daylight hours together as a family. The only downside is that I hate cooking dinner. Adam's not there to eat it with me and the girls are rather finicky. I keep saying that I'm going to start making "dinner" for lunch but Adam's been on 12 hour days for the last month and a half (which means he leaves for work at 5 PM, gets home somewhere around 6 AM, sleeps til 2 PM, etc.) so he's not even really with us during any refular mealtime.

So, the girls and I have started having pizza night once a week. (Except we forgot last week. Shhhhh! Don't tell Alyssa!) I found these really cute pre-made pizza crusts (there are 3- 1 for each of us!) and then we add pepperoni, olives, pineapple and cheese. It's so much fun to watch the girls make their pizzas! The pictures below are from the first time we did it.

Brushing on a little olive oil.

Alyssa spreading her sauce.

The cutest pepperoni's EVER!

Karli's.

Alyssa's "art" (it's Matthew)

Eating the olives...

The finished pizzas on their way into the oven.

This last picture shows the girls eating watermelon. Alyssa had been asking me if they could eat the watermelon straight out of the rind for a couple days. So, I figured, "what the heck?" I scored it inside the shell so that it'd be a little easier for them to scoop it out and then let them have at it. It was hilarious to watch them eat it!