isn't this a cute picture?

things i love to hear at dinner:

after trying for most of dinner to get rayna to try her dinner, then putting miniscule pieces of "chips" in her food to bribe her into eating...

r: "this is yummy"
me: "i thought you'd like it if you gave it a try :)"
r: "thank you mama"
me: (heart melting)
(and yes, that really happened, without hints or scripting :)

afton about peach pie:
"pie is like cookies and syrup mixed together" (crust is evidentally like cookies, and we recently had peach syrup, so i guess that's where that thought came from)
and
"this is the messiest pie i ever ate" (that's what happens if you eat it with your fingers!)

what...

... really tuckers you out?

afton says, "church"

...do you take pictures of?

rayna says, "Grandpa!!!"

...is the cutest thing in the whole wide world?

malachi says, "me!"

4th of July in allen

again this year we went to the allen independance day celebration (at celebration park, called celebrate USA, i think there's a theme there, and i think it works) (remember last years celebration?) i took way more pics this year, and the fire trucks were still a bigger hit than the fireworks, but here's a little of what we did this year:

we started our day at the local library for "critterman"'s visit... learning about leg-less lizards, giant bugs, and snakes and alligators and spiders, oh my! then up to grandma's for playing and dinner (and naomi's new puppy, alpha)before rushing off to the park to meet up with cousins and spend lots of time visiting the fire trucks where:

rayna drove a bit (among others):

there was an amazing pink engine (celebrating survivors of womens cancers {not just breast cancer awareness, though i'm sure that's where the pink came from}):

here's the whole crew:

a little relaxing and dancing around:

(obviously the "Y" was contrived, but the rest were definately action shots, it's a lot harder than i thought to get the picture at exactly the right moment!)


(twinkle, twinkle little star :)

a little more dancing around :)

a little back-rubbing :) wish i were on board THAT love train!

(you know rod stewart's going to be in your head the rest of the day now, don't you :)

and finally, a picture of the birthday girl! love you mom, hope your day was the greatest! we loved 'your' party!

the girls weren't as excited about the fireworks as we'd hoped, but it was an amzing show, one of the best-choreographed i've seen, but i didn't get any pictures as i had at least one child in my lap at all times :)