Each year our church has a crazy fun hunt of eggs for the kids. This year was no exception. There was the egg hunt, an estimation station, a trampoline, cake decorating, picnic lunch, and a photo booth with friends. The day was busy and not many photos were taken of the fun, but these will be cherished. Two are more serious ones and two have no trouble expressing their spunk. Want to guess who belongs to which one?

The girls celebrated their birthday together and chose to have a dress-up party at a local store. We planned the party for when all of our friends (out-of-town ones too) could come. Everyone brought a doll/friend and they and their doll dressed for the party. Then they all shared snacks and giggles. The girls really enjoyed all the fun and being “grown-up”. While they are quickly growing up at least we can slow down enough to have these wonderful moments of fun. For the party theme they chose a Pink-Paris party.  Thanks friends for joining us for the fun.

All of our friends together again!!

Birthday Sisters

Princess Julia in white with TWO tiaras! Why pick one when you can have more.

Princess Emily ready to strut her stuff. She is not our shy kid.

A pretty cupcake ready to celebrate.

The dolls get to eat a bit too. Here is the yummy eraser cupcake for the dolls.

Before all the fun started we snapped a photo. They are pretty pleased that the fun will be starting soon. Emily brought her Emily doll and Julia brought her doll she named Julia.

So glad to get to spend some time with friends!!

Sharing the fun the best part. Pure joy!

Some days are for finding the mysteries hidden below a leaf.

Some days are for finding a cool and inspiring spot to sit.

Some days are for finding a leaf that becomes your favorite. It could be a favorite because of the color variation, a favorite because both sides were interesting, a favorite because it could be used as an imaginary tool, and a favorite because after treasuring it, we got to hide it in a special place so it can continue its own adventure.

Some days are for taking a moment to forget our individual goals and embrace the opportunity that is present.

Some days are for bouquet of leaves.

Some days are for giving Mama a smile that we can capture and remember for days and years to come.

Happy Halloween 2015

This year’s Halloween fell on a Saturday making the day a relaxed day. The girls picked their costumes weeks prior to Halloween. Actually, they have picked the next three years coordinating costumes, but we will see if they change their minds about those.

Our evening started at our closest grandparents’ house and then moved to the other grandparents’ neighborhood. There were plenty of houses close together to visit and LOTS of other kids moving around the neighborhood too. The girls enjoyed going up to the houses and finding all the other kids who had Star Wars costumes. They weren’t sure of what to make of Grandpa pretending to be asleep on the porch. He had a grumpy guy act for handing out candy.

Emily enjoyed reading several of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and wanted to be Laura. She went barefooted for part of the trick-or-treating in honor of Laura’s general dislike of shoes. Maybe the blister she was forming on the back of her foot had something to do with it too.

Julia’s pick for costume was Princess Leia. We are a bit Star Wars crazy here at our house these days. This action Princess is a favorite. She was going to keep us safe for our evening adventure from all forces of the Empire. She charmed many people with her smile and braid buns.

We keep counting up the years on our little one. While she is still our little one, she is not so little anymore. For her 7th birthday her biggest wish was just to spend it with her family. During lunch we celebrated in her class with cupcakes. Then for dinner we met up with all of the Grandparents for a little asian food. There were lots of gifts and even more grins from the happy girl. The birthday was a joy, just like she is. We love you big girl!

Dinner is always fun when you get to watch it being made for you. Julia was not only hungry, but willing to try some new things. She decided shrimp was great. She asked mama if we could have shrimp at home because it was SO good. Mama told her that she didn’t know how to cook shrimp well so it probably wouldn’t happen. Her response was that it looked pretty easy to her after watching the chef do it. 😉 What good answer can a mom give to that one.

When asked what kind of birthday cake/cupcake she wanted it seemed like an easy decision to have a strawberry cake. She doesn’t love chocolate like her mama does. Her favorite color (pink) and favorite fruit (strawberries) come together really well in a strawberry cake.

Now that these Grandparents are now Tennessee Grandparents it is easier to make it to our birthday dinners.

The original Tennessee Grandparents

Hello, Hello Kitty! Julia has quite a family of kitties. Emily gave her a new one. The rest of them had to come out to meet the new friend.

Loving sisters (most of the time)!

Emily wrote a birthday card to Julia. Her advice is priceless! “Dear Julia, I hope you’ve have a great night. So now you are 7 you get a bible and more, but most importantly I want to warn you how much she (mom) makes you help in the house.” Mom had better make sure that happens.

Arches National Park is one of our favorite places to visit. While this park wasn’t on our volcanic event list, we drove right past it. How could we not stop for a quick visit? We took a few hours off the road to stretch our legs and show the girls another American wonder. We took two short hikes. One involved Emily and Mama doing some climbing to get up into a window. Climbing to Double Arch was one of Emily’s favorite things. It allowed her to explore and complete a challenge. Together, the four of us took another hike to Turret Arch, North and South Windows. We look forward to returning and doing a lot more hiking and exploring. This stop was our last official stop of the trip. There were still a lot of hours to get home, but we had seen a lot. We are grateful for the wonderful things we could introduce the girls to and to discover their favorite things from this trip.

All the girls on our hike together.

This was the arch that Emily climbed up and into.

The climb gave us a great view!

Sometimes a nap is necessary to enjoy an adventure more.

Hiking a bit more.

Visitor centers have cool things to check out (and pose on)!

Perspective on the scale of the arches.