Birthday Bash!

After 6 months of talking and anticipation, 60 balloons, a Barbie cake, a dozen little girls, tons of candy, lots of fun, and many presents, Ella is finally 4. I usually think that time flys and I can't believe they are older but it feels like Ella should have been 4 a long time ago. She has been talking about her birthday for a very long time so to be quite honest I am glad she is 4 and that it is done. It was fun and she loved it but I can move on to something else now. I don't think we will be having a big birthday party for a long time.

Ella loves to have tea parties so I thought we should do a Tea Party Theme.

Ella is such a fun little girl. She loves to dress up, her Summer attire has consisted of her swimsuit and then pairing it with a skirt or sometimes shorts. She loves to color, she will color for a good hour and half sometimes. She has a great imagination. She is a social little thing which I don't understand because when I was little I was not like that.

We started off popping balloons, there was candy inside of them.

We decorated hats for our tea party.

Most of the guests.

Ella has been talking about a Barbie cake for months so I had to make one. It is not as easy as you think. The cake totally fell apart when I put the Barbie in but it survived.

Ella pretending to blow out her candles, it was windy so we couldn't get them to stay lit.

Opening presents.

What I've Been Up To

Doing crafts is one of my favorite things to do. Here are some of things that I have done lately.

For the picture holder I took old shutters and cut them down. I spray painted it and glued mini clothes pins on it. I also made the topiary thing as well.

I saw this on a blog and I can't remember which one but I made the valence.

The wreath was super easy and way cheap. It is just a wreath with felt flowers. The flowers are easy to make. Took a little time but I really like how it turned out.

I have been working for my dad this Summer. I work every Monday for a few hours. I have been saving my money for a new sewing machine. I got it a couple weeks ago and have been loving it. I have discovered that I love making Ella skirts. They are easy, cheap and fun to make. She loves them. I got the tutorials from www.makeitandloveit.blogspot.com and www.fromanigloo.blogspot.com.

Summer is coming to an end

As August comes closer to an end I can feel Summer starting to end and my motivation to do the Summer activities. But we have been trying to enjoy the nice Summer days before they're gone. We have been going to the spray toys, taking walks, going to the Hermiston and Moses Lake Water parks, picking blackberries, going to grandmas, I am working for my dad and just having fun outside.

August is flying by and we are pretty much staying home this month. Its amazing how I always feel like next week I will have more time and next week is always just as busy as the week before. I don't know how some moms do it. I only have two and I feel like my plate is full.

Talking a walk at Zintel Canyon.

We went our annual Stake Picnic. The kids had a lot of fun. There were several blow up toys for Ella to play on, cotton candy, snow cones, and popcorn.

Having fun at the spray toys.

Ella sporting her Aunt Janet's shades.

One of Dave's coworkers told him about a place where there are blackberries. So we tried to out.

Once I saw tons (and I mean tons) of these spiders I told him that it wasn't worth it. Dave picked for probably 10 minutes and decided blackberries were worth buying. This picture does not do the spider justice, it was huge and there were tons. It was disgusting.

Allen Family

We were able to get together with most of my family. My sister came from Virginia so everyone tried to come as well so we could all see each other. The kids had a blast but can I say that having fun for kids can be hard. We all stayed with my parents, which is a bit crazy but lots of fun.

The kids played a ton, did the slip-n-slide, had a couple of water balloons fights, did some crafts, jumped on the tramp, four wheeler rides, played in the dirt, and just had fun playing.

Ella had many four wheeler rides.

They loved the dirt in the garden.

Grandma made her yummy doughnuts.

The kids had a couple of water balloon fights, that eventually led to the hose and grandpa. They had so much fun.

Ella with her cousin, Madeline. I thought it was sweet.

One of Ella's favorite things to do with water. Don't ask me why but the girl love to dip the top of her head in the water.

Another cute moment with her other cousin, Lilly.

We made shirts, they were super cute. We did their names on the back and some stuff on the front. The kids had fun spraying them.

We also decorated rocks. Heat up some rocks in the oven and then color them with crayons. Its cool how the crayons melt.

Tanner enjoying his cake pop.

More slip-n-slide. Ella decided to be the shark.

Twin Lakes!!

We went on our yearly trip to Twin Lakes with my family. To be honest, it was a lot of fun this year. We never know how the weather is going to be, we can have blazing hot weather or cold weather or scary stormy weather. This year we had two days of cooler weather and then 3 days of perfect weather.

We had a ton of fun during those three days. Ella did a lot of swimming, picking flowers, tubing, jumps off the dock, riding her bike, turtle hunting, and just tons of playing.

Tanner had lots of fun exploring, getting dirty, being held as much as he wanted, going on countless walks, taking some of his first steps (yeah), and just loving being outside.

I loved the weather, seeing my kids have so much fun, going on a walk/run with my sisters and mom everyday, water skiing, doing a 13 mile bike ride with my sister Janet, and just enjoying not having a cell phone or internet to distract me.

Dave had fun fishing everyday with my dad, reading, water skiing, sleeping, doing jumps with Ella, and being away from work.

It seems like there is always one funny or scary story every year dealing with animals. This year it was a skunk. My dad, Dave, my cousin, and uncle were cleaning fish in the dark where you are supposed to clean fish, which is kind of off away from the cabins. My cousin looked over and saw a skunk that was about to spray them, so my uncle took the hose he was holding and sprayed it in the butt until the skunk stopped trying to spray them and ran away. Pretty funny and we were all glad that they didn't get sprayed.

Ella with her Aunt Janet.

Catching Minos with grandma.

Ella and her cousin Tallia had the same swimsuit on accident. This is now Ella's favorite swimsuit.

My dad caught a big trout.

We picked flowers everyday.

One of Ella's favorite things was to do jumps off the dock.

Tanner started taking his first steps. He isn't full on walking yet but at least he is trying and is interested now.

Ella loved the tube, she did it everyday.

Tanner just being cute.

Doing jumps with Aunt Trina. She played with my kids a lot. She took Tanner on tons of walks. She also swam with Ella and let her swim with her nieces on her husband's side. Ella kept talking about the girls and wanting to play with them.

Grandpa took us turtle hunting, we caught 4 turtles.