iPhone Catch Up

I have to say I am loving summer! No schedules to keep, just hanging out having fun. It's too hot to lug around my big ol' camera so most of the time I just take pictures with my phone. We really haven't been doing a whole lot lately. So here is a random walk through the past week or so. :)

 This is how I found Heidi one day...sitting on a stool on her table talking on her pretend phone. My favorite is her headband. :)

 Gracie took this shot when she was babysitting for us one night. 

 We went to see Dane at the MAC counter and she let the girls wear her makeup brush belt. They loved it!

 Heidi putting "makeup" on Aunt DeDe :)

 I also made THE BEST brownies ever. S'more brownies. AMAZING!! So you just make a box of brownies and when they come out of the oven put 2-1/2 cups of mini marshmallows on top. Break up 4 whole graham crackers and sprinkle those on top of that. Then broil them for 30-60 seconds. I've actually made them more brown on top than this and that is awesome too. Then when they are done you can sprinkle chocolate chips on top. The last step is optional...they are amazing either way. And even though it looks super sweet it's actually not at all. The marshmallow mellows out the whole flavor and it just tastes really really good. Trust me. :)

 We've been swimming a ton. Heidi is now jumping in the pool and swimming around in the shallow end. Super cute! Now both kids are pretty much swimming non stop!

  

 Shane and I were supposed to go to Atlanta but the plans got canceled last minute so I went to the movies with Gracie and Dana instead. Woo Hoo! We saw Snow White and the Huntsman...a good movie but really dark. I think I like happy ever after movies a little better. :)

I put Heidi's hair in braids...it made her look so grown up! :(

 

 This is the picture Natalie drew of me...Queen Mommy :)

Gracie showed me this app for my phone and the girls and I had fun making this heart collage. And really that pretty much sums up our summer so far. I am lovin it!

Keeping Busy

This week we have done something pretty much every day. It's been fun and crazy!

Monday I had jury duty. I have never been called for jury duty and I was actually pretty excited to perform my civic duty! Gracie babysat for me and I made sure to get to the court house early. I was kind of nervous too. I just didn't know what to expect. I brought a book and I sat in a waiting room with 60 other people for about 3 hours. The old guy next to me had done it 4 times and he filled me in on what to expect. He was a talker! He actually said to me..."I know you're reading a book and I don't mean to bother you, but what's your name?" Pretty funny. The cases ended up being dismissed and they let us all go. They are going to mail me my check for $25....still can't believe that is all they pay you! I would have had to pay Gracie more than that every day to watch my kids!

Tuesday I took the kids to the movies. They have this summer kids special at both of the theaters here where they show movies Tuesday and Thursday mornings for a dollar. Most of the movies are too grown up for my little girls but this Tuesday they were playing Alvin and the Chipmunks Chipwrecked. I picked up Gracie on the way and Dane and Nokie met us there. They also have kids drinks and popcorn for $1.50. Great deal! The only problem was that they couldn't get the sound to play. The whole theater was full of little kids and we had to sit there for 40 min past the time it was supposed to start while they were figuring out how to fix it. Yikes! A little crazy but at least once it started they were all happy!

Wednesday we went to story time at Barnes and Noble. I was worried that the girls would get up and walk away or talk the whole time or just not pay attention so I've never taken them before. They didn't do any of those things and we had a really nice time. Got myself a starbucks...yay...and they were very good during story time. The lady reading the stories was awesome. She asked the kids questions the whole time and was very animated. They loved it!

Today is Thursday right? The weeks kind of getting away from me. :) This morning we went to my parents house to swim. My friend Sarah met me there with her two little kids. We sat in the screened in porch while the kids played in the water. It's so nice! My girls are fish! Natalie is trying to figure out how to dive but she basically stands like she is going to dive and then just does a normal jump in the pool. Heidi is actually swimming! I can't believe her. She swims as far as she can hold her breath. She just hasn't figured out how to breathe and swim at the same time. She has also started jumping in from the side of the pool. It is so cute! She runs and jumps in, swims to the steps and does it all over again. For hours! I've mainly been doing videos so I'll try to take pictures next time. But here is a cute one of Natalie and Heidi jumping in at the same time. :)

Free Bowling

I found this awesome deal where kids bowl free all summer. It's so great. Kids 15 and under bowl free and I bought a pass for myself to bowl all summer for $30 along with 3 friends. How cool is that? So I can go with Shane, or Dana and I can take the girls or I can go with some friends. It is at all AMF bowling centers so if you want to sign up here is the link...Free Bowling. I've been twice already. One time with some friends and then today we went as a family. I little more crowded on the weekends! I think we will stick to weekdays! It was fun though. We shared a lane so we had the bumpers...that kinda made it interesting. Shane likes to spin the ball and make it curve around and a few times it hit the bumpers and went off in weird directions. :)

 Shane's spin

 Crazy girls

 Helping Heidi get the ball down the lane

 She got the hang of it

 She is so silly

Mud Pies

Yay! Today I was officially a really cool mom. :) I usually don't do stuff with the kids that a.) makes them messy or b.) makes my house messy but summer is helping me to loosen up a bit! This morning it was overcast and gloomy. Not too cold but it looked like it was going to rain. They went outside to play and I saw Heidi playing in the dirt. When I called her she really thought she was in trouble because I never let them play in the dirt....see above. So when I told them I had a great idea and what did they think about playing in the mud today they were massively excited! I just made them change clothes while I hosed down a section of our backyard that doesn't have any grass. (Shane was not too happy about this) They were so cute! A million cute pictures to follow! It took Natalie a little bit to get going. She didn't like getting dirty...she is totally my kid. I told her that she had to get really dirty for it to be fun. Just getting a little dirty is not fun at all. They started making "meat ball" and throwing mud at each other. They were rubbing it all over their clothes and on their arms and legs. I tried to get them to do a mud mask but they didn't think that sounded fun. It actually did start pouring rain while they were playing outside. I went outside with my umbrella to take pictures. So overall it was an awesome morning and we might even do it again!

 Heidi's little feet

 Natalie's feet

 See how Natalie is just crouching down...she didn't want to get dirty yet

 This was after Natalie threw dirt at her

 Heidi threw mud back and I have no idea how it got IN Natalie's mouth!

 Love this face!

  

 You can see all the rain in this one. I love it...so awesome!