The Fourth of July

We headed down to Waldo for our annual big family get together the week of July 4th. So thankful for my sisters and their families and of course my parents for loving my six kids and embracing the chaos. 

Penelope was excited to see Pop Pop's chicks, which aren't so little anymore. But she still managed to hold one. 

Dad has built an amazing chicken coop complete with an automatic refilling water dispenser made out of a five gallon bucket and a toilet valve. Chickens have never had it so good. 

After asking on many previous visits, Juliet was allowed to make her mark on the upstairs bathroom shower curtain. 

This year was the first annual photo scavenger hunt at the Waldo flea market. One of the things on our extensive 65 item list (find as many things as you can in one hour) was incorrect grammar. I of course was delighted to find a use of unnecessary quotation marks. 

Of course when you're living the lake life there's lots of skiing. Sometimes it becomes so commonplace you suck your thumb. 

Here's me and Slim. Why must I always grimace like this instead of smiling? It's ridiculous. Stay behind the camera Julie Alley. 

Sunday we all filed in to church together and happily listened to Pop Pop give the children's sermon. It was about chicks and coveting. Not coveting rather. 

Juliet perfected the disc swing!

Aunt Susan and the girls watching one of the many ultimate frisbee games in the backyard. Ultimate!!

And someone enjoyed crawling all over the upstairs loft. 

Happy Fourth of July!!

Summer 2015 - June

The much anticipated visit from the Texas cousins finally came. My sister and her two boys Adam and Lincoln came to Florida and cousin fun began.

We headed next door to swim quite a bit. 

Smile!!

We made our annual trip to Wakulla Springs. 

Adam and Lincoln love the springs! And Juliet!

I bought these two matching suits this year. Which I have to tell you, makes me smile inside and out. 

We went to Tropical Smoothie for FIp Flop Day and got free smoothies for all. 

Yummy!!

We had a fun (tiring and hot) trip to the beach with the Mitchells and Altrogges. The Alleys did it! We had a successful beach day! With a baby!

 Chillin' in the wagon. 

Digging and building. 

Too big to dig and build- now they read books. (And eat.)

The next week it was VBS for Cash and Pip. Then Juliet had a special un-birthday party to celebrate  how wonderful she is, and to make up for the fact that she doesn't really have a chance to have parties since her birthday is on New Years Eve.

Penelope had to say goodbye to her best friend Ellie, who moved to Texas. Such a hard thing for her to do! And hard as a mommy to have to walk her through it. 

 And to end the month we had a huge storm blast down our street, leaving trees down and according to the paper, making Killarney Way look like a "war zone." This is our neighbors roof, which was damaged by a huge pine tree. 

Happy Summer!