Our summer afternoons...

Summer afternoon – summer afternoon …

the two most beautiful words in the English language.

– Henry James

Ya Ya Olympics

Step One: Psych yourself up. Take a deep breath...

Step Two: Salute the Judges...

Step Three: Take Off!

Step Four: Hope for a perfect 10!

Ya-Ya came to visit and as you can see, it was all fun...and a lots of sweetness too.

We really love having Ya-Ya with us - Come back soon please!

Thelma & Louise

It usually goes something like this:

Lillianna has a particular page of stickers, a certain pink pencil, or a specific blue block

and suddenly, because her big sister is holding it, Ellenie HAS TO HAVE IT.

So, she takes it in one swift motion which causes Lillianna to scream. Then if the screaming has not satisfied her anger or if I am not in the room, she usually pushes or hits Ellenie. It's terrible as a mother to witness all of this and I would be more worried about the whole scenario except that I remember with great detail how many times I found myself in one of these roles with either my older or younger sister.

So, Lillianna is sent to timeout...always crying that she has gotten in trouble.

Well, it really makes me feel better to watch this next part...

Recently, it has really started to bother Ellenie when La La is crying. She walks over and talks gibberish to her or pats her face, both of which make Lillianna start laughing. On this morning, Ellenie was feeling exceptionally empathetic and wanted to share the timeout experience with her sister. The whole episode lasts about 4 minutes and all before 8 am.

It really is an emotional roller coaster around here.

Another new friend

So she's caught ladybugs, roly polys, grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, worms, and frogs.

On Mother's Day, she caught her first...

turtle!

She was so excited...she ran to show it off to all the family gathered at Jean Jean's house.

She was so proud to show it to everyone.

She thought it was so funny when she showed it to Ellenie.

The turtle did not think Ellenie was that funny though. He was tired of being upside down.

Lillianna even showed it to the neighbor's dog.

Then she showed the turtle it's way home as she walked it back down to the water with the help of her daddy.

Classifieds

FOR HIRE:

BACK YARD BALLERINAS

Too much to do with too little time?

WE CAN DO IT FOR YOU!

Need a stump removed?

No problem! Ellenie is our expert digger!

Need a dangerous animal trapped?
No problem! We can get 'em!
We use only the most up to date technology and equipment.



Of course, we use the most humane treatment -

giving the animal a name & keeping it as our new pet.




Need a large tree trimmed?

No problem! We will take it down leaf by leaf to make sure each one is gone!



May Special!

Let us makeover your entire backyard and we'll perform our "Backyard Ballet" just for you!

Please call us soon!

There's no backyard that's too big for us!

Blessed.

I love them so.

Thank you my sweet Mama for loving me so.

My cup over-floweth.

Of course

Of course we came home from the street festival with two new pets...

Of course they are the most high maintance "low maintance" pets ever. Of course they need refills of distilled water in their "swimming pool" every day. Of course I swore I wasn't going to take care of them...of course I refill the water everyday.

Of course they are exciting...in the middle of the night when they are actually awake and moving.
Of course they just sleep during the day when the girls want to see them...so we just stare at their shells.
Of course Lillianna wants to hold them constantly and of course I constantly dread the moment she starts crying because it pinched her.
Of course their names are Rainbow Keisha and Sunshine Weety.



Of course we came home with two new hermit crabs.
Of course we did.

When in Rome...

So now that we live in the Magnolia State, we are stopping to smell the magnolias... Gorgeous blossom off the tree in our front yard.

Lillianna (with her face painted from school) playing Venus Fly Trap with Ellenie.

She HEARTS frogs.

Loving today's frog that our new buddies Lily and Meg caught in our yard and were so gracious to share with Lillianna.

I love that just saying the word frog makes her face light up.

Talking on the phone (to Ya-Ya - it looks like serious frog talk) and holding last week's frog.

Posing as her frog.

Taking the week-before-last's frog for a spin in the car.

She must have one really cool Mom to get to do that!

Finger lickin' good!

Nothing like lickin' the brownie batter bowl.

She always looks delicious to me but covered in chocolate she's even more tempting...

to her sister who is licking her!! I turned around to see Lillianna actually licking the chocolate off of Ellenie! I'm not sure who was being a "sweeter" sister.

Reunion

Lillianna and I took a special road trip this past weekend, just the two of us.

She talked about seeing Bibby everyday for two weeks before we went. Every flower she picked was for her, every picture she drew she was going to take to her. When they got together it was all love...for about 7 minutes. Then it was true just-like-sisters love where they argued and laughed, tattled and played all in the same moment. It was great!

Sweet Virginia was glad to see us but really wondered why Ellenie didn't make the trip.

We wanted to take the big girls to something special on this special trip and were thrilled to find out that the Zoppe Italian Family Circus was in town! It's not everyday that you get to see that!

It was fun and cute and funny and a little strange all at the same time.

Complete with girls on trapeze, dogs who could dance, several jugglers, a funny clown, a girl who could balance ANYTHING on her feet, and lots more.

The girls LOVED it!

However, Mary Bibby did not love that the clown pulled her Mommy into the ring.

Ginny was a wonderful clown assistant and thought about joining the Zoppe family and running off to Italy. Bibby and I talked her out of it.

I thought I was also going to have to talk Miss Lillianna out of it too.

A wonderful night to remember!