Lemonade 4 Sale!

Who could resist these faces??
A few weeks ago we had a garage sale at our house, and the girls were thrilled at my suggestion of running a lemonade stand. They put a great deal of love into their advertisements so I thought I better take a few pics of it all for posterity's sake! While they did not sale that many cups of lemonade, they made good money in tips so all in all their ROI (did I mention Tim is an accountant) was pretty good. Sadly, we sold a ton of "toddler-esque" toys and it truly marked the end of babies in our house it was kind of strange seeing it all go. That said, we put all the proceeds (and then some) to a new trampoline and enclosure (nothing is getting through that sucker) so if you are in the area HOP on over!

A Belated 4th of July Entry

The red, white, and blue...
A little excited for the fireworks show... wow check out those GUMS!!

We had a really low key 4th of July this year as the summer flu hit our house during this time. We did have a nice time and got some of the traditions in though. We started off with the traditional 4th of July Pancakes - I will add the blackberries (the stars) and the raspberries (the stripes) were picked fresh from our garden. Does this count as a local meal - oh local meal judges??

I am the Crazy Cat Lady...

Meet Lola,

Charlie,
and Missy!
Charlie helps Taylor recover from a summer flu bug!!
Let me explain. We have had a bit of cat craziness around here. On Mother's Day (fitting I think you could say) a stray mama cat decided to take up residence under the Idaho Girls' grandma's back porch. We opted to help Grandma out by catching all the kittens once they were old enough (that is a whole "nother" story in itself) and then find them homes. We, of course, fell in love with them all and named them in the process - Charlie and Lola (you may know this show if you have kids it is in my opinion one of the best cartoons around - not that you need to have kids to watch cartoons don't get me wrong on this point) and Missy. We found a great home for the girls (Lola and Missy) who were able to stay together, and Charlie wormed his way into our hearts and is now a part of our family. The mama cat we were able to finally catch, take her to the vet and get her spayed (Bob Barker would be proud), and she will be returned to Grandma's backyard until we can find her a better home (if possible). We did not have the heart to take her to the OVERFLOWING pound and all the no-kill shelters were busting at the seams too. It was quite an adventure let me tell you. We love Charlie, and have put a BIG CAP on NO more cats at our house (if you are counting we have 2 all indoor cats, 1 indoor/outdoor cat, and one completely outdoor cat) - yes that makes 4 and that makes me the crazy cat lady around the neighborhood. No surprise there for those of you who knew me as a kid. I don't want to end up on the news as an animal hoarder - I promise we are full up in this KITTY INN!!

More Cherry Festival

The loot...
The retired mule, and future mules in the making...
Too many cherries??
As a reprisal from two years ago, we loaded up and headed to the cute little town of Emmett to pick some cherries. The pickins' were g-o-o-d this year -although all the low cherries were gone so we had to take advantage of Tim's 6 foot 5 fame. I retired as the cherry mule (it was too stinking hot to haul around 20 lbs of cherries) and I can't seem to get the song "The Ol' Grey Mare" out of my head as I write - not sure why!! Tim took over as cherry mule. I am good on cherries for another year or two now we certainly had our fill.

Emmett Cherry Festival

The Eaters and the Pickers...
The2008 Cherry Mule...

Idaho girls take on California

The view from our condo. The girls loved the palm trees.
My California boy! Nice board dude!!
My favorite picture from the whole trip. These girls loved the ocean and spending time with their AZ cousins.

All Tim's wishes came true...

My simple husband... tee hee... his only request for our trip was that we hit an In-n-Out restaurant while we were there. We do not have one in Idaho so it was kind of interesting - they reminded me of what my dad describes as the original McD's before they diversified their menu. It was good food - if you like fast food but nothing to write home about if you ask me. Tim loved them!
Taylor?? Not so much. She is our veggie girl in the making. The only meat she will eat is bacon and chicken. Kind of weird I know.

Family Fun

The four cousins all ready to take on Sea World in the matching outfits Grandma insisted they wear. Corny, but cute.
Aren't they cute? Taylor is going through an interesting smile phase - if you know the Friends episodes at all she reminds me of Chandler when he would get his pics taken. It cracks me up. The poor girl is missing so many teeth too.
Hugh Heffner is that you? I had to put this one in because I know it is hard to believe that I come from a skin type like that. He made us look so tan!!!

Sea World

The dolphins were so fun to watch. They were our first show at Sea World, and we sat in the splash zone. We got WET!
The killer whales were unbelievable - the show while a little corny was beautiful and I almost got choked up about it. I know what a cheese ball. We sat (again in the splash zone) I think it would be better said that we sat in the SOAKING WET ZONE
Taylor was prepared to be splashed - she was one of the lucky ones who had a parka on - the rest of us were not so lucky.

Breaking out of my blogger's block...

I can hardly believe my baby girl is 5!
A Harris party would not be complete without a jump house...
To my readers,

Thank you for your patience and kind words as comments over this last month. I must admit given everything we have experienced over this last month I have had a hard time wanting to post much of anything. I have once again learned a valuable lesson from girls as of late that I would like to share. In Taylor's class at church, they have a virtue each month and one of the previous virtues was JOY. I was fascinated (ok I am easily fascinated what can I say) by the definition given to the kids to learn as to what JOY means - finding happiness even when things don't go our way. I have certainly had to dig deep these last few weeks to find myself being happy - however if I really think about it I have much to be thankful for and am blessed by my children in all the JOY they bring me. So I am finally able to break through my blogger's block, and share what a joy it was to celebrate our youngest daughter's 5th birthday. Each day with them is a gift, and I can't imagine my life without them in it. Happy Birthday Aubrey Jennifer Harris!!

Happy Birthday Aubrey!

Posing with some of her party guests!
A little shy about being sung to...
Posing by their new bikes that Grandma and Grandpa gave them for their bdays this summer.