Sprinkles Of Charm

An American Girl Birthday

July 9th was a special day for Bella. She awoke to a doughnut cake (her favorite) and her 8 candles.  Then we all got ready for a long awaited adventure!  Colorado finally got an American Girl Store...my daughters dream! We had a special trip planned with her cousins. Luckily, Nana (my mom) got to be here for the occasion. We had 6 little girls who couldn't wait to explore every inch of that place!  Aunt Tangie had a HUGE surprise for all the girls...she was buying an early Christmas present for everyone in the form of any doll they wanted!! Talk about a dream come true for all of them!  The store was magical and everybody picked a darling new little best friend.  We went to Cheesecake Factory afterwards and they had special chairs for the dolls so they could eat with us to.  We had American Girl party hats and favors for the dolls. It was a day those girls will never forget!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

July Festivities

Our July was very full of fun and special events so I wanted to catch up. July 9th was Bella's 8th Birthday. We had lots of family come in town for the 4th, her party and her baptism. The 4th was a blast filled with fireworks, delicious food and endless fun with the cousins. My 2 sisters and their families came in for the occasion. Our husbands couldn't stop lighting those fireworks...you'd think they were 18 all over again. The kids loved every minute of it (except Sawyer who wasn't sure what to think).

All the girl cousins looking darling in their patriotic red, white & blue!

 

The kids acted out how we gained our independence...it was hilarious!

Sweet Hadley!
 
 

Tiny little Merrilll DeCrow, my pint-sized neice.

My beautiful sis, Molly and Merrill.

Fresh Fruit Shortcake....mmmmmm....good!

 

Another sweet neice, Province DeCrow.
 

TROUBLE is all I have to say with these two boys!
 

Mol and Tim:)
 

All grown up Samantha Baxter - Tangie's (my older sis) wonderful daughter!

Our sweet T-money Record Sales (aka Townsend...don't ask about the nickname:)

 

FairyFotos (Fairy Photos)

We LOVE our summertime Fairy Garden. We have a very special place in our yard. Every Spring the girls and I pick out flowers of every color and plant some new excitement in the Fairy Garden. It has been a treasured tradition for the girls to plant beautiful blooms each year. This year I had a special surprise...fairies for the garden. I'd been looking for a while for fairies that could stay outside and last through the weather...I found these little beauties at my favorite garden shop in town. They had 3 varieties...perfect for my little bunch. We also added some mini benches, gardening tools and garden pets. The girls spent hours in the garden dreaming up fairy dusted adventures.  Turns out Madison has a knack for snapping FairtyFotos. Take a look how darling...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

Little Bella's Violin Graduation

Our sweet Bella had a very exciting event this summer! After 4 years of hard work learning the violin she graduated from Suzuki Book 1!! Unless you've been a Suzuki Violin mother you won't realize what an accomplishment this is. It was years of hard work for her (and me) learning how to beautifully play that difficult little instrument. With the Suzuki method the mother teaches/practices with the child everyday and every song is learned by sound. She played about 20 songs from memory at the recital. We held the recital in our home with a pianist and invited our friends, neighbors and family. It was a beautiful day and Bella played so well. She was a a bit nervous and her arms got tired half way through but I'm so proud of her. She gets up early to practice everyday and has really worked hard to accomplish this - and she was only 7 years old!

 

Bella with her violin teacher - Mrs. Erron Lacey.

 
 
Mom, Madison, Sawyer, Dad, Bella & Hadley

Catching Up...Summer Fun

Kiddos are back in school...I'm finding a minute here and there to (hopefully) blog a little. Our summer was FULL of fun adventures....Colorado Springs, Lake Powell, Cabin with family friends, Girls Weekend for me, swimming, tennis and lots of playing with my 4 sweet ones:) I loved our summer. It may have been a little more packed than I'd like - but it was all fun things so I certainly can't complain. We started our summer with a great trip to a great resort in Colorado Springs. We hiked, saw caves and arches and mountains, played tennis, swam at their "beach", and LOVED being together as a family. We also got to visit Santa's North Pole in the mountains...full of rides and Christmas cheer right in the middle of summer. The kids were pretty amazed!