July!? Already?!?!?!

You may be detecting a theme here. (And can someone explain to me why Blogger has made it EVEN MORE DIFFICULT TO ARRANGE PHOTOS ON THE BLOG?!?!?!?!?!?!)

More baby birds
More projects
(And yes, the Christmas cactus bloomed in June.)
Strider is all better now!

VACATION!!!!

The Queen and DeBoy with their cousin, Princess L

The house on the left is the one we stayed in on Harbor Island, SC. There were 20 of us and it didn't feel crowded. We saw lots and lots of these pelicans.
sunrise

Access to the beach on Hunting Island (southeast of Harbor Island)

Wading in the waves of Hunting Island

Airborne!
Hunting Island lighthouse
This part of the beach felt like stepping into the land of Mordor or the Neverending Story, or Yoda's swamp (depending on which of us you asked).

The Queen climbs the lighthouse steps. Unfortunately there was a height limit. We didn't know that until we got there (NOTHING ON THEIR WEBSITE REFERS TO THIS!!!!!!!) DeBoy was dreadfully disappointed.

At the top
the view from the top (that's the gift shop)
We went on the nature trail. These are sand crabs and fiddler crabs. Very tiny. It was a lot like watching spiders scuttling around. Except for the fact they were going sideways.
We got to pet a turtle and a snake at the nature center. This turtle was born without claws on her hind feet, so she wouldn't have survived in the wild. We don't know the girl with the kids.
lighthouse reflection
my three favorite people

the Queen in the sunrise

sunset on Harbor Island
Back at Princess L's house, enchanted by Enchanted.
Happy Father's Day (it was also our 6th anniversary!)!
Washing dishes whilst in my niece's tiara. Back to reality (albeit in my sister's house).
I know it's a lot of pictures, but we took 680, so really you got pretty lucky. In addition to vacation, I was in a 4th of July variety show. I sang 2 songs and we did the skit I talked about last month. (See previous blog post.) There is a rumor of pictures. Hopefully I can post them before August. We've gone to the pool a few times and had the summer reading program at the library. School starts in one month. I feel the need to do as much fun stuff as possible between now and then.

Hallie at Wonderful World of Weiners is holding a huge raffle/fundraiser. Lots of prizes! Go check it out.

And I'll leave you with this video of DeBoy with DeWii at DeBeachHouse.

June!?! Already?!?

May was a whirlwind of dance recital, soccer, grandparent visits, birthday parties, hiking, and projects around the house.

See?

Homemade Red Velvet Cake. The kids learned the birthday song for me.Some of my presents - flowers and pretty new flower pots. The giant teacup is awesome.
The song was "Hot, Hot, Hot."
The Queen is in the middle of the back row.Books are much better read by Grandma.The Queen was in her element during soccer.DeBoy in the goal after his one and only score of the season. He finally decided he liked it at the last game.All the kids got medals for participating. Here's DeBoy with a teammate. Jack-in-the-PulpitGranddad's birthdayThe seat of the rocking chair is almost done.There are three baby birds in this nest, built by a Carolina wren on a set of bookshelves on our back porch. You can see the beak of one, just above that white egg. They've since flown away. We don't know how successfully; the Mountain Man found one of them in the driveway. Hopefully the other two fared better.This juvenile goldfinch was just learning to fly, but managed to land on the birdfeeder. He was content to let us hover over him.Tadpole's got legs!!!Black snake living on the back porch. Hopefully he didn't get the other two birds. His presence may explain why the mice live in our cars.I painted this trellis and planted a clematis vine for it.Found this guy during the painting process. Nothing like stretching out all 8 legs and having a nap.The kids help the Mountain Man with the rock wall. Eventually it will go all the way up the side of the house.Our azalea bloomed!! This is the 5th or 6th one we've planted, and the first one that didn't die.We took a Memorial Day Hike with some friends to a nearby falls. It rained on us all the way in, but it turned sunny for the rest of the day.
The Queen and the Mountain Man with a friend.

Play On!

So far we've had one soccer game in the rain (the Queen's), 2 soccer games on a beautiful sunny day (Sunday before last), and one makeup game (DeBoy's) in which he refused to play. It has rained for over a week now. Sunday's games both got cancelled; DeBoy's is supposed to be made up today, but since it's STILL raining, and thunderstorms are rolling in, I don't expect it to happen. Practice for both is tomorrow - more thunderstorms expected. The Queen's makeup game is Thursday, which is predicted to be slightly better. At any rate, enjoy these pictures because they may be all we get!!!!!

DeBoy practices a bit before the game starts. Anyone else have a coal tipple as the backdrop to their soccer field?And away we go! The Mountain Man is training some of the teen players to be refs for the little kids games.

The dejected child in the goal is DeBoy. He thought it was his job to get the ball out of the net after a goal. This time someone else beat him to it.

DeBoy with our friend Ricky from Louisiana.

The Queen is behind the girl in yellow (who happens to be in her dance class).The Queen is 3rd from the left.Naptime!
And here's a picture of some of the zillions of trillium we have, plus closeups of a white one and a red one.