We went camping...

...on Mom and Dad's lawn. Wahoo!

Since going somewhere fancy to camp with the fam didn't quite work out this year, we improvised and camped at Mom and Dad's. It was a big family sleepover! There were a few people sleepin' in the motor home, a few in Carrie's trailer, a few {hundred} kids on the tramp, us in our tent, pitched on the lawn of course and a few folk slept in the house. :) It was great!

But before our lovely sleeping arrangements could be filled, we spent the evening eating a delicious dinner and having fun swimming at the ward party.

{and yes, those are the only pictures I took the entire weekend}

After our refreshing {for some} nights sleep we shared an oh-so-tasty breakfast together before heading to the park for a picnic and to check out the Farmer's market where Dad's been selling his rugs. After our picnic we helped Dad take down his booth and then we all headed off to the matinee movie, Rio. It was a cute show, not a "must see again tomorrow" type of show, but we liked it alright. Then it was back to Mom's for a scrump-diddly-uptious dutch oven dinner of BBQ pork fingers, potatoes and pineapple blueberry cobbler. YUM-O! It was a great weekend!

Welcome to the Moth Farm :)

"It's time for lunch little mothy-moths, here's an ant for ya!"


The proud & happy Moth Farmers: Avery, Drew, Quinn and Mylee

We went to the ZOO!

We LOVE going to the zoo! It's one of our favorite places to visit! Yesterday we went with Kristen, Madelyne and Savannah and had a fabulous time.

The elephants were being so cute together. The bigger elephant would eat the hay in the hanging basket, spilling some all over the baby elephant :) and the ground in the process, and the other elephant would sweep up the hay on the ground with her trunk and eat that. They've got their system down pat! :)

See, the cute little babe is covered in green hay. So cute!

Riding the carousel at the zoo is always a treat. Avery and Madelyne rode giraffes, Quinney was on a ladybug, Savannah rode an anteater and Hayzen a zebra.

Hayzen looks a little worried. . .

Nope, nothin' to be worried about!

Avery and Madelyne had a grand ole' time collecting treasures all over the zoo. "Never mind the animals, where can I find another flower to pick and sniff up my nose?" :)

And of course, what would a trip to the zoo be without the train ride?

I really can't pick my favorite animal at the zoo because I love them all, but, the monkeys/gorillas/orangutans are pretty darn high on the list. They are so stinkin' cute, I could just eat em' up! They have such fun little personalities and I find myself standing in front of their cages with a huge perma-grin. I love them.

What a fun day! I love the zoo!

New Summer Do's

Don't my buzzed boys look adorable? :)

Let Freedom Ring!

My perfect 4th of July consists of 5 things:

1. a parade--love a small town parade, the smaller the town the better in my opinion :)

2. sweet reminders--thinking about the freedom we enjoy in this great country and remembering all the great men and women who've fought and sacrificed and those who continue to fight today

3. some kind of water activity--this year it was the Cannonball Splash

--and Lisa & Troy's hot tub :)

4. a bbq--a delicious juicy cheeseburger hot off the grill, corn on the cob, fruit, baked beans, potato salad, popsicle/ice cream and a caffeine-free diet coke are just a few of the requirements

5. fireworks--of course

I am happy to report that this year was in fact, one of those
perfect 4th of July's!

. . .that is until I got nailed on the side of my face with a football at the fireworks by some dippy high school boys throwing it back and forth to each other in a swarm of laid back firework goers lounging peacefully on their blankets.
Seriously, boys? Use your brains!
Totally ruined my perfect 4th of July, dang you!
Just be glad that football didn't hit one of my kids or Mama Bear would have come out to play. . .

Anywho, up until that point, it was the perfect 4th of July, and
I am happy! :)

Our Avery girl is "one in a melon"!

Look at this little lady, I can't believe she is 7 years old!

I love watching her open presents, she gets so excited about everything!

Let the messes begin. . .

Ave's had a friends party this year and we decided to make it a Watermelon Party. Wahoo!

Here are the invitations we made.

We had the party in our back yard and the weather was perfect,
not too hot and not too cold.

We had seedless watermelon slices for the 'watermelon eating contest', seeded watermelon chunks for the 'watermelon seed spitting contest', homemade watermelon lemonade, watermelon cake {that actually tasted like watermelon, secret recipe :)} and ice cream.
YuMmY yUmMy!

The two stuffed watermelon slices and the Extra Sweet Watermelon gum were the prizes for the games.

The oh-so-fun party favors!

Yes, I'll take 84 of each please! :)

Here is Haylee, Bryton, Halle, Kinsley, Mylee, Avery, Mckenzie and MaKayla racing in the watermelon eating contest. So funny!

Halle took the prize, way to go!

Next we did the seed spitting contest, which was also very entertaining to watch. So entertaining in fact, that I forgot to take pictures. :) But we got it on video!

The last game was my favorite! I found these cute little rubber ants at the party store and couldn't resist them, hello, perfect for a summer watermelon party! ha ha
So, I set up a cute little picnic with Avery's play food and scattered the ants all over. . . yuck!

Using mini tongs, the kids had to get as many little ants into the watermelon bowl as they could in 30 seconds. It was so fun/funny to watch, some of those pesky little ants just did not want to be picked up. ha ha

After presents we had cake and ice cream. YUM-O!

We had to go inside for a split second to sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles, the slight breeze outside was just too much for the candles to handle I guess. :)

Happy Happy Birthday to my sweet,
{and goofy} happy girl!
Love you with all my heart!