This and that.

Just wanted to say hi. We've been crazy busy...on vacation...celebrating my little sister's wedding (pictures to come)...spending time with best friends and family...seeing a bear cub walking the streets in the neighborhood...catching summer colds...and staying up late too many nights in a row! Love the summer, don't you?

Hope you're enjoying June as much as we are...right now, I'm enjoying a late night rain in a still and quiet house in the mountains. Does it get much better than that?

Lady Bug Hunters

Lately, we've been enjoying lots of wildlife around our house! I came home with Madeleine from my brother's graduation in NC to find this:

my sweet children and husband in the fields behind our house, hunting ladybugs. They had a plastic baby food container with holes to catch them and were VERY serious about finding them.

Ah-ha! They seem to be everywhere...it's hard to look around without seeing a little speck of red and black!
I was impressed with how gentle the kiddos were with them!

And a little surprised that they didn't mind the little bugs crawling all over their arms...but I guess they know nice bugs from the mean ones!

Even our own "ladybug" wanted in on the hunt! She really thinks she's five too!

And the other wildlife? Let's see, turtles, pheasants, birds galore (Madeleine's obsessed with birds!), and a precious stray kitten, who we thankfully found a home for--and not ours!!!

Quick Summer Drink

I love sangria (especially the white sangria from Carabbas...mmm!) We're on the quest for a white sangria recipe that comes close to the one there...but in the meantime, stumbled across this frozen version that's SO yummy!

Frozen White Sangria

1/2 peach, chopped and frozen
1/2 plum, chopped and frozen
3 strawberries, chopped and frozen
1 Tbsp. frozen orange juice concentrate
3 Tbsp. superfine sugar
1/2 cup white wine
2 Tbsp. brandy
1 1/2 cups ice cubes

1. Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Serves 2.

(We didn't have plums available and it was still great.)

Special days...

Happy Birthday Mimi!!!

We all love you SO much and are blessed to have you in our lives!

(picture taken last year from her birthday celebration with us!)

For Katy.

Make a Wish.

(I know these are a bit overexposed...but I love the dreamlike quality it adds to the pictures, so I didn't edit them.)

Oh, about the title. Katy's favorite flower is the dandelion. :) Have you EVER seen dandelions that big before? Wow. They're all over the fields around our house...and so big that you can count them from inside.