July 2012

Here are some fun pictures from American Lending work party

The most amazing hot dog I've ever had- "J Dawgs" were brought in!

Toward the end, the owner of American Lending has names drawn for prizes and one of the prizes was panda bears.  Tyler kept trying to grab one from off the table and could not understand why he couldn't have it!  He was so sad he didn't win one, but because the owner's daughter felt so bad she gave him a toy bat with candy inside. :)

Girls playing "Chutes n' Ladders," one of my favorite games to play when I was a little girl. :)

Happy 4th Birthday Nicole!!! Nicole wanted a Belle cake, so I made this, but I stink at store bought frosting, so it didn't turn out as great as I would like.  The important thing is that Nicole loved it though!

Nicole had a Belle Tea Party, where I pushed a Belle tea cart around and served the kids little sandwiches, grapes, and frosted animal cookies.  I spoke in an accent and pretended to be Mrs. Potts.  It was so fun!  We played games outside, but I don't have any pictures of it.  We played "Belle, Belle, Beast" instead of "Duck, Duck, Goose", we passed around a Belle doll while playing a toy microphone "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast and when the microphone stopped whoever had Belle was out.  Nicole actually won this game!  We also had a princess pinata, too, but the pictures wouldn't transfer from my broken cell phone. :(

One of Nicole's favorite animals are elephants and she loved getting the baby elephant Pillowpet to go with her big elephant Pillowpet she had gotten from Christmas.

Nicole LOVES Squinkies and can't get enough of them!

Will and I gave this Squinkie "Adventure Mall" to her that has a merry-go-round. 

Nicole blowing out her candles.  Belle was falling forward...

We took Nicole out for dinner at McDonald's for her birthday for a Happy Meal.  She was so happy!

4th of July- wow, Nicole is glowing!  I really need to figure out how to take better pictures!  We celebrated by going to our neighborhood park and having a community party with free food, bingo, prizes, bounce houses/slides, face paint, and games.  Fireworks were band in our area, but it was still a great day.

Enjoying summer with the pool and slip n' slide in our backyard.

Grandpa Whitaker saying goodbye to the kids before he moves out-of-state.  He gave Nicole her birthday present- Squinkies, Alyssa a Dr. Seuss "Cat in the Hat" book, and Tyler a Thomas the Train.  We are sure going to miss him!  On a side note, I love how Nicole's underwear pops out of her leotard (she loves wearing leotards around the house) :).

Daddy play time!

Kiss goodbye to Grandpa.  We love you!