Gracie and Grandad's Early Birthday Celebration!

We celebrated Gracie and Grandad's birthday early. Here are a few pictures of our little ham enjoying her special birthday cupcakes:

This is her 3 year old smile, apparently. Very natural.

 Blowing out candles:

 And Delight!

 The ham and her good-looking parents ;)

Okay, now a natural smile....

First taste:

 DELICIOUS! 

 Definitely a good cupcake!

Now, why didn't I take one of Grandad after to compare?? He doesn't get the scrutiny an almost 3-year-old gets, I guess.

Lake Fun

Boating Besties: Three Cousins, and four babies... ;)

The men, and Gracie

 The Helms

 The Malackos

 Gracie takes over driving from Kirt

 and plays with dad

 Dustin is the eyes on the back of the boat

 but makes Gracie do the manual labour

 Ange, Owen, and Skipper Meagan

Brad learns to surf

 next up is Dustin

 And Ange...

barely even up yet, and she's making 'hang loose' signs. What a ham!

 then Kirt the pro takes over and shows us how it's done

Skipper takes the wheel

And Kirt tries to surf sitting down

Things get really scary when Owen and Gracie take over

and Brad has a big wipe out!

Oh, he's back up!

Ange, me, and the kids on the tube, riding in. We headed in because everyone was tired and Gracie had been patiently waiting to get back to the house to use the washroom.

The first bump we hit, Gracie turned to Ange, and said, "I peed in your tube."

Grams and Papa

Grams and Papa came for a quick visit a few weeks ago, because it was to wet to bale at their house. Their visits are always fun!

Painting

Grams brought wome sidewalk paint with her, which was very fun!

Our rocks and sidewalk have never looked so good.

Reading with Papa, Grams, or whoever will read her books with her for the nine millionth time...

We went to see a game at the World Cup Women's Baseball Tournament. America versus the Netherlands. Pretty good.

 Gracie loved the Mascot and the men loved the hot dogs. 

Then, we headed to the Splash Park!

What a great visit! We crammed a lot in to two days. 

Treasured Memories

I have been really bad at posting pictures of the projects that I've made for Treasured Memories.

Here's a link to a layout I made last month.
http://treasuredmemories.typepad.com/inspiration/2012/08/feature-friday-guest-designer-kelly.html

Hope you like it.

I used the new Carta Bella line, Paris Girl. This paper is so great. It has a fantastic texture that I really thought was unique.

Head into the store soon, because they have a ton of new product coming in from CHA. It is quite lovely in there!

The pictures are done by Show and Tell Photo in Sherwood Park.

And here's an up-to-date photo of the 'shy' cutie!!

Backyard Fun

We have had the best summer! Even though it's rained a lot, it's always in the evenings, and it cools things done perfectly, and we still get a full day of warm sunshine.

We've never utilized our backyard this much and Gracie's new zebra pool was the perfect addition.

 And it comes with a sprinkler!

 Lounging, with a lovely servant to water your toes when you need to be cooled off...

yep, luxury.

And, who has a zebra without once trying to ride it?

There's even apples to eat back here, fresh off the tree, so long as they're out of Bailey's reach. The lower branches are not-so-mysteriously bare...

R and R

And a little adventure

And more buckets than you could possibly fill and dump in an afternoon. Our little slice of heaven.