July iPhone Style

July was full of fun!  Here are a few other things we did this month!

Aunt Sandy missed Jillian's birthday and we finally found time to celebrate together. We went to her house for swimming and lunch - plus an extra surprise!  Megan, PJ's girlfriend is a real-live beauty queen and her talent is ventriloquy.  And it just so happens that her puppet is a Hippo, so Miss Hippie did a special show just for the "birthday girl!"

 Jillian was a little shy around Miss Hippie - she liked the idea of her but up close she was a little nervous!

 Not Meredith, though!

 Sweet Piper getting big!

 Silly girls helped us clean out the garage and built a rocket ship out of a Christmas tree box.  They ran in to put on astronaut gear and came out like this.  Reminder: it is July.  In Texas.  In the garage.  

 We are lucky to get to go out to the Levitt Pavilion from time to time - we made sure to make it to the Queabe sisters.  They are 3 sisters who play fiddles and since Meredith has always wanted to learn the violin, we knew this would be right up her ally!  She even took her toy violin to play along!

 We had a fun, fun week at VBS - the girls each had great classes and teachers and I had a great time teaching little ones too!

 Piper can find the craziest poses when she sleeps....

 and never shies away from cuddling....

 ...or finding another crazy position!

 We hosted a Hula Themed day of Girl Camp

baking cookies is a favorite

We also had a quick getaway to visit Uncle Mike and Aunt Val in Houston - they have great neighborhood pools that filled our Saturday.  We loved playing with Landry and can't wait to meet  Baby Abby!

 Piper is not the only one that can find ways to make me laugh while they sleep!

 Jillian started getting excited about reading this month - she loves getting to practice with her Bob books.

 Preschool parade day at Church - the last one that Meredith gets to be in as she is moving up to the Children's Ministry next month!  

A little back-to-school shopping - including "up-down/up-down" shoes for Jillian, who will currently only wear her chevron stripe flip-flops.  What a relief for mommy to find these!

Celebrating 11 Years

Such fun getting to celebrate our 11th Anniversary!  The day was a little more low-key than our 10th anniversary in Hawaii, but it was still a great day!

 First up, the girls made us breakfast in bed!  Toast with jelly for me and then toaster waffles cut to look like an "11" for each of us! All served on Abby Cadaby plates, no less.

 After our breakfast, we headed out to a movie and did a little shopping.

The grand finale - dinner at Reata - one of our favorites!  

Happy 4th of July

We kept up our yearly 4th of July traditions - first we headed out to Downtown Arlington on the 3rd to the Light up Arlington festivities.  The girls had so much fun with the bounce houses, the mini train, and even got their faces painted.  Then we got to see the fantastic fireworks from the top of the church's garage.  Jillian had slightly warmed up to fireworks this year - she still isn't in love with them, but it was much better than year's past when we had to close her in the car with headphones blaring something to drown out the noise!

Then, we headed back bright and early to watch the parade!  

 Face Paint is slightly scary on Day 2, but the girls were happy! 

After the parade, there was time for eating and swimming at Gigi's.

 Little Piper is showing off her National Pride!

We ended the 4th with a trip to my parent's neighbor's dock to watch fireworks over the lake.  We got to see tons of different shows going on all over the metroplex!  The best part was that they were so far off, there wasn't any noise to scare Miss Jillian!

 Riding in Papa's truck to the lake is always a bonus!

Just in case the fireworks were loud, Jillian found a good spot!