The Latest Wedding Dress Post

This is the third time I've taken pictures of my girls in my wedding dress. it was added on to our summer bucket list after I took it out for a mops night out party.  You can see the previous two times here and here.

Thanks to construction, I found myself driving a path I don't normally take, and spotted the perfect backdrop for our pictures!

First, my top picks for my beautiful girls:

Let me just say that Alice is fitting into this dress a bit too well these days.

It still dwarfed Emily appropriately. = )

And Grace and Juliet were fighting to keep it up.

The runners up/ outtakes.

It is usually difficult to get Alice to participate in my photography for long enough to snap some photogenic pictures of her, but today she kept saying how beautiful she felt, and posed so well!

I felt like I needed a stool for Emily to use, or maybe a stoop?

Grace was also a very willing participant, which was excellent.

Juliet couldn't stop giggling while she was standing up, and being the last to have a turn is always tough. = )

later days

Bonus:
and of course, I couldn't take pictures of my girls without some of William too!

As good as it gets with this handsome little boy:

I did however get a zombie...

...superman...

...batman...

...and, a series of William playing with a stick:

Lugnuts Game

Billy's company "picnic" is a baseball game each summer.  So, he and my sister signed up a few months ago, so that we could have a fun family outing!

The gates opened at 4, and the game was due to start at 7:30, but lots of the activities ended at 8, so we got there pretty close to 4.

A random person wanted in the picture.  The kids thought that was pretty funny.  Even hidden Grace.

Our first stop was dinner, which was served up cafeteria style.  Hot dogs, hamburgers, bratwurst, and bbq chicken were on the menu.

The next stop was to hang out in the face painting line.  Luckily, I reviewed the material while we were waiting and realized that we needed socks for the inflatables.  I had plenty of time to run out to the car and make it back before it was their turn.

Our first round on the inflatables was short lived.  They put out a take shelter warning, so the lines disappeared, as everyone took cover.

We took the opportunity to grab dessert (chocolate chip cookies) and Alice had another plate of grow food.

The waring expired, and we took the time to visit the gift shop, where we ran into William's friend Nick, and his family.   After everyone picked out souvenirs, we headed back to the inflatables, but they were shut down because of the rain.  The kids had fun on the playground, until Billy and I were just too wet and cold.

We headed over to the balloon line, which was long, despite the light rain.  It was a long wet wait, and when we were just a few from the front, they announced that at 8pm they were packing up.  I think we were the next to last ones who received balloons. = )

The rain delay was over around 8, and they started setting up for the game as the rain cleared.  We found some rather wet seats, and settled in for the first pitch at 8:30.

It was stranger things theme night, so there were all sorts of nods to the show.

Alice and William were both ready to go, but I wanted to at least see part of the game!  We did finally leave half way through the fourth inning.  It wasn't completely dark yet, which made crossing the road just a tad safer.

It was a really nice day.  Looking forward to next year already!

later days

Murder Mystery Party

This past week, I dedicated my time to preparing for our party on Friday. Using all of the literature provided by A Cajun Killing, I shopped for food (at a lot of stores) and ended up sending Billy out for a few last minute items.

The invitations provided give a description of what each character would have worn. For this game there was a Ship Captain, Weeping Widow, Gambling Man, Scarlett Woman, Piano Man and a Stowaway.

I set the table with the antique China I inherited, which just happened to be time period appropriate* and finished making all but the chicken. I also made some cloth napkins, since ours are practical vs. pretty.

Full disclosure, the backpacks stayed put, but I did try to make it look a little less colorful. = )

When Jessica, Jared and their crew arrived, she helped me peel two heads of garlic, and luckily laughed when I realized I only needed two cloves. oops. She also helped measure the other spices and plucked off thyme leaves.

When Deb, Matt and their little ones got here, we sent the 12 kids out on the back patio to eat. They had quite a spread themselves. Jessica brought popcorn and watermelon, Deb brought mac and cheese with veggies, and Emily had laid out platters of crackers, meat and cheese! The men folk sat outside, while we finished up. Once the kids had eaten, we were ready to play.

The game comes with cassette tapes, so I had to buy a Walkman**, since I haven't had a cassette player since before Emily was born.

The game allowed for lots of breaks (and interruptions) but was so easy and fun to play! We were able to eat all four courses while playing, since it is mostly conversation.

We had varying options on who the murder was, and if memory serves Jared was the only one who figured it out.

All of the players had a good reason for wanting to kill off Mr. Thorpe IV, but only one did. Since I'm sending it along to Caroline, I'm not going to post spoilers, but it was good. = )

A close up of the gambler's bling:

I have two more in the pile, and one of them calls for a fourth couple. It's set in 90's Hawaii, which is totally fun. I'm certainly looking forward to solving the next mystery.

later days

*1905

**somehow I managed a picture of the cassette player, but not the 12 children who were incredibly well behaved the entire evening. They were seriously so good.

Zoo!

This summer (possibly every summer?) Meijer sponsored a $1 zoo day!  It was only $1 per person to get in, and they waived the parking fee (my favorite!)

So, we packed up a lunch, and after dropping Alice off* and headed to the zoo.  It took us a mere 15 minutes to get there.  Which meant that we arrived just mere minutes after they opened for the day, so we had our choice of parking.

My mom made up some zoo bingo cards, and the library was having a raffle if you turned in a completed scavenger hunt.

Everyone posing as bearcats (their school mascot):

We headed for the bird house next, but they don't open until 10.  So, we hung out in the nearby garden and took pictures.

We were the first ones in, but the birds were still snoozing.  William has the magic touch and convinced one to land on his stick.

Emily tried, but it didn't happen = (

The twins doing a twin thing:

Grace did finally convince one to visit her stick.

 

 

Once William was tired, he wanted to go see the goat, so that we could be done.

Avia and I came up with the change so that everyone (even Alice) got a souvenir to take home.

William was being whiny (about going to see the goat,) so they all sat on a bench and said "sad goat."  William was having a hard time not smiling.

After about 3 hours, we finished the bingo and scavenger hunt.  They were offering free ice cream pops on the way out, so everyone grabbed one and ate it on the way to the playground.

They played for another hour or so, finished up the rest of lunch, and then it was finally time to head out.

It is not a big zoo, but there is still one more little nook I have yet to explore, so hopefully next time Alice can join us!

later days

*this was the only day she was a little sad to go to camp