Does anyone else love this site, Little Birdie Secrets, as much as I do? My sister Anna told me about it two years ago and I try to not waste too much time reading it, but it is filled with such fun, creative ideas!

How to make your own laundry detergent

How to make a little felt needle book

How to do tye dye the easy and cheap way!

A tour to one of my favorite places in Seattle


The list goes on, and on, and on and on. It's a bit ridiculous how many really great ideas they have on their site.

I once took a little class from these ladies entitled "bottlecap art". I was so fun! I went home with beautiful magnets and pins made from old glass bottle tops.

I think I'm going to take the boys out on a little mother son date this evening and buy the supplies needed to make these- Travel Clipboard Tutorial. These would be so great for church, the car, and just for around the house fun too.

Quick post about our weekend and week (so far)

Rob has been out of town this week. We went camping last weekend and had a fabulous time. So good to spend time as a family. Looking through these pics of last weekend makes me miss terribly. He's such a FUN dad. Rob is the one to jump in the water and splash and laugh with the kids. He's the one to play tickle monster and run around the house with them every evening. The boys had a rough day and I think a big part of it is due to them missing daddy.

Anyway, here are some pics from our weekend:









This was funny- Rob went running into the river (this is the Columbia River btw) and made this big splash. Gid and Jasper got so excited. Rob called out to the boys and Gid went running straight into the cold, cold water. He didn't even care until he got to his mid line when he realized how cold the water was. Jasper then went running straight in also. They just wanted to join their dad in the water so bad, they didn't mind the freezing water. It was pretty cute.




making race tracks in the sand


Gid the beached boy. He couldn't manage to get himself up and kept calling out for help :)


I didn't get in the water. I was too chicken. I used to be a bit more brave about these things but the water was COLD!

We went hiking in the morning. It was sunny and warm and beautiful!










Jasper and Gid holding hands and picking up sticks

We spent the late afternoon in Leavenworth. This is a really quaint and interesting little place in the world. It is a Bavarian style city. The buildings all look like this:



There are horse-drawn carriages and a cute little trolley that transport people from place to place.



There were two old men with knickers playing accordions for all the townspeople and tourists.



We felt like we were in Europe. The town feels as though it was dropped from the sky in the middle of Washington state. It was really fun, though, and we will definitely be going back sometime soon.

Jasper the photographer

Ever since my friend Sally let Jasper use her camera to take some pictures while we were blackberry picking a few weeks ago, Jasper has been asking to borrow the camera. The other day he went off into his room for about 10 minutes and took pictures. He likes to take pictures of Gideon, which I think is pretty cute. The other thing he does when he get behind the camera is point it right at my face and tells me to say "hi". This is so hilarious because it's exactly what I tell him to do. Now I know how he feels... The other interesting thing is his fascination with textures. There were about 30 pictures on the camera of the carpet and another 30 of his jeans- all very up close and blurry, but interesting, nonetheless.

Here are some pictures that Jasper has been taking lately:


Jasper lined up all his little plastic toy stegosaurus toys to take this pic


The bird mobile from Africa that hangs above his bed


Gid looking at books


Poor Wendy...


Really close-up Wendy...


A close-up of some of his artwork hanging on the fridge


"Say 'HI'"


Gid


Jeans


Gid


"Say 'HI'" in Leavenworth


Some random lady's purse :)


Sky


Gid squishing my face


Gid's tummy

Family Photo Shoot this past weekend!

We had Tysha Carter (owner and photographer of Little Red Wagon Photography) take our family pictures this weekend. She did a fabulous job! She put a little "sneak peek" up on her blog. I'm very pleased with the way they turned out! Thank you so much, Tysha! Jasper and Gid are getting so big. It's really, really nice to capture this moment in time with such beautiful photography.