Ellia colored this picture for her friend Brooklyn in California...then took a bunch of pictures of it.
A sitting champ now...even playing with her toes. 9th
On Jeremy's way to work.
Ashlyn bumped her nose and said she wanted a Band-Aid. I assured her she didn't want a Band-Aid on her nose and left it at that. This is what I found a minute later...and how she stayed until the next morning.
A cute tree frog I spotted on our window! I didn't know we had them here.
Dad and Ash daddy daughter date to a baseball game. 5th or so
Neighborhood park with dad. 11th
I looked into a few options for this chair and a half (something I've always wanted and was included with our house) and most didn't seem worth the cost. The colors went pretty well with what I already have so I decided to get it cleaned instead. Pictures in this case don't do it justice, but this is the before picture of the ottoman which was the worst. 12th
Before we even moved to Louisiana I bought a plantation tour groupon. It was for St Joseph Plantation and we used it the day before it expired! It was really neat, even the girls were interested. The people that did the tour were all descendants and even remember living in the home as children, which made it really interesting! It was a huge sugar plantation with a front yard stretching all the way to the Mississippi river. 16th
They showed us the mourning dresses and I appreciated it so much more after having read, Cold Sassy Tree. Back in the day bereaved family members used to grieve for a year!
This was a really cool display of baby blessing dresses.
They told us how at one time the bottom floor of this house had not been finished and the carriages would drive right under the house to the back where they would actually enter the house.
The kitchen, separate from the main house....it was so stinkin hot, I can't imagine actually cooking in there.
Something I didn't realize was that after slavery was abolished some plantations created their own "money" barter system and had stores where the newly freed slaves could purchase what they needed from their earnings.
Slave cottages. I loved seeing this type of bed with Ellia since we have talked a few times about how the ropes being tighten on them brought about the saying, "Sleep tight."
On one side of this plantation was a gorgeously landscaped one that is much more of a tourist spot and has probably been used in a lot of films...on the other side was a plantation where they recently finished filming 12 days a slave starring Brad Pitt.
We finally made it to the 3rd of three attraction on our Audubon pass, the Insectarium. We drove down with Heather and her two kids and I was really impressed with the facility! There were a few things that terrified Ashlyn, like this underground exhibit and actually the butterfly garden where she ran screaming from the butterflys. 12th ish
My first Sushi...I really liked it. I ORDERED a Philidelphia Roll, but we all sortof shared so I got to try a lot of different ones. I really liked the tuna ones...dragon something or other. Plus I had an amazing dessert that looked just as pretty as it tasted. Fun girls night all around. 13 ish
Asleep in the swing. 16th
While Jeremy was gone the girls and I made this stepping stone with their handprints on it. Fathers Day 16th
Ellia turned Quincy into a princess! 15th
Jeremy took the girls fishing at the neighborhood pond and they started catching some things...it was so fun hearing all about it when they came back. 15th
Young Mens High Adventure Camp at Gulf Shores.
All my girls cuddling in bed. My mom has a picture kindof like this of me and my sisters in her bed that I love. 21st
Ashlyn lookin sassy 21st
I caught Quincy holding this dolly that is about as big as her.
We finally had almost an entire weekend so we decided to drive to Gulf Shores Saturday afternoon. We thought it was closer, but after 3 hours in the car, and arriving in the early evening we decided we needed to find subs for church and stay the night. It ended up being so fun! The water was really warm even though the weather was overcast. NOT like the pacific coast. Ashlyn kept belly diving in the shallow water which was super fun and funny to watch. I got some film of it too. Quincy and I mostly sat out and a lady near us came over and said, "my family said you would think I was a weird old lady, but I had to come over and tell you how cute she is!" of course I loved it.
It was actually pretty hard to get a hotel- everything was booked! But we had a good nights rest and then headed to the beach again the next day despite the rain. We drove along the coast for a while waiting for a good spot and break in the rain. We had about an hour and weren't planning on swimsuits, but the girls got soaked so we changed them and they got all the way in again despite the storm clouds On our way home we ate at Jimmy Buffet's sisters restaurant.
Gulf Shores 6th and 7th
Wiped out.
We showed up at the library summer weekly event today before Gymnastics and learned a fun new song by a popular singer, Jonette Downing. Now we sing it a lot, "Today is Monday." 5th
I helped Ellia pick out this shirt and skirt and next thing I know she puts on these boots...whoa momma!
Quincy has a new pose in her car seat where she grips the handle with her feet. 11th
Ellia's photograph. I love that she took the pictures of Ashlyn 21st
We have this huge tree in our back yard which a few people have pointed out to us has been struck by lightening and is partially dead at the top. We decided rather than let nature knock it over on our roof we'd take care of it. It was quite the process. First they got in a cherry picker, hooked the branches, cut them and lowered them to the ground. Then they cut dead sections and pushed them off. Finally they climbed the tree and cut the live sections until the tree was short enough to cut from the bottom. The girls were glued to the door for awhile, but then we were standing in the kitchen and felt the ground move...they had finished and the remainder of the tree had tipped over making an earthquake like shake! Before they came to grind the stump Ellia asked if we could see how old the tree was - we still haven't counted the rings from the picture though. Oh, and there is a big divot in our yard where the stump fell.
Quincy is starting to crawl!
We had some more time so we did a quick run through of the insectarium.
Look at the color on these grasshoppers!
They actually have a bug chef there! He makes cookies and sauces with bugs. When I went earlier in the month I had a chocolate chirp cookie, so Jer and I had one again to try to get the girls involved...no such luck, just look at those faces. I actually dared each a cinnamon sugar bug too, and didn't much care for it.
The next day we went on a really cool nature trail. There were boardwalks everywhere and lots of cool scenery, even a great place to launch a canoe.
