Dallas Market and New Deck

Here's the booth set up before the market opened on Friday morning. We even tried to put out less jewelry this time and looking back at it now - there's still a ton of different pieces.



The bright daisy/butterfly combo pieces on the iron tree were unveiled Friday. We had kept everything secret - off facebook and the web site - to reduce the chance of us being copied before market even started. That was a success. And by the time the next January market rolls around, we'll have completely new ideas again.



Meanwhile, my friend's husband has been working on a deck behind our house. You can see the old concrete slab underneath. We'll have a lot more space and eventually, it will be a covered patio with a shingled roof to match the house.

Dallas Market

We're off! Me, Maria, Jennifer and Jon that is...

Thursday is set up. Friday is cRaZy! And things start to slow Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, our new patio is under construction. I'm excited to see what happens while I'm gone.

Mark only has one birthday party to deal with so it should be an easy wknd for him!

Pics later!

Happy Father's Day!

Mark spent a better part of the last week power washing the exterior of our backyard fence (and the neighbors') and the culvert behind them. I'm sure he had a perfectly logical reason for doing this but it escapes me. A side benefit was that Jacob had a sparkling clean place to skateboard.



Unfortunately (or fortunately), he doesn't think he's very good at skateboarding so it only lasted 10 minutes or so. And I'm sure if it continued much longer, the homeowners association would have to put up a sign banning skateboarding there like they did around the block.



So today was a blur of activity... I went out for breakfast tacos and brought them home for Mark. We ALL went to Toy Story 3. It was Lucas' first movie! And he did great ... and promptly fell asleep before we left the parking lot. The movie was incredibly sweet and as awesome as we've come to expect from Disney/Pixar. (Yes, I cried.) We went out to dinner at Carino's (Italian). And because we are fish-sitting for some friends with a pool, we were able to all go swimming tonight in their backyard. Something I could definitely get used to.

Instead, our covered patio will get started tomorrow. So hopefully we'll at least have some shade in our backyard, if not a pool.

And this is what we got Mark for Father's Day. It's a super duper blender that shaves ice perfectly and makes grown-up drinks but also excellent slushies for the children.



Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there...especially mine.

Evaly & Camanay's Birthday, Part I

Our friends, Evaly and Camanay, celebrated their birthdays together on Saturday. There was a petting zoo, ponies to ride and lots of fun games and activities.




This is as close as Lucas got to one of the horses.



Ethan sat on one, but elected NOT to ride it.



The birthday girls (together on the big horse) and neighbor Caroline on the smaller pony. The white one's name was Bullet.

Evaly & Camanay's Birthday, Part II

Lucas played in the fish pond and won two little watches.



Climbed around on the playground.



Took swings at the pinata.




Sarah and Catherine with one of the petting zoo bunnies.

Jacob's Birthday Party

We had Jacob's 9th birthday party at Incredible Pizza Company last Saturday. We started off eating dinner in the party room. Then Jacob got to spin a prize wheel and got 250 extra tickets.




The party host had the kids play two games. One was slurping blue jello with a straw. No hands! They also slurped red slushies with no hands! It was harder than you'd think.




After the dinner and games, the party host said it was an Incredible Pizza tradition that the birthday kid gets to take a bite out of the cake without cutting it. Jacob was very concerned and almost didn't do it. After much encouragement, he nibbled a corner.



After cake and presents, the kids were given their game cards and set loose into the gaming area. There was every video game you could think of, a 3-D movie experience, skee-ball, bowling, go-karts, mini-golf, bumper cars and more!

Jacob's Party (cont.)

Black light mini-golf.



Lucas got to ride a little car on a track and a mini merry go round.


Jacob and Riley ready to start the go-kart race. Riley won this heat and got a ribbon!



Lucas and Daddy on the motorcycle game.

Sarah's Dance Recital

Sarah and Camryn danced to "Shake Your Tailfeather" for their recital dance. Costumes were super cute. The girls did great and had a fun afternoon posing every chance they got.




This was taken during the routine. I find it somewhat hilarious that each girl is doing something different at this moment ... so much for being in sync! haha!



Camryn, Sarah and Finley. Finley is the girl in Sarah's dance class that got her ears pierced right before picture day and caused Sarah to feel like she was ready!