July...well, June

I should probably rename my blog to "Sorry it's been a while." My blog has dwindled to one or two measly posts a month. And each post's theme is "Sorry it's been a while" or some variation. As always you have my apologies. I'm not sure I have a good excuse for my absence this month. I'm sure I can come up with something:

* had two clients due to have babies this month (that sounds like a good excuse, right?)
* it's too hot outside (never mind the cooler temperatures from the unheard-of daily rain)
* I'm tired (always a good, honest, useable excuse - applicable to many things)
* I've had visitors (this one is legitimate)
* I'm addicted to Instagram (this one may be the most genuine of all these excuses)
* uploading and editing photos is not my favorite thing (another genuine one)

So you can pick which one you like best. After all, according to my boss in college, I am an excuse muffin. I should live up to a stellar title like that one.

Anywho, at least you're in for a whirlwind of photos today. I won't post them all from the entire month, so that I have some to use for several posts (and I will post, I will post, I will post...)

Rewind the calendar to June for a bit.

Since Kevin's been gone, we've been doing our daily removing of a link on our deployment chain. I'd say we actually do the activity on the link about 1 out of every 20 that we remove. And the ones I do usually involve something like "watch a movie" or "eat ice cream for dinner." Go figure.

So one night we pulled a link that said "movie night with popcorn." So into our jammies we jumped, onto the couch we hopped, and popcorn started flying while Thomas the Tank Engine entertained us.




Eden loved this activity. Winnie loved the popcorn. I loved the amount of effort it required from me.

One of the chain links said to go to the zoo, and luckily that same day someone from church invited us to go along and we had a blast. My favorite part: the 3-hour nap Eden took and the 4-hour nap Winnie took after we got home. That alone is worth the $85 family annual membership fee.




There were 10 kids and 4 adults (3 moms and a grandma). It really was a lot of fun. Despite Montgomery being a pretty lame place to live (though Panama City still holds the "Lamest Place to Live" title), its zoo isn't half bad. It's small, but most of the walkways are shaded (big plus in this psycho heat) and there are a lot of different exhibits. Even one where you can feed a giraffe (Eden was terrified of this but Winnie had a blast).

Eden! Stand like a flamingo!


There is also a great big park at the zoo that is sort of shaded.




The zoo AND a park in one day? Bestill their little beating hearts.



The following may be my favorite photo from our trip.




I think I'll leave it at that. That's a great photo to end on.

More later (I promise...no really, I do.).

Still here...checking in

Sorry I've been slack about posting lately. Same excuse as last time: I keep avoiding uploading and editing all the 600 photos on my camera (to be fair, 400 of those are from our travels, but I haven't deleted them yet).

Plus, I'm addicted to uploading photos to Instagram, so if you don't follow me but can't stand missing all the excitement that goes on with us (*cough, cough*), my username is @eclawracy. And don't forget to give me your username as well. I can always use another excuse to be absorbed in my phone. (I've been told on more than one occasion: "Put your phone down, Mommy." Enter massive feelings of guilt.)

Either way, here are some snippets into our life this summer.

For 4th of July, I made the girls festive skirts. Eden was way excited about her skirt. Makes me think she should have more skirts to wear, instead of shorts.


Also keeping with our 4th festivities, I made patriotic layered jello. Fun! I must say, though, I failed on this goodie, thinking this was an awesome dessert, which it is, but for kids. Not adults. Not babies. While adults think, "Oh, cool," they do not think "Oh, boy, let me sink my teeth in that bad boy." Kids do. Adults do not. Neither do babies. I'm thinking I made this about 3 years prematurely. When Eden and Winnie are older, then this will be a winner. Not yet.

Oh well. At least it looked cool.


We have been enjoying lots of rain here. Many people here are upset by all the rain. I. am. NOT. Let's repeat, Alabama citizens: Rain. Good. Heat. Bad. Rain Good. Heat. Bad.
So despite making it a bit harder to play outside, I say it's not impossible, as proven by Eden:

Nothing better than playing in the rain. A little singin' never hurt nobody neither.

And finally, because my life wouldn't be complete unless I have something bad for me sitting around my kitchen, I made some Belgian waffles.


Do not confuse these with the pancake-ified versions most people think of. Oh no, my friends, these almost belong in the dessert category. These babies are rich, buttery, crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and filled with little balls of crackly sugar that scream "Party in your mouth!" Or maybe they sigh "Lay down and die because you've found heaven." Either way, these are awesome. They taste like the ones I gorged on - I mean, ate in Belgium in December.

So that's life lately. More later, when I'm motivated to upload more photos. Toodles!