10 Feet of Trouble

Ruby wanted a picture with this picket fence. A last minute addition, but my favorite by far. A typical Ruby stance. This is my dress from when I was Ruby's age. Sorry for the Ruby overload.  It just occurred to me that I could take her to Sears and have her pictures done like the kids have their school pictures done. We used to do Savannah's pictures all the time and then boys came along and life happened. Now it is Ruby's turn. The Navy dress just above was chosen by Ruby.  The longer navy dress with the wide eyelet trim was mine from when I was little. I have a beautiful picture of Savannah wearing the same dress.  Thank you Mommy for keeping it so new looking after alllllllll these years.

Back in May, the kids had a treat. Elizabeth came for a visit. Oh yeah, Kelli & John came too. But it was Elizabeth who was the star in my kids eyes.   They love little toddlers.

 After the kids LEAF performance, they were able to go for a swim at Lake Eden. This is a beautiful Summer Camp favorite for rich locals.  Zip lines, paddle boats, canoes.... have fun Roberts kids because this is your only brief taste at summer camp.  Ha ha ha.  This lake was perfect for the little kids because it was not deep at all. My big kids went all the way to the roped off areas and were still standing shoulders above the water. The big excitement, which I do not have a picture of was of a snake in the water.  I was too busy trying to locate all of my kiddos and make sure none of them were close to this snake. The snake was about a foot from Ethan without him realizing. Yuk!  Finally a couple dads were able to scoot it out of the  swim area. Happy Summer everyone!

In May, we had our first experience at the LEAF festival.  It is held about a mile from our house. And in the 5 years we have lived here, we can hear the music loud and clear.  We never went because of the high ticket price, but this year we got free tickets because of having two performers. Savannah playing her fiddle.    Savannah and her partner getting ready to dance. Larry with his banjo.     It was an interesting Festival to say the least. Lots of shiny, happy people. We had fun.  Lost Ruby for a very frantic 15 minutes, but in the end, we walked away having a wonderful experience.

Every year, we promise our kids a trip to Chuck E Cheese, if they can ALL come back with no cavities. We have never had much luck with this till this year. All 5 kids walked away with sparkling white teeth & no cavities. Woo hoo! So off to Chuck E Cheese we went. For some reason I only have pictures of these two, but everyone was there. We make our kids pair up and we keep an eye on them as they run around and play. Larry got these two boys addicted to some shooting game. My sweet little Ethan was very concerned about all the shooting. Not Xander though. He did not take his eyes off the screen. I had a cute animated video of the two, but for some reason I cannot download it to blogger at this time. Who knows? Maybe in the fall we will be fortunate enough to have another trip to Chuck E Cheese.

Check out the beautiful cake that only a non baking dad can do. We celebrated her birthday 4 days late because Larry was out of town. Then I sprained my ankle so Larry had to do the baking. No worries though. Savannah is not a high maintenance child like her brother Xander when it comes to birthdays. On Thursday, I took the girls to Cheddar's to celebrate. Savannah actually wanted to go to Ruby Tuesdays because of the name, but the nearest one to us is nearly 40 minutes away. Can you believe the plate in front of her is from the kids menu? I told the waitress it was Savannah's birthday and she hooked us up with all kinds of yumminess. Savannah opening some gifts. Ruby is just so thrilled that her big sister is happy. Yes, I am a bad mom. I did not have enough paper to cover this box. No big deal though. Savannah thought it was a trick. Look at her excitement. I love this picture because she realizes it was not a tease. She actually got what she wanted. I am not sure why ...