charleston falls...

took the girls to charleston falls...
don't know what these are, but they are incredibly cool!


monk found a beetle before we even made it onto the trail...




the girls brought along their butterfly nets...
apparently, they're practicing to be robbers.

{i love that you can see her missing tooth! nothing like a gap-toothed robber!}





jackson snagged a frog with one of the girls' nets...




and i'm pretty sure ashlyn is the animal-whisperer!
she was able to pet the frog without it hopping away...


and she told the dragonfly to stop so mommy could take a picture...
and it did!


{apparently, she forgot to tell it to fly away before jaden scooped it up in her net}


jackson was as interested in it as the girls...


we were even able to catch a butterfly in our butterfly nets...


this tree was huge!


and i don't know what this is either...but it's pretty interesting.

kind of like a mix of lady bug and honeybee.

jaden's favorite birthday gift?

her hula hoop...

notice the missing tooth? #3 so far...

look who learned to ride a 2-wheeler...

not him...


her!


jackson helped her for about 20 minutes and then she was on her own...

she was rather proud of herself once she figured it out...
{this pic cracks me up...kind of like "super bike girl"!}


and ashlyn...she was just happy to "flinstone it" in her little car...

murlin's carnival...

jaden's school held a carnival a couple weeks ago...

lots of fun booths...the girls decided they needed to decorate cupcakes first.






jaden and her friend sydney...


the bounce house...


jaden's 1st grade teacher, mrs. baisden, bravely taking on the dunk tank...


the dunk tank won...


ring toss...


hula hoop contest...


and this last shot cracks me up...
jaden was checking herself out in the "press to cross" button while we were waiting to walk back to the car...

happy birthday...

to my hubby

love you! {crazy hair and all}

relay for life...

as you know, my daycare mom and close friend, tracy, was diagnosed with breast cancer in january.
she is currently winning her fight against breast cancer!
to support her and the fight against cancer, we participated in englewood's relay for life during the first weekend in may.

it kicked off with a survivor's lap...
{that's tracy and her dad holding hands...he is a 2-time cancer survivor}

this pretty much says it all...


the girls got all "pinked up" for the relay...


we walked with candles during the memorial/luminaria laps...


love this shot of kacy...


tracy's son thomas and his buddy preston did a reading...
{preston's mom fought and won her battle with breast cancer, too.}


we walked 'til a little after midnight...
then, the girls and i came back the next morning to walk some more with tracy and my mom.
the girls got some balloon sculptures...jaden's was the "little mermaid"


ashlyn's was "dora"...


which she dropped and it immediately started popping...

it was hilarious! she walked up to the balloon guy and threw {what was left of} dora on the ground in front of him...

{oh, and thanks to peggy for the gift subscription to picnik where i've been editing all of my pics!}