Zoo with the Durham clan

We did the first zoo trip this year with the Durhams.  No better way to spend a day than with my sissy!  Cousin Allysa is always a favorite with Isabelle.  Probably because she is more spontaneous than Isabelle is on her own.

Isa and a baby goat

I got to bring Laila on her first ever zoo trip.  She was more excited about the ride in the stroller than the animals, but she had a good time anyway.

Laila relaxing in her ride.  She's in the foot stage where they are always kicked up over her head or sticking out

the girl in the black shirt is Elizabeth, she is related to Richard's side of the family and was visiting them. 

Don't worry Gideon, I'll let you protect me from the vicious lions

Streeeeeech. 

Lunch!

Adios Amigos!

More nature and garden

These were the birds in our backyard that were only around for a few days

Our garden several weeks ago

the cucumbers

tomatoes

cauliflower

Now this is our garden today

That huge plant on the left is zucchini, then the pole beans, and in front is a squash and the cucumbers trying to take over their row

 peppers and cauliflower, in the front,and the pease way in the back are the only thing that inexplicably died.  that has happened to us at Carpenter Place, so maybe we're not in the right climate for peas, idk

And here are our delicious out of control tomatoes!  They are producing like crazy and we are starting to get red ones finally.  off to the left you can see the beautiful purple flowers of our eggplant.  =)  I love garden time!!!  Yeah God!!!

The bathroom is begun

We need to build a closet in the downstairs room before Ryan lets Isabelle move into it.  So all of that planning turned into, "let's do the downstairs bathroom first, THEN the closet, and THEN Isabelle can move in"  =)  I'm happy with this because she'll be a little bit older before she goes down there alone.

Ryan had to drain the hot water tank to start with

Then he had his little helpers for prepping the copper pipes.  Isabelle was watching, but decided to paint her nails instead.  Of course, he had to make Gideon STOP painting the girls' nails to come help.  Hee hee hee =)

This is a super cool tool that the guys at work let him borrow.  It squeezes the connection between to pipes and crimps it sort of so that it doesn't leak.  It was very heavy and VERY manly.  Thank you Five Star Mechanical for sharing!

Then the ever glamorous catching of the water in the buckets =)

And here is the finished product.  It was very inexpensive and you can't really tell we've done anything, but now we have the itch again, so I'm hoping to talk Ryan into buying a new piece each weekend for the bathroom so there will be constant progress but not a huge suction on the bank account =)  It worked the first time, so now they guys at work can add plumber to Ryan's every growing title.  Way to go honey!

Laila's birthday

Happy birthday to Laila!  Since my kids were gone at Grandma's for a week, I called Mary and she brought Jacob to meet us at McDonalds for her birthday lunch.

Yummy french fries

Her birthday present

She liked to unwrap it and then read all of her new books

Morning cleaning adventures

This is a picture of my 3 kiddos "towel skating" on the floor after it was flooded by a certain boy's atempts at mopping.  They had a grand time!  Especially Isabelle who decided that scooting was just as fun

 This was Ryan's wild hair deciding to make home made whoopie pies!  He made the cakes and peppermint marshmallow fluff to go in the middle.  This is now a request for the next birthday that comes along, and NOT something I needed to know that I was missing, b/c now I'm going to want it more often.  Thanks a LOT Ryan!  No really.  THANK you.