Mulberries!

Here are a few pictures from the olden days with our mulberry tree.

Caleb tried to help us pass the mulberry joys on to our new house by gifting Lydia with a mulberry branch.

But sadly that branch is now dead as a door nail.

So let's just fondly remember the days of the mulberries.  Us girls might miss them, but Joel and our cars most certainly do not! :)

(Try not to let Lydia's red shoes, Anna Kate's mismatched bow, and my mulberry stained tooth bother you.  Probably didn't even notice until I pointed them out, but I seem to have some issues.  Ha!)

Seashell Dress!

Weekend Projects!

Joel has been very busy around here lately!

This weekend he installed a new dishwasher, new light fixture, and he added fancy molding around the kitchen window!  He also worked on finishing up the opening between the kitchen and the living room!

There is still so much to be done, but yay for some progress!!!

Fun at the Beach!

Golfer!

This looks like a first day of school picture, but it is actually a first day of golf picture! :)

Joel got my dear Grandaddy's old golf clubs a little while back and has been practicing his swing in our new yard.  Today he got all dressed up and went to a golf course with his friend Andy.  He looked so cute, I just had to take some pictures...can't believe he let me! :)

So when the girls and I sat down to pray at lunch I must have said something like, "help Daddy have a good time playing golf," and then Lydia chimed in, "and help him to WIN!!!" Ha!  Then she later said, I know that God will be with Joel (as she so lovingly calls him) at the golf club, because I heard at church that God goes with you wherever you go...even to the golf club.  :)

Sailor Girls!

It has become a yearly tradition to take a picture of the girl cousins in sailor dresses.

So we set off in our fancy golf cart and began the adventure.

The girls did not seem to be in the mood for a photo shoot.  (Not that they ever are really.)

Until we found this swing.  It did the trick!

Finally got all three in one spot and smiling! 

Success!

Salsa!

One of our new neighbors gave us a big bag of homegrown tomatoes. Since we didn't think we could eat that many, during one of Anna Kate's naps, Lydia and I decided to make some salsa.

Lydia loooooves tomatoes!

She was eating them almost as quickly as she chopped them.  

Notice our lovely under construction kitchen, and who knows why there is a pair of shoes on the counter. Ha!

Lydia is a pretty proud chef! :)

Rhea County Fair!

Since I saw that Jessica posted her fair experience, I thought I would do the same.  

I had never been but saw that there was free admission and a Best Dressed Pig Contest and decided that we better not miss that!  So Joel, the girls, and I headed over and enjoyed walking around searching for a parade of piggies.  Much to our dismay, we only found one small pig dressed as a toaster!  He was the only pig participant.  Too bad but still pretty amusing.  

Lydia enjoyed a few rides, while poor Anna Kate pouted outside the gate.

Man, Anna Kate looks blonde!  I don't think her hair is that color in real life. You can tell these girls are sisters by their signature eyebrow look.  Ha!

We had a nice "cultural experience" as Joel called it.  I'm hoping for more dressed up pigs in next year's contest! :)

Lydia's First Biking Lesson!

As you all probably saw, we finally broke out Lydia's birthday bike for her first lesson.

She did great!

Definitely not so good at the steering.  Almost went into the creek a few times! Yikes! I somehow sacrificed my foot to keep her from having a crash. Ouch!

Overall I would say it was a success!  I heard her quietly chanting, "You can do this, Lydia! You can do this!" Then as she got more comfortable, she sang little songs to herself as she pedaled along. So sweet!  And here she is posing with her cup which she kept in her pouch.  She thought that was hilarious for some reason!

We even went all the way up to the mailbox and brought the mail back down in her pouch.  I believe my foot injury happened on the way back down the driveway.  Got going just a wee bit too fast!  Looking forward to some more biking lessons soon.  Although maybe we should wait til it cools down a bit! :)