Baby Sister

Isabella has always loved to play with baby dolls.  Over the last week though, she has started playing with her "baby sister," one of her baby dolls.  She had her stroller out and was telling me that she was pushing baby sister around.  Then the next night she brought baby sister upstairs in her doll car seat.  Baby sister even had to watch a movie with us too.

It's very random and came out of nowhere.  When I ask her what her name is, she just looks at me and says, "it's baby sister," like I should know that already.  I don't know, maybe she knows something we didn't!!  I do know one thing, when the time comes, she will be an amazing big sister!!  Love my little mother hen :)

Craft Blogs...How I Love Thee

I have an obsession, I must confess!!  I absolutely LOVE crafty blogs, the kind that give you tips and show you how to redo furniture, create wonderful art, show you how to sew or crochet, any along that line.  They have become my latest addiction.  I sit for hours after Bella goes to bed and just look through all these blogs.  I have a list a mile long of some wonderful things I have found and want to create.  I get so excited when I find a new blog to check out.  I'm like a kid in a candy store!!  Someday, I will have a craft blog of my own (it may be a few years though before I get around to that) :)  I have grabbed buttons from a few of my favs, but there are definately a lot more.  If anyone has any great sites or blogs they love, please feel free to share.  When I get some of these amazing projects completed, I will be sure to post!!

It's Only Been 4 Years

Yesterday, Jason and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary.  It definately seems like it's been longer than 4 years.  Maybe because we have been together for almost 7 years??  We had a really good day together, along with Bella.  We went to lunch at Applebee's, then it was time for Bella's dance class.  She was so excited because her daddy decided to go with us.  After that, we just hung out at home for awhile.  Bella went to bed early, so Jason and I enjoyed a yummy brownie sundae while we watched a movie (Rango).  It was a nice, relaxing way to end our evening.  Looking forward to many more wonderful years together!!

Sparklers

On Saturday evening, we had planned on taking Bella to Lake Fest in Culver for the fireworks.  We ended up having so much fun at the zoo that we didn't get back to Plymouth until 9pm so the fireworks were kind of out of the question.  Bella was really disappointed about not going and wanted to light fireworks off at the house.  The only thing we had left were a couple boxes of sparklers from the 4th of July.  I didn't think she would like them because on the 4th she wanted nothing to do with them.  Well she ended up having a ball!!  The first few pics I took with the fireworks setting on my camera.  I thought they turned out really neat.

If you look closely, you can see the outline of Bella.

 Here she is marching around the yard and having a lot of fun.

She looks like she is concentrating really hard.



This was a nice little way to wrap up our fun-filled family evening.  It ended up being a wonderful day!!

Until next time...

Zoo Members Picnic

This summer we got a membership to Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend.  It's not a very big zoo, but it is really nice and Bella loves to go see the animals.  Every year they have a special picnic for members.  The picnic takes place after regular zoo hours on a Saturday evening.  They had Papa Johns pizza, drinks, a bounce house, magician, and lots more.  We went on Saturday evening.  It was nice because my mom and dad were able to come with us so that made it a whole lot more fun for Bella to have her Nanny and Pappy with.  When we got there, we got our food and then we started to walk around to see all the animals.  Bella got to feed the fish, which she loved doing.  But she said her favorite animal was the tiger!!  We had a great evening and thankfully it wasn't extremely hot which made it more enjoyable. 

Feeding the fish

Acting silly in the gift shop with Daddy

Bella loved this thing.  She was excited about being a farmer :)

Riding a giant turtle

Can't wait to go back.  We have the Zoo Brew coming up ( this is for mommy and daddy only).  Then in October we get into the Zoo Boo for free.  That should be a lot of fun!!

Until next time...

A Little Beach Getaway

Last week, on Friday, we went to the Dunes.  We met Jake, Roxanne, Nora, Jackie (a friend of Rox), Jessica, Rachel, Ann, and Nellie there.  It was a nice little family getaway.  The beach was really nice and we had a little breeze, which helped to keep us cool.  Jason and Jake had a lot of fun going out in the water, while Ann, Nellie, and Bella had a blast playing in the sand, climbing up the big sand hill, and then sliding down on their bottoms.  All us "big" girls enjoyed catching some rays and chatting.  It ended up being a really great day and we had beautiful weather.  Can't wait to go back!!  Here are some pics from our day:

My Latest Creation

Everyday I get an email from a craft site full of all kinds of ideas.  Awhile back, there was one that included a projects called paint chip art.  When I pulled it up, it was such a great piece that I wanted to make it.  I had to put my own twist on it though.  I made it for around $10.  The only thing I needed to buy was spray adhesive and mod podge.  We already had the wood, paint, stain, and the paint chips were free from the paint department at WalMart.  I'm so happy with how it turned out and can't wait to hang them in our family room.  It's going to bring in different pops of color and I'll be able to add some new throw pillows to update the room!!  Here is what they look like...

Bubble Day

A couple weeks ago our library sponsored a bubble day at our park.  I ended up taking Bella over there for a little while.  She had a lot of fun making bubbles with the big wands.  Here are a few pictures of her bubbles...

This Summer...she's gonna TAP!!

A couple weeks ago, Bella started her summer session of dance class.  She was extremely excited to be starting back up, if you couldn't tell from the picture above.  This time she moved up a class so along with doing ballet, she is doing tap as well.  We were lucky enough to find a pair of tap shoes at Goodwill for only $3.00.  Since we bought them though, Bella wants to wear them everywhere.  I think she would sleep in them if I would let her.  She is loving every minute of dance and can't wait to go.  I love that when she comes home, she does her best to show me some of the things she has been learning.  I definately think that dance has been good for her and I'm so glad we signed her up!!

Jason's Fathers Day Gift

Jason has been wanting a cornhole set for a couple years now, but he is too cheap to buy one.  About a week before Fathers Day, I happened to see some cornhole boards for sale at a antique/consignment shop.  I was able to get them for $18.  Luckily, they were in good shape, just a little dusty and dirty, and they were all white.  I was excited about that because then I could paint them however we wanted.  We decided on blue and white and doing the Colt's horseshoe on them.  I got them all spray painted a couple weeks ago and finally got the horseshoe painted on them just in time for the cookout.  I also managed to sew us up a set of bags for like $10.  So for just less than $30, Jason got a Fathers Day gift he loves and I get to stop hearing about how much he would like a cornhole set.  Win-win for us a both...

Happy 4th of July!!

We hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday.  We celebrated a day early with a small little cookout and a few fireworks.  We also had some intense games of cornhole.  Overall, it was a good time!!