Happy Birthday to Caroline!

Today we celebrated my sweet niece's first birthday! Seriously in shock that one year has passed since this little one came into our world.

Loved this idea so much that Alli came up with!

 She did a much better job enjoying her first taste of cake than Parker. She ended up eating almost the entire thing!

 These two buds had such a great time together!

Front Yard, Porch & Deck

The yard at our 'new' house was quite the undertaking. Waaaay more than I first anticipated! I'm overwhelmingly happy to announce that I am basically done! I've still got a few more plants to plant but the pulling up of monkey grass has seen its last day! 

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 These are pictures of our back deck:

 My favorite flowers: Snap Dragon! (and the plant store said they wouldn't bloom in the summer!)

and our screened in porch!

It makes me so happy to be out here! =)

Up next, painting the shutters and our new front door!

Ono Beach Trip

The past 3 years I've been to scared to face our family beach trip to Ono Island because of how terrible sleepers I've got. This year I committed back in January, and I knew there was no backing out! (even if it meant 1 hour of broken sleep a night)

Packing was interesting with two little ones, to say the least. Blakely was very specific as to what she wanted to pack for the beach. I tightly rolled each piece of clothing to fit into her suitcase and walked into this two times before I wised up and put her suitcase where she couldn't reach it.

 Blakely LOVED the sand and building/playing. She would beg and beg to go out all day long. She didn't quite understand why we couldn't sit out in the rain all day every day.

 King Raffe had a castle built for him

 We finally got to see the 'big beach' as we used to call it.

 Proud to model her 'crab tutu bavin-soup'

 4th of July Fireworks

 The 10:00 bedtime was a bit too much for her!

 Little buddy loved the sand too!

 Wolfie missed his calling in life. He made this image of Miss Priss with side walk chalk. Blakely loved it!

 So, every year we make a huge sand image with the whole family. This year the stinkin' rain would not let up. Finally, Mom & Dad just committed for us to head out rain or shine (for me). I took both kids and prayed for the best. Somehow, someway both kids were amazing and we successfully built our hippo!

 I was AMAZED at how perfect he was out there! rain and all!

Blakely even got to see dolphins for the first time from the pier!!! She kept calling them to come back and see her!

Super fun trip all in all! I'm pretty sure both kids had a blast!