Insects Galore!!

Our little Bella is an extreme girly girl, I mean princess dresses and tiaras galore, but she can definitely hang with the boys.  She loves to dig in the dirt, play with hot wheels and of course play with, look at, and analyze insects and bugs.  Our big project this past spring was to create an organic garden in our backyard, which we did, but all of those fun little insects that our sweet Bella loves so much eat our beautiful and tasty veggies.  Really it's just the roly-poly's that are feasting on our goods.  But our sweet girl has somewhere along the line decided not to call it a roly-poly but instead a holy-poly.  This makes it incredibly hard to get rid of the little creepy crawlers since Bella has dubbed them holy.  Oh my child!  So we are constantly out in the garden pulling them off our veggies and trying organic remedies to help them to steer clear of our garden.  All because our little princess loves her some holy-polies.  

She loves insects so much that for Christmas last year her grandma bought her a butterfly and ladybug set.  So this summer we thought it was the best time to send away for the butterfly and ladybug larvae.  We got the creepy caterpillars and ladybug larvae and Bella watched them in pure fascination for over a week as they turned from ugly little wriggly creatures into beautiful and vibrantly colored butterflies and ladybugs.  Once her butterflies emerged from their "kackoon" as Bella called it, we released them. Here are some shots of Bella releasing her precious little insects.

Scooby always has to be in on the action.

 

So now anytime we see a ladybug or butterfly, no matter where we are, Bella always asks, "Is that my ladybug?" or "Is that my butterfly?" Oh how I wish I could bottle up her little girl cuteness.

First Day of Preschool

So today was a day that I have been dreading for a while...Bella started preschool and I am seeing more now than ever how big my "little" girl really is.  The getting ready for school process started last night when Bella packed her backpack...there are no books but she did get to take her blankie and a pillow pet for nap time.  She was just excited to have a new backpack.

 She packed her backpack quite well but had a tough time going to sleep.  Not only was she super excited about school but she also took a 3 1/2 hour nap, which is pretty much unheard of now that she is 4. Eventually, she fell asleep. This morning Bella woke up and got dressed and was so excited.  Normally, Bella is a slow riser, but today she was wide awake and ready for school before I even went to wake her.  She got ready without reminders so I had to take a few shots to remember the morning that she wasn't dragging.

This is her good morning shot, which is so not normal for it to be a smiling face. She's usually grouchy for the first ten minutes of the day.

 Putting her shoes on...

 Brushing her teeth and her face too as you can see with the toothpaste all over her cheeks.

 This is where her energy started to dwindle

 She is ready to go.

 Her classroom.

 This was the point where I had to hold back tears and I could barely get Bella to stop and smile for the camera.  She wanted to line up and go outside with the other kids.  Mike and I had to ask her for a kiss goodbye.  She was way to busy being a social butterfly and she said, "Mommy, I have to go outside with everyone." And with that my little girl was off.  I thought I'd maybe get 1 tear from her, but nope, nada, nothing.  I am so glad that we have raised such a confident girl who can fit in anywhere, but I kinda wanted her to miss her mommy and daddy and shed one tear.  Is that too much to ask??  Haha.

 So as we left our smiling sweet girl, I had to speed walk out of the school because I couldn't hold back the tears.  We raised Bella to be exactly the way she was this morning, talkative, confident, and sweet.  I just can't believe how quickly the time has passed.  It's moments like these that you realize that you have to enjoy every single minute with your children because before you know it, they'll be all grown up!

River Rats!!!

Every summer we pack up the family and head out to the river.  Some people can't believe that we find 115 degree weather relaxing, but we love it!! And we are definitely raising quite the river rat.  Bella absolutely loves the river and we have to pull her out of the water, rarely does she get out willingly. This year she was finally big enough to be pulled on a tube by the boat, Mike didn't drive too fast but she still had a blast.  This year we were fortunate to spend our river days with family and close friends. Summer is not complete without some days of floating around on rafts and having fun on the boat.  And we have one more trip planned in September and we are already counting down the days!

Bella trying to stay on her raft and float like mommy.

 She loves the water!

 Mike wakeboarding...too bad it was soooo windy and he couldn't wake board long.

 Auntie Lindsey and Bella.  She was squirting everybody with those squirt guns, but thank goodness it was 110 and felt so good!

 Bella and Renee on the waverunner

 Bella is ready for the tube....

 and she is off.

 She brought Renee on for a ride

 Bella would stare at these hats EVERY time we walked past this store in the hotel, so we finally had a fashion show :)

The 4th!!!

The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday...next to Christmas of course.   Quite a few people wonder why that is.  Well, there are quite a few reasons.  I grew up in a small town where everybody seems to know what everybody else is up to.  Now as a kid I definitely did not appreciate the small town feel of Claremont, probably because I would get in trouble because somebody else would call my mom and say, "Do you know where Lauren is?" or "Do you know what Lauren did?"  Gotta love the gossip of small towns.  But now I appreciate the sense of community and people watching out for your family (still don't like the gossiping though).  The sense of community you feel in Claremont on July 4th is heartwarming.  My family could go down to the beach and watch fireworks over the ocean or go to the river and relax on the water, but instead we choose to spend the 4th in Claremont...and I couldn't imagine not being in Claremont for the 4th...EVER.  Everyone is so friendly and you can't pass a stranger without them wishing you a Happy 4th of July.  There is a fun day at the park for all of the kids with games, bouncers, face painting, wading pool, music and so much more.  Then there is a parade where the kids decorate their bikes or wagons and kick off the parade, Bella has been in this parade every year and gets so excited to decorate her bike each year.  There is a house decorating contest, because yes people in Claremont decorate for the 4th like it is Christmas.  And why shouldn't they...we live in such a great country and I for one am so proud to be an American!  After the parade it seems as though the whole town heads down to the colleges for a night of dancing to classic rock music and fireworks.  So that is why I love the 4th....because my hometown celebrates the 4th of July to the fullest in an old fashioned kind of way and what a great way to celebrate our wonderful country...with a community that is just as proud of their country as I am.

Here are some pictures of our Amazing 4th.  It seems to get better as Bella gets older.

 She is such a ham.

Every 4th she just HAS to have a snow cone...and she takes about two bites of the ice sucks out all the juice and then she is OVER it!

 She loves the wading pool, however this year it took her a god 30 minutes to get it...she had a slight attitude because she was tired.

 But after a few minutes in the pool she was just fine.

 I absolutely love this shot I took of my sister and Bella goofing around.

 Waiting for the parade to begin...notice the decorated bike.

 She was sooo excited to hear us call her name from the street.  We were surprised she didn't crash since she was riding without training wheels.  She rode the whole parade route and back without 1 crash.

 Sooo proud.

 My patriotic girl.

 Watching the parade.

 Waiting for fireworks after eating our traditional KFC Fourth of July chicken dinner.

I love my girl, I love my family and I love the Fourth of July!