The 4th, Continued

The girls had fun playing on the Iphones while they waited for the sky to get dark.

Frog Hunting

After our weekly trip to the library, the girls and I took a short walk to the river to look for frogs. They usually come out around the 4th of July. As we were getting closer to the river and not seeing any, I thought they just weren't out yet--but Ashley started finding them!! They are tiny right now, so they were hard to spot!

Sara loved her little frog.

Sara and the Flowers

Since plain old flower pictures may be getting boring to some veiwers, I added Sara in these pictures. She has never said no to getting her picture taken!

Here's my beautiful "Incrediball" hydrangea. We're adding acid to the soil, so we'll see if they come up blue next year.

More Fireflies

Since I now realize that it is impossible to capture these beauties on film in their full glory, I'll have to settle for a picture of them in broad daylight. This is a quart jar full of all the fireflies Melissa and Ashley caught last night. You'll have to use your imagination to picture what it must have looked like glowing in their room all night.

Fireflies

For those of my blog viewers who have never been to the east and experienced the true magic of the bug know as the firefly, this is for you. A camera cannot come close to doing them justice. They are, hands down, my favorite bug in the world!! The trees look like they have twinkling Christmas lights in them. I have tried every kind of lighting possible and can't get the camera to capture them in the trees, so this is the best it gets.

The tiny little figure singing in the midst of them is not a wood nymph. It is actually Melissa on the hunt to catch as many as she can fit into a jar. My girls do NOT like bugs, do not touch bugs, and usually run screaming at the very mention of a bug. However, if a bug happens to have a light bulb on his backside, suddenly it's wonderful and worth touching!

Flowers

This post is mostly for my mom and sisters. Pretty orange flowers...

...and some white ...

...and some pink. All from different plants, right?

Nope! All three colors are growing on the same plant! This is called a Gay Butterfly Weed. Jason and I found it in a seed catalog last year and thought we'd give it a try. It bloomed this year and has put a big smile on my face! I've never seen anything quite like it. No butterflies yet, but I am still hopeful.

The view from above. The only flowers not on the plant are the pink geraniums in the top middle. Very cool plant!!!!

Another Birthday

Rachel had her 7th birthday this week. I can't believe she will be baptized next year! They are growing up too quickly. I love all my girls so much.

She wanted an Oreo cake. It has a cream cheese, mint Oreo filling and ganache on top. By far the easiest cake I've ever made and soooo delicious! Good choice, Rachel.