(this cute chalk board I just got at a garage sale down the street for only 3 dollars! Sweet!)

Unwelcome guests for the 4th.

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Well, since coming home from our lovely vacation I have been thrilled to be back in my own bed, able to let the kids spread out into their own spaces throughout the house and enjoy my own as well again. When we were in the 2 bed room suite in Florida, I kept telling Mark, "Hey...this is what it would feel like to live in NYC together!!" That small space was not too bad, that is of course until I am back in my house and I am SOO happy to be home.

~

We are all back to routines and normal life for the most part. Natty the nanny(awesome auntie) left us to be a counselor at EFY for 2 weeks this month. Have fun cutie! You're the best!

(Talking to her long distance heart-throb) Luckily and just in time our bestest friends from the South have graced our town with their presence, and so now I have new entertainment for July. =) We've already had a couple really fun great nights already hanging out and talking until the wee hours of the night as all true girlfriends do! haha!

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A few days ago our unwelcome guest arrived in the form of a nasty fever...that now all three of my children have it. After which is followed by an ugly-sounding cough. ICK. I am just counting the days until I am taken down as well!! Fortunately, in a weird way, we got this horrible germy from my sisters so they all came over for our annual 4th of July celebration anyway!

For my birthday, my sweetie sis Steph got all crafty on me and made me the most awesome apron out of real vintage fabric!!

I am totally in

L-O-V-E

with it!

Thanks sissie!
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I hadn't been very domestic for what felt like quite some time, so I baked up some 4th of July sugar cookies, that Lena and I frosted super festively. I also baked my personal FAVORITE, mini cheesecakes topped with cherry pie filling. YUM. And I also made low-fat Italian turkey burgers for the grill, some Italian penne pasta salad, and another fave of mine, jello with mandarin oranges and blue-berries in it, topped with cool whip. It just screams summer, doesn't it? So that was our meal yesterday. It was pretty tasty if I do say so myself!! =)

Food, glorious food!

Yummy nummy cheesecakes!

Look at the pretty Grammie!

The cute and the cuter one.

I actually had extra time that morning

so I got crafty too and made both Elsie and Lena's hair bows.

I was able to repurpose an old shirt I had and sewed this flag on to the back of Lena's shirt for the festivities!

This picture is priceless because if you'll notice she's wearing a pink skirt. (After I fixed up her shirt with a flag and the matching bows...she insisted on wearing this random skirt so she could "match" her cousin who was wearing a skirt of the same style.) She also wanted matching hair..thus the hairspray and brush in her chair. She was a moody stinker that day as you can see...I think a lot due to feeling a little sick.

Can you tell who's not sick yet?

Poor baby was already starting to feel it.

She's still so darn cute.

Here's cute little Ollie waving to the parade.

Nice star shirt, buddy!

Finally, everyone was pretty exhausted becuase they all went home before dark.

Due to the ugly icky bugs in our kids bodies, they were wiped out and all asleep before the fireworks even happened last night. We didn't feel too bad, though, since we just saw some pretty amazing ones at Disney. So it was a quiet night for our 4th. I fell asleep snuggling Elsie in our big bed.

Not a bad way to finish a good day. =)