tea party in a tent

My brother & his family, who I Love to pieces, were here from Indiana for about a week. One day it ended up just being me and the girls here, and Benson was taking a nap. I started thinking about how fun I thought forts were back in the day, and the great memories I have building them with my Mom.

Suddenly out of no where an idea struck me.

The girls were watching a movie on my bed, so I closed the door and told them to stay put for a few minutes. I rushed down to Laylas' room and snatched all her blankets and sheets off her bed. I ran back upstairs to the office, and constructed a princess fort with all the pink, purple, and teal pillows and blankets on the premises. 

Then, another idea struck, so I ran back downstairs and grabbed and princess dress ups and tea party supplies. 

I took the dress ups in to the girls and told them I had someplace magical to show them, but only princess' were allowed, so they needed to put their gear on...and come up with their princess names, of course.

For the rest of the evening they were princess Pink, and Princess Purple. 

I had them close their eyes as I led them to the fort, and I wish I had recorded their faces when they opened their eyes....so adorable! It was way more whimsical in person...for real.

In fact, the magic in the air was so thick.....

That I turned into their Fairy God Mother. hahaha

We finished our tea party, then painted our nails, and did a little make up (blush and lip gloss) before heading to the ball. This was a special ball though, so we played freeze dance;) and I taught them the ballet positions, and a couple basics. I actually got way into it, hehehe.

I LOVE these girls, and hope we can make some good lasting memories together. It only would have been better if all the girl cousins could have been there:( next time I'll have to actually plan it before hand;)

Favorite Friday (early)

Every Fall, as a Child, Mom would take us for a hike in the mountains. We each had a bag to keep  our treasures in. We were on the hunt...for the most beautiful leaves. After we were all satisfied that we had found the most beautiful leaves on the planet, we eagerly went home, and carefully used them to create our own "Fall Place mat". To this day, I still have some of my favorites from years past, and have continued this fun tradition with my own crew.

 Craig was trying to take a picture of us from our reflection on the dirty mini vans' window:) I love how you can see Benson yelling at us from inside the car, haha.

 Gosh, isn't this just breathtaking! I love it.

 Carter spotted a water snake with his awesome eye spying eyes, so Craig tried to catch it. Sadly, (said with sarcasm) the little guys got away. Too bad;)

 Craig gave Baby B a wild berry to try out. Did he like it?...not so much.

 I kind of feel in love with this picture of Carter and Layla Lou

 If you want to make your very own "fall place mat", here is what you do.

You need:

Leaves

thin flowers

pictures

contact paper

Cut 2 pieces of your Contact paper to the size you would like your mat to be. Carefully, and artistically, arrange your leaves, flowers, and pictures on the sticky side of  1 piece of contact paper. When you are happy with the way it looks, place the other piece of contact paper (sticky side down) over your masterpiece.

So easy. So fun. so do it:)

 Time for a good old fashion game of bowling for the Hall gang! We realized it had been over a year...maybe even two since our last bowling outing, so we had to show the kids our skills.

It didn't take long for me to realize our (Myself and the Craigsters) skills aren't so impressive these days...especially when Layla had a higher score than both of us!



That's about when I decided it was time for a little Crazy bowl! And we all (me and the one person that reads my blog) know that's something I totally rock at:)

We had the backward through, the spin toss, granny roll, granny roll backwards, left handed, boogy bowl, and eyes closed. It was epic, hahaha.

 

This round we had to do a little dance after we chucked the ball down the lane, and the kids dances were so funny. I'm glad I got them on tape:)

I LOVE laylas' dance! This little lady has got herself some moves, hahaha.
Check back in tomorrow for my FIRST EVER Fridays Fav...you are NOT going to want to miss it:)



Brains

It seems Layla has a new obsession as of late, and I have absolutly no idea where it came from. Brains. She has been heard saying things like, "let's squish that bugs brains out" or when I told her she is smart "that's because I have an extra large brain". When she got to the pit in her peach she yelled with excitment "yay, I found it's brain...but I am NOT going to eat it!". The other day we went on a little family hike on Craigs day off, and there were some tree roots visible on the trail, so she would say "there's a brain, and there's a brain, hahaha, and look guys...it's another brian." as she stomped on them with her happy little feet. I LOVE the stages children go through as they learn and grow, and the funny things they say and do. Layla is a constant stream of hilliarium (I may have just made that word up), always keeping things exciting at our home.

Ice cream!

What is better in the summer then ice cold ice cream? ...riding your bike to the ice cream shop with your sweetie's, and sitting on the grass under the shade while you eat that ice cold ice cream...that is the best! I'll tell you what else, my boys can make some crazy faces!

Especially the biggest boy.










What do you love to do with your sweeties in the summer?

p.s. today is my 9th anniversary, and the kids are sleeping over with cousins tonight:) Yay for me and my Lover boy, looks like we will be getting to bed early;)

4th Of July

My family has a cabin in Island Park, and every year for the 4th of July we have a BIG reunion up there that lasts the whole weekend. It's with my the 6 children in my Dads family, and all their children, and all their children....so it's lots of people, and lots of fun. Craig had to work this year over the weekend, but I thought I would be super woman, and take the kids up anyway.
My Dad rented a beautiful cabin near the family cabin for my siblings and I to stay in. It was so fun to go back to our cabin at the end of the day and sit in the hot tub, and play games till the weeeee hours of the morning. During the day we got to do all the fun camping stuff that kids love most.
At one point the ladies decided to take a ladies only boat ride, cranked up ABBA, and surfed behind the boat. It was my first time surfing, and I totally loved it. Even though Layla tripped while we were out, and her front tooth went through her lip; and Carter through the BIGGEST tantrum of his life because I was going on the boat without him...I'm still glad I went.