"A's" dance recital pics...

Soccer season's over ;-(

"A's" soccer team, Switchfoot, had a great season and they just had their last game this morning. She had a great time and looks forward to playing again next fall.

Some wet fun...

Our homeschool co-op met at the YMCA's splash pad this past Friday! The water was a little cold but the kids had a blast! I'm sure we'll be spending many more days there this summer!

Our trip to the zoo

We went to the Tulsa Zoo on Wednesday with some of our friends and had a great time. We had fun watching the animals and enjoying the nice weather. Funny story - when we first got there, we were watching the black bears. One of the little boys that was with us said, "Mom, look! That bear has two heads!" Well, it just happens to be mating season so you can imagine what he saw! Sorry - no pictures of that one! The girls especially liked the Rain Forrest but those pics didn't turn out so well - too steamy, I guess! We look forward to our next trip back to the zoo!

Farewell butterflies!

Well, we released our butterflies yesterday. "M" came up to me and said, "Mom, I think it's time to let the butterflies go be part of nature." I think she really just wants to reuse her butterfly cage to catch more butterflies after these are gone :-) We really enjoyed raising them and watching them grow from caterpillars into beautiful butterflies!

You go girl!

I am amazed at how gifted and talented so many of my friends are! I have to brag on my friend, Brandi, now ;-) Her website reads, "
Brandi Stafford Simons is an award-winning freelance photographer based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Brandi has been photographing daily news, sports, and portrait assignments since 1993, working as a photojournalist on a newspaper staff as well as freelance. In 2005 she and her family returned to Tulsa so her husband Mike could take a staff photographer’s position at The Tulsa World, and Brandi could freelance. Oklahoma has always been “home” to Mike and Brandi, and they are very excited to be back.
Brandi brings her years of photojournalism experience to her documentary portraiture, working unobtrusively. Her Don’t Say Cheese attitude paired with photographing people in their own comfortable surroundings makes for some truly amazing storytelling images."

Member
NPPA-National Press Photographers Association
WWW.NPPA.ORG
ASMP-American Society of Media Photographers
WWW.ASMP.ORG
SportsShooter.COM
SportsShooter.COM

JUST A FEW OF HER GREAT CLIENTS
The Associated Press
Getty Images
The New York Times
The Tulsa World-
The Oklahoman
World Picture News
Just Between Friends
The City of Tulsa
The Wall Street Journal
The Performance Resource Group
CSP Magazine

A few days ago, Brandi covered the Picher tornado. Her photos even made USA Today's "The Day in Pictures" Go to "May 14th" & it's picture #3.

You can see more photos of the Picher devastation if you go here - you'll also see more amazing pictures she's taken from all over the U.S.

Yea, Brandi ;-) You go girl!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom ;-)

Yesterday, the girls, Steve & I joined my sister and her family in surprising my mom for Mother's Day. We met at her house in OKC and did a backyard makeover for her - we should be on t.v.! We cleaned out her flower beds, pulled weeds, cleaned off her patio, planted flowers & potted plants & gave her new patio furniture. I'll have to post pics later. We had a great time and we hope she enjoys her surprise. She's worth it! Love you, Mom ;-)

Happy Mother's Day weekend

Hmmm - Mom's Week has apparently been shortened to "Mom's Weekend". I knew it was too good to be true ;-)

We have butterflies!

In a previous post, I mentioned that we were raising caterpillars and waiting for them to turn into butterflies. Well, the girls woke up yesterday morning to 3 butterflies in their cage & we're still waiting on the 4th. God's little miracles of nature can be pretty exciting ;-)

Silhouettes

My friend, Leslie, who owns L.E. Portraits , created some awesome silhouettes of my girls for me and we also did a cousin's picture for Steve's mom. They turned out great & will be wonderful keepsakes!

Mother's Day Lunch

Today after church, we went to Steve's parent's house in Sperry for a delicious Mother's Day lunch. Steve's sister's family was there and his grandmother was, too. We had a great time ;-)

Happy Mother's Day

I woke up yesterday morning to a delicious breakfast of a bowl of milk with a little bit of cereal ;-), a tiarra and a very cute note. Notice the note reads, "Happy Mom's week" - hmmm, I wonder if they'll remember that?! I love my sweet girls.

Awwwwww...

The other night, Steve and I went to check on the girls before we went to bed and "A" was asleep holding a note written by "M". "M" wrote this note for "A" for her birthday. Too sweet ;-)

Quack Quack

We've gotten so much rain today that our ditches have filled up and look like mini ponds! In fact, our neighbor across the street from us had ducks in hers! Of course the girls wanted to see them close up so they took them some bread and popcorn. As they ran out the door to feed them, I said, "Now don't chase the ducks and scare them away!" The third picture shows what happened ;-)

Our new pets...

The girls are so excited because we are raising Painted Lady butterflies from Insect Lore. (This is probably the closest thing they'll get for a pet for a while - with the exception of the fish "A" received for her birthday.) They are currently in the chrysallis stage & should be turning into butterflies within the next few days. More pics to come soon!