Homemade Card

Elli made Grandpa a homemade card!  I used scallop-edge craft scissors to cut a decorative border on a folded piece of card stock.  Then Elli traced dot-to-dot letters, put on stickers, and used Mickey and Minnie Mouse rubber stamps and different color ink pads to decorate it!

How does this rubber stamp work??

 I think Grandpa's going to like it!

 Learning how to make a clear stamp image.

 The front.

 The inside.

The back.

Anniversary Dinner

Celebrating our 22nd wedding anniversary last month!

Our three treasures.

Cherry limeades!  We talked about several new restaurants to try, but decided on 54th Street Grill, a family favorite.

"This was a fun day!" - Elli

Here are pictures from some of the fun we had on Saturday!

Elli rode Kaitlyn's old bicycle with training wheels for the first time!  She did pretty good!

 Elli also rode Brady's all-terrain big tire tricycle!

 Then we had a picnic at a state park!

 Roasting hotdogs over a charcoal fire!

Elli eating some trail mix that Brady made.  (cocktail peanuts, M&Ms, peanut butter M&Ms, and white chocolate chips)

Brady made chip bag snack bowls by folding in the top and tucking in the bottom of the chip bags!

Roasting marshmallows!  We also tried roasting Starburst candy (oh Pinterest...).  They were hot and gooey.

S'mores!

Mickey Mouse Rice Krispie Treats!

It's more fun to make treats outside!

We made the Original Treats recipe.

We used our Mickey Mouse cookie cutter that we got at Walt Disney World!

We made treats similar to Walt Disney World's by putting melted milk chocolate chips on the ears and sprinkling on nonpareils.

Cute?  We were able to make six large treats from one batch.  The sixth treat was made with all the leftover scraps pressed back into the cookie cutter shape.

Good to the last Krispie! (lick your lips!)

Thinking About Training Wheels

Elli can pedal her tricycle that she got last summer very well now...and fast!  I am thinking it might be time to move up to a bicycle with training wheels.

Haha!  So cute!

Please don't grow up too fast...

Mama's Little Helper...Washing Dishes

A little too much fun!  :O

Tricycle Cutie

Girls Lunch and Shopping!

Before our vacation, we had a girls shopping trip and ate lunch at Noodles & Company!

 Elli had spaghetti and meatballs.

Photography by Elli!  (cropped a little by Mommy)

 Sweet sisters.  

Shopping!

Scout Canoe Trip!

(Image of the Current River from commons.wikimedia.org)
Brady went on a canoe trip last week with the Boy Scouts!  They canoed on the Current River near the Ozarks in south Missouri.  They did the short one-day trip on Tuesday that was about 10 miles long and 4-6 hours.  Brady used his awesome canoeing skills that he learned at Scout camp a few weeks ago!  The weather was hot, and the water was very cold, so there was a lot of fog on the river.

The Scouts enjoyed some yummy meals cooked in Dutch ovens.  Brady's favorite was the chicken dinner (two whole chickens with seasoned carrots and potatoes).

When I picked up Brady on Thursday, the leaders told me how Brady really stepped up as a leader and they all enjoyed having him on the trip.  :)

Kaitlyn's Wisdom Teeth

Kaitlyn got her wisdom teeth out this morning.  She did great and is doing well.  The swelling is not too bad yet!  The pain medication is working, although her jaw is pretty sore.

This was after the surgery when she was still numb.  She had general anesthesia, but she was alert on the way home.  She was worried about Roger Federer's tennis match and getting a frappuccino at Starbucks....yep, that's our Kaitlyn!  I took a funny three minute video on my phone of her trying to talk to us.  Hehe!

Orlando Vacation - Walt Disney World Day 4

On our next to last day at Walt Disney World, we visited three of the Disney parks!

We started out at Epcot to meet Aladdin and Jasmine.  I think Aladdin liked Elli's pigtails!

Elli meeting Alice in Wonderland.

We had fish and chips for lunch outside with a pretty view in the United Kingdom area of World Showcase.

Kaitlyn and Elli with the Eiffel tower in the background.

 The Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom.

 Elli meeting Pocahontas and Meeko.

Elli loved talking with Pocahontas.  She asked her about John Smith.  :)

Leaving Animal Kingdom and going to Hollywood Studios.

Elli meeting Jake from the Neverland Pirates.

Sofia the First at the Disney Junior Live on Stage show.

Elli singing and dancing at the show.

Beauty and the Beast live stage show.  This show was really good!

Kaitlyn and Brady rode the Tower of Terror while we went to find seats for the Fantasmic! show.

Kaitlyn and Brady's Tower of Terror ride photo!

Sorcerer Mickey!

We had to get Mickey ice cream sandwiches while waiting for the Fantasmic! show so we could re-create the memory from 1999....

Here is the pic from 1999!

Kaitlyn and Brady were tired, and it was raining on us while we were waiting for the Fantasmic! show to start.  Kaitlyn was 4 1/2 and Brady was 2.  We love Brady's expression.  Haha!

The Disney characters on a boat parade.

Pyrotechnics!

All the Disney characters!

Fireworks and lasers!

Dancing water!  Disney animations were also projected on walls of water!