good puppy

Pirate puppy?

Bogey is one wild and crazy pup and that is a fact!  He jumps and plays and barks and licks.

He is so good with the kids. 

All he wanted to do was curl up with his favorite red pillow and take a nap...

But the kids were decorating him.  As you can see he seemed to like it or he was just too tired to care.

random thoughts on Monday

We had a wonderful time this weekend being surrounded my friends.  We love our friends.  But, I am so glad it is over.  I don't feel like I over did the party, but planning and throwing any party (small or large)  is tiring.  I didn't want to get off the couch all day yesterday.  We ate left-overs and snacked all day long.

It is so hot right now.  I know I sound like I'm on repeat. We are on day 14 of over 100 degree temperatures.  We have solar screens on the west side of our house.  It helps so much to block the evening sun, but I am thinking we will get them on the east side of our house also.  Our house gets so hot.   I just worry that the screens will make our house WAY to dark and cave like.  At this point though I think they would be worth it!  I'm so thankful for our air conditioner.  It is working itself to death right now.  There is talk of a cold front heading our way.  Maybe it will cool us off to what? Around 97 degrees?  haha!

  

I woke up in the middle of the night with Layla.  She had a bad dream about the police chasing her though a forest.  They were flashing a big read light into her eyes and helicopters were flying overhead.  Bless her heart, she has been involved in so many police chases....you know.  Really?  Why would a 6 year old dream that?

Can you tell she got makeup for her birthday?  Let the obsession being. 

Hayden is really talking up a storm lately.  He talks non stop and I love it!  Having two kids that talk all the time is crazy though.  Their conversations are quite comical.  Hayden has been talking super fast, so fast that his brain works harder than his mouth.  He stutters.  Layla stuttered for  about 6 months and stopped.  I hope the same goes for Hayden.

I can't believe school is starting in a little over a month.  Where has summer gone?  It seems like it has flown by.  I am excited about shopping for school clothes with Layla.  She is so indecisive though, so sometimes shopping with her can be stressful.  I'm hoping to browse a few websites to get clothing ideas before we shop.  I feel bad...I think she got her indecisiveness from me.   She doesn't like shorts, but loves dresses, but has to have tights or shorts underneath.  She loves to wear tennis shoes, but wants her dresses to look sporty enough to wear with tennis shoes.  Blah blah...decisions decisions. 

If you made it to the end of this post...yeay!  This is our family scrapbook and I am glad I can post randomness.  It seems like random things are the most fun to read as time passes.  I can also look back next year and see how hot it was this year.  All I have been doing is whining about the heat.  I'm on my own nerves!

Have a great Monday!

birthday beach bash

We had the best time celebrating the kids birthday's yesterday.

I love the way the cupcakes turned out, and they tasted great too!

I had so much fun planning and decorating for the party... I love parties!

We had a million beach balls and all the kids got to take one or two or three home with them!

Of course we had sweet tea, and Gary smoked a brisket and a pork shoulder.

We put the meat between potato rolls and had little sliders.

It was so hot and I was glad we had several ways to cool off.

The water slide is always fun and the kids and adults both have a super fun time playing on it!

Since we had beach balls we all threw them at the kids as they were sliding down.

Some kids may not like brisket and pork so we made little hot dogs.  It was so simple, but perfect.  Most kids were too busy to eat, so there was no wasted hot dogs.  Whenever the kiddos got hungry they just grabbed one and ran!

It was so hot one of the bears slipped off the cupcake....

Hayden helped me clean up the mess!

Every time I saw Hayden yesterday he had another cupcake in his hand.

Speaking of cupcakes, I made mac n cheese cupcakes too.

And instead of taking the time during the party to scoop ice cream, I scooped it the day before.  I put the scoops into hula skirt cupcake liners and then put them back into the freezer in muffin tins wrapped in press n seal wrap.  When the time for ice cream came, we just ate it right out of the liner.

The adult "boys" had a super fun time acting like kids.  They had a serious game of catch going on.  It was so funny to watch.  It is safe to say we all had a blast!!!

If you look closely in the picture below you can see the football flying through the sky...

I am so thankful for our friends!  Thanks to everyone who came and made the kids Beach Bash a spectacular event!  It is something we will remember forever!!!

Simply Fondue

Simply Fondue is one of my all time favorite restaurants, so when Ashley invited our family to help her celebrate her birthday we were all.over.it!  There were seven of us...the picture above is of us "cheers-ing" our marshmallows.  

 

The adults in the group enjoyed a four course meal.  We had an appetizer, salad, main course and two desserts.  The kids just shared with us because there was SO much food.  

Ashley and Angie

This is a picture of the appetizer portion of our meal.  The cheese was so yummy and we dipped celery, carrots, broccoli, bread and other veggies into warm cheese.  Layla loved it!  

I love this picture of Aaron and Ava.  The cheese was steaming hot!!

Hayden didn't seem very interested in the whole fondue experience.  Thankfully he watched a movie on my iPhone during dinner.  He ate a few pieces of steak and shrimp; he is my little meat eater :)  He did eat a ton of dessert too, but we all did!  Dipping sweet treats into chocolate is something all of us should do very often...haha!

The main course was impressive.  We ordered so many great things.  In the picture above, Layla was cooking a broccoli cheese ball.  They were so delicious!  She ate both raviolis that came with our meal.    Gary and I had beef, shrimp, mahi mahi and honey almond chicken.  It was fun and yummy!

 I am so happy was able to have fun and enjoy this fondue experience with our family and amazing friends. I thought we were all very well behaved....even the adults.

BUT...

   Five couples were seated at the booth behind us while we were dining.  All five couples moved.  Apparently people don't enjoy dining at a fondue restaurant when children are seated near.  :(   HOW RUDE!  I will say it was a bit challenging to cook the kids and our food, but we still had a great time.  Next time I think we will do an adult only meal so I can drink more wine...heehee!

Ava is watching a movie and her daddy is timing his food in the hot oil!

I love this picture of these sweet ladies!  

Even though the girls are about 3 years apart they love each other so much.  Hayden always says Ava is his girl friend, but I know in my heart Ava will end up with an older man just like her mommy ;)

Isn't this a sweet daughter and daddy picture?!  Aaron was explaining to Ava that the table was hot.  It was so stinkin' cute...Ava kept saying "en fuego"  I love that girl!!

Sweet Ava singing "Happy Birthday" to her Mamma.

As I mentioned earlier we had two desserts that night!  We ate this delicious red velvet cake AND had the dessert served with our meal.  I was so full when we left.  I felt like I needed to be rolled out of the restaurant.  We had a plate of goodies to dip into hot melted Reese's chocolate and Amaretto white chocolate.  My favorite was the angel food cake dipped into the white chocolate.  Layla loved the strawberries, and Hayden couldn't get enough of the marshmallows dipped into chocolate.  

It was all so delicious and I can't wait to go back!

ww--the only thing that keeps him out of trouble