Garden Update and Happy Early Birthday to Me!

Ok, I have to start with the birthday part.  No you didn't miss it, it isn't until July 12.  I saw a groupon a while back for photography lessons and I thought to myself that maybe since my kids are so cute I should learn to take better pictures of them.  So I forwarded that on to Kevin in email form and wrote that if I would feel silly in a class with our current camera perhaps I could also get a better one for my birthday  Well he surprised me last week with a fancy shmancy new camera (well its fancy to novice me, maybe  not everyone else in the camera world) that he wanted me to have early since we are going to Utah to see family and he thought I would want it for that.  As he often does, he surpassed my gift expectations in every way.  He found a great deal and now hopefully you will notice an improvement in my pictures.  Go easy on me though... I just started...
Okay.  Now on to my garden.  This year on the deck I did some flower pots and some lettuce.  I have loved this.  I think I need to do this every year.  My big flower pot is particularly successful and my lettuce on the deck is so handy when I am making dinner I just love it.  For lettuce I have learned to pick it as it grows cause it keeps growing back and gets bitter when it gets big.  As far as my regular garden.  Its ok.  Strawberries were great.  No luck with the green beans for the second year in a row... its weird.  Otherwise snap peas, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini and cantaloupe are all looking stellar!

 Now here are some pictures I have taken with my new camera, just trying to figure it all out...

A Trip to the Zoo with the Roblyers

This year we bought a zoo pass and we are off to a great start on getting our monies worth.  Here's some pictures of when we went with the Roblyer clan

 The boys were very upset we didnt have time to see the Sharks movie at the Imax so I had to bring them back another day (a boys only trip) to see the movie.  Carson joined us that time.  I felt overwhelmed by boys.

Papillion Days and the Parade

 This year, for the first time since living in Papillion, we ventured over to the Papillion Days festivities.  It wasn't particularly exciting.  The rides were expensive and there wasn't much else to see and do but at least we can say we have been there.

The parade however we had been to before and we did have a great time at again- except for the fact that the parade was TWO hours and it was extrememly HOT.  We ran into some friends from our ward there and brought along our neighbor Elena so it was a good time.  It was particularly enjoyable because Makenna got to be in the parade, marching as a mini monarch dancer because she did a dance camp with them earlier in the summer.

Sand in the City

 I took the girls to an event downtown called, "Sand in the City."  It was a sand sculpture contest where local businesses contributed their creations and they were judged for charity.  It also had a big sand pile for the kids to play in and some games for the kids.  We had a great time.

 Notice the "Angry Birds" Sand sculpture behind them.    This one above was ConAgras contribution.

 

Emmitt Cuteness

Emmitt does push ups.                                                   Emmitt on the waterslide

Sorry the video is not great.  I should pull out the regular video camera but my phone is always more convenient.

Memorial Day

We kicked off the summer this Memorial Day with a classic summer barbeque with the Thomas. First we went to the splashpark where the kids spent hours splashing and digging in the sand. 

Then we went home where the water fun continued.  The kids put the sprinkler by the slide and then added the slip n slide at the bottom.  It was quite a fast and crazy ride.

Bathing Cuties

For dinner, we barbequed burgers and hot dogs.  Kevin experimented with some stuffed burgers- filling them with cheese, bacon and mushrooms.  They were super sized and delicious.