It's an exciting life we lead (photo bomb)

It's so exciting that apparently I don't have time to get on the computer much these days. And with the invention of the iPhone, I rarely have a need to open up my dinosaur of a laptop.  With that said, I'll fill you in on what's been going on with the since I finished my last painting...
- we visited with my dear friend, Kimberly, and her son Anderson and Weeze went with us.  We spent the weekend in Atlanta, got a 2 bedroom suite for 3 adults and 3 children and had a ball. oddly enough, things must have been crazy because there isn't a single picture of the two of us. I got tons of A, M, and L, but hardly any together. this is my favorite - friends forever!

 - we've been to the lake for the first time this summer. J's family owns some property in a quiet little cove and a ski boat we can use for fun! M learned to swim with her floaties the weekend before, so it was a fun time for her to practice her skills. Yes, she is in the water completely alone. And as you can see, Lydia had a blast.

- I had an amazing idea for an orange dreamsicle cupcake.  and it was amazing! I'll be making a few dozen of these for a birthday party next week!

- then we had a rough weekend.  I had an order for watermelon cupcakes (cute idea!) I had made a batch the weekend before that turned out great! But then I switched the recipe for the real order, had a massive stroke to get the cupcake liners, ran out of ingredients and lost some sleep.  Here was the first batch of them: That stinks. Red vanilla cupcakes with a few chocolate chips at the bottom.  Not going to work! 

The second batch was perfect!  Here they are right out of the oven and here's the final look at them.

- We took a trip to the zoo with BB (Miriam's Birthday Buddy, Elizabeth).  She LOVED seeing all of the animals but was so terrified of them, even the bronze statue ones! It was a fun and hot day!

trying to show Miriam that they were fake by tickling it

- We've been back to the lake several times since our first trip.  We went with our neighbors over the weekend, and here's a pick of M really celebrating 4th of July style!  She is the next family river rat!

In between all of that fun, we've had a lot of play dates, a call to poison control, a day killing an entire ant colony in our kitchen, the need to replace our van battery (right after getting new brakes - ouch!), lots of nights with good sleep, time spent with our friends Weeze, Ere and Margaret, new teeth to pop through, many conversations with our vocal L, and two poopies in the potty (glad I don't have a picture for that one!).

Excited for the month of July for we have TONS to look forward to: Lydia's baptism, Miriam's 2nd birthday, a week at the beach, a week at the mountains, more potty training, more learning, more baking, and more fun!!