Summer at Grandma's House

Fun times at Grandma Bird's house with the all four of the grand kids. Sadie, Lexi, Haylee and Abbie love to play outside with all the fun things to do. Hours and hours go by while they run around and entertain us:

Finally some good weather for playing outside!!!!

She's a Climber Now!

Grandma Bird's stairs are the only place she really gets any practice. She caught on really well though and now we can't keep her off them!!! Way to go Haylee!

Shriner's Circus

Wave as you pass by on the elephant. . . . . .

Balloon animals are great entertainment!!!

The last couple years we've started a tradition of going to the circus with the Bird's. It had been quite a process each time especially with all the kids. This year we went with Grandma Bird, Aunt Angie and cousin Abbie. It was a girl fest as none of the men were able to attend. We first went to IF and spent some time at the zoo. The kids loved seeing all the animals again (my kids could go every day and not get tired of the animals) and going on a scavenger hunt while we were there. After the zoo we had some grocery and part shopping to do as always. Preferring to get that dreadful part over with we opted to shop first, then eat some lunner (lunch/dinner) before heading to Sandy Downs where the circus was set up. Upon our travels we noticed the sky getting cloudy and gray all the while wondering if we would get a chance to see the circus that night. By the time we sat down at the circus it was looking pretty grim, so always being prepared for dismal weather, I had brought the girls' raincoats. Ready now for whatever the night had in store for us the circus began and boy did I have some happy girls! We saw horses, dogs, camels, goats, trapeze artists, fire blowers, knife jugglers, ribbon dancers and lots more! The rain started to come down too hard for the circus to finish so we missed the last six acts; one of which was the elephants of course! However riding the elephants (for a nice fee) was still an option for the girls and Aunt Angie!!! HE HE HE I got lots of pictures of that. Haylee was too little to ride the elephant but she had a great time watching everyone and all the excitement from the circus. Lexi liked the elephant the best and Sadie said she liked the trapeze artists that flew through the air the best. (She took about 40 pictures of them on my camera.) Thanks Grandma Bird for getting us tickets to go, we had a super, duper time!!!

Our Three Kittens

Our mama cat had three of the cutest kittens a bit ago, little did we know that they would be wild and very hard to tame. We have been catching all three as much as possible, feeding them scraps, giving them milk and whatever we can to convince them that we are okay. We let them in the house down the hall because we can shut all the doors to the rooms and corner them so to speak. Sadie has been the Cat Whisperer in our house followed closely by her father who loves cats from when he was little. Sadie likes to try and snuggle them up so they become friendly and I caught her and Lexi in the hall with one of them the other day which made me think we have finally met our feat with Frank. We still have some work with Scooby and Ed though.

Random Things

I love this juice! My kids can drink the whole bottle in one day if I let them. They love it because it tastes good and I love it because it is 100% juice with no added sugar and it also had veggies in it. My kids are not so keen on some of the veggies so they can get it in the juices.




It was warm enough for a few days to go outside and play. Summer had been hit and miss for days to play outside so here is a cute picture of my family (minus the photographer) on the four wheeler that we seem to live on from time to time:

We were just goofing off at breakfast and I thought these pictures made Sadie look like cousin IT-

Haylee showing her smiley side, thus why she has the nickname "Smiles"-

And here is Lexi who I thought reminded me of those Glow Worms they used to have when I was a kid. I always wanted one as a kid but never did get one so here is as close as it gets to having one!

Sandpile to Sandbox

We decided to take the plunge finally and get a sandbox this year for the kids to play in. We just dumped the sand in a pile to begin with and the kids actually LOVED it we almost left it that way. Then I got to mow around it and decided to frame it in a box to help keep the sand in one spot. It seemed to migrate a bit :). Sadie and Lexi lived out in the pile/box for a month! It was nice for me to be able to go outside and let them play while I worked on other outside work.

Animals Galore

Since it's summer now we are outside constantly playing with the sandbox, toys, and yes all the animals that seem to surround us. It is a blessing to have these animals around, but sometimes it is too much! We recently lost a puppy that actually was a good puppy that we liked and wanted to keep around. His name was Tom and he got attacked by a raccoon this last week. We still had our ever faithful dog Tuff, three kittens and two horses amongst us. So why Uncle Buzz and Aunt Julee thought we needed another puppy is beyond me. Here they come out of the blue last week with a pup for the kids. They didn't even ask first, they just brought him over! I know the old saying about asking forgiveness later but this is NOT one of those cases. This puppy is as cute as can be but that is all he had going for him. We named him Jerry (yes my kids watch Tom and Jerry the cartoon, hence the puppy names). First of all this puppy is a red heeler (which is good) golden retriever mix. He basically was an ooops for a registered Golden Retriever female in Cary where Aunt Julee is from. Jerry is a typical puppy tearing up anything he can get his hands on. He finds garbage, clothes, boots, gloves, wood, anything to chew on and I am pretty sure he gets this stuff from all our neighbors! I can't tell my kids that I wish this dog would find an "Elvis ticket" but man is he a menace! I guess the war is on, I told Aunt Julee to expect to basically dread me coming around in the future when they have kids. I owe Uncle Buzz really good by now so I'm just biding my time. I'm thinking a llama would be good, or maybe a goat for their kids. We shall see.

I'm Not a Boy!!!

Being a boy is apparently a very bad thing in our house. I was helping Lexi get dressed this morning in the above outfit when she suddenly burst into tears and cried out at the top of her lungs "That will make me look like a boy!!!" Talk about picky-that shirt has ruffles on it which I calmly tried to explain to her but to no avail. The above picture was taken THREE HOURS LATER!!! That was after she had taken out her piggies as well because I didn't know that they also make you look like a boy. WOW! No more of this llama drama-PLEASE