"This is Chuck....and He's a Weather Guy"

I kept my friend Christina's kids yesterday while she went to the doctor. Annabelle is one of Allison's best friends, and they have so much fun together. Preston is almost eight-months-old, and he is just so precious and sweet.

I was playing with Preston on the bed. He was rolling around, giggling, and generally having a good time. The girls ran in and jumped on the bed. They were so cute all laying up on the pillows (I didn't have time to grab my camera.)

Chuck came home while they were laying there. Allison saw the garage light come on, and she got so excited. She said (screamed), "Annabelle, my daddy is home. His name is Chuck....and he is a weather guy." She is so proud of her daddy. It was ADORABLE!

Swim Lessons

Allison started swim lessons at the YMCA today. She has been so excited about this ever since I signed her up two weeks ago. As you can probably tell, she loved it:

Fruit Vegetable of their Labor

You may recall a few weeks ago, I posted pics of Chuck and Allison planting a "garden". Well, when we checked on our two lovely little plants today, this is what we found:

Allison was so excited. She started jumping up and down saying, "I gotta go tell my daddy! I gotta go tell my daddy!" Then she got really somber and wanted to know why the tomatoes were not red "like in the picture". It was so cute. Here she is with her precious tomatoes:

Movie Day

Today was Family Movie Day at the Rave Motion Picture Theater. They do this every Tuesday & Wednesday during the summer. They show a different movie each week, and it is totally free admission. This weeks showing was "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa".

It was absolutely hilarious. I got so cracked up just watching Allison giggle. It is getting to be so much fun taking her to the movie. She is sitting all the way through them, and she is really mesmerized by the story.

I have to say though that the funniest thing about the trip happened before the movie started. I was trying to send Chuck a text, but I ended up accidentally sending this text to the wrong #: "there is a lot of kiddie body odor up in here." I got a text back: "wrong number - but I hope you get the BO situation under control." I thought it was hilarious!

Marble Painting

I posted on Facebook yesterday that Allison and I were painting with marbles. I had a few people tell me they had not heard of this. Well, to be honest, I had not heard of this either until Allison did this at Mother's Day Out a couple of months ago.

It is super easy. I put down a piece of newspaper, then a piece of white construction paper on top of that. We used three colors. I put a little bit of paint in the bottom of a plastic cup, then we each dropped a marble in and swirled it around with a plastic spoon until the marble was completely covered. Once the marble is covered in paint, you scoop it up with the spoon and plop it on the paper and start rolling it around. We had so much fun doing this yesterday (I had almost as much fun as Allison).

Here is the result (mine is on the left; Allison's is on the right):

"Boomerang Express"

That was the theme of Vacation Bible School last week.

It was so much fun! I haven't participated/worked in Vacation Bible School in 20+ years. I had forgotten just how much fun it is. I worked with a great group for first graders the entire week, and I absolutely loved them.

Needless to say, this was Allison's very first time at Vacation Bible School, and she love it too. She had some great teachers, and I can tell she really learned a lot last week.

Amateur Photo Editing

I have had Corel Paint Shop Pro for over a year now, and I have been determined to start teaching myself how to use it.

After two nights of reading and playing, this is my first try: (Mr. Bill, if you are reading this, PLEASE don't tell me how hard you laughed).

Before:


After some lighting and blemish correcting:



And, this is the final one. I love the look of a out-of-focus background. This was my meager attempt:


AND ONE MORE
Before


After: