Insta what? Instafriday!

so, here are my beautiful cell phone pic shots of the week!

enjoy!

irish dancers before:

irish dancers after:

parade time! 

these girls represent my hometown #represent!

don't they look cute all walkin' down the street in formation with their pony wigs on?? :)

trying to learn how to ride a bike

we're still in the trying to learn stage

My daughter Swede turned 7 this week!  

opening presents 

I think she's pretty thrilled about these shoes

Swede decided she wanted a smurfday party, so she dyed her hair blue, and made a custom smurfette t-shirt

happy smurfday, Swede!

cell phone pics were limited... more Smurfday photos coming soon!!!

feel free to join me with google friend connect

I promise i won't be too annoying, ha!

happy instafriday!

instafriday...aww man, a day late!

I should have posted this yesterday but, hey@! we were having too much fun :) and isn't that what summer is all about? :)

 so, the kids decided that putting the moosejaw stickers on their stomachs was much better than putting them on a car or something :)

they stole borrowed my phone and these are the pictures that they came back with :)

 throw me some sugar!

 Out hometown had a founder's day celebration.  Nothing says summer like BOUNCE HOUSE! :)

woah, crazy scary slide

eating snowcones

 eating snowcones.  they were gross, btw.  the kid who made them put the red flavor syrup on and it was the full concentrate instead of the watered down, sugared up version....we had to get new ones!

we also had a wonderful firework show, but there's no way I could get a pic of that!

I had the most solemn kids on the homemade train

this is my favorite photo of the week :) these two cousins held hands the. whole. day.

they love each other so much! :)

best blondie recipe ever

This recipe is perfect for the summertime because it's soo super fast and easy.  You can make it all in one bowl and only need one size measuring spoon and measuring cup :)  It's also super delicious!  It's so yummy and easy, you'll want to make it three times in one week like I did.  Try not to eat all three pans all by yourself ;)

OVEN: 350   PREP: 5-10 mins BAKE TIME: 25-30 mins

2 cubes butter
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups flour

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl.  Add each ingredient one at a time, stirring well after each.  Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips, white chocolate chips (optional) and pecans (optional)
   
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs.
4. Try to wait a minute for them to cool before stuffing your face (optional)

 they're sure to melt in your mouth and the pecans add a nice nutty crunch.

mouth watering yet? mine is!

the big question

so, my 5 year old asked the big question..no, not "where do babies come from" she asked me if she could get her ears pierced. so, on the fourth of july, after the parades and fun, we headed to the mall.

nervous? nah! I'm not nervous :/

bam. did that hurt?

So, clean 'em three times a day, keep 'em in for 6 weeks, then you can change them out ...perfect! see ya!

oh wait! what if 6 days later one falls out while you're swimming and you can't find it? (hypothetically speaking of course)

OK, so this really happened to us....after we had been out of the pool for about an hour Ingrid says "ahh! I lost my earring" and that's all it takes to put a carload of little girls into hysterics.


We were not far from Claire's at the time so we stopped by to see what they'd say

ME: My daughter just got her ears pierced, and she lost her earring while swimming.  What can we do?
CLAIRES LADY: We'll have to wait a few more days for it to heal and then we can re-shoot it.
ME: It's only been about an hour since she lost it
CLAIRES: do you have the earring?
ME: NO, she lost it in the pool
CLAIRES: well,  it's already grown in, anyway, I can tell just by looking at it
ME: really?!
CLAIRES: yep, come back Monday and I can re-shoot it, but it'll cost $14, but if you bring in your receipt you won't have to by the cleanser with it, too, which will save you $8
ME: (leaving in disgust)
so, we ran home, cleaned her ear, found an earring that looked like the same shiny silver of the first (titanium I think) and stuck it in.
YES,  it just went right in!

 so, she has a little blue earring in her right ear now, and the white diamond stud in the left ear.
come to find out, her little cheeks are so cute and chubby that when she smiles  we can't even see both her ears at the same time anyway ;) 

vrbo love

ready for a road trip? heck to the yeah, as long as lion king is on pandora

my husband is an artist  {see his work here } so, fortunately, we sometimes get to travel to different art shows and locations where he needs to get photos for his projects.

like last week, we traveled 2 hours to a wonderful little town just outside of Park City, Utah.

But, the reason for this post is to 

share my love for vrbo.com 

I LALALALOVE It :)  if you haven't checked it out, you MUST! vrbo=vacation rentals by owner.  we've used this many times and it's awesome for people traveling on a budget.

We got our room for $80! we would have stayed an extra night but the weather wasn't cooperating.

The place we stayed was awesome, rad, "baller" as the cool kids say- so i though i'd share :)

their were two pools, and two hot tubs with a little tunnel connecting the two pools (sha-bam!)

wrinkly fingers, hot tub heaven, and my fam in their suits (gah!)

The place we stayed is called The Zermatt and the rooms usually start at $150, but their are a bunch of privately owned rooms that people rent out when they're not using them. another fun thing at zermatt was the mini golf:

that's sofia on the far left SO proud because she sunk the ball (after 18 tries :)  Don'tcha just love it when your hubby teaches your kids stuff? how cute is that- those two swingin' together :)

the hotel had a place to feed the goats, no swiss-themed hotel is complete without a goat pen, right?

Goats really love to nibble

oh, and a carousel, of course:

so, $80 as opposed to $150 or more, Sha-weet!

vrbo.com is also great for family reunions...we've stayed in really nice condos with 20+ people for about $100 per family...(the condos were around $399/night plus cleaning fees) so fun for family get-togethers :)  or vacays w/friends {if you have friends you could stand to vacation with} It's fun to browse thru vrbo.com and daydream about a trip to the oregon coast or hawaii...and to find things you can actually afford... happy browsing!

linking up with jeannettg for instafriday....it's probably pretty obvious all my pics were taken on my cell phone ;)

instafriday

my kids got their faces painted, some look spookier than others

we planted these flowers

the kids had a tent set up in their bedroom for 3 nights (and were too scared to sleep in it 2 of those nights)

went to chic fil a

ate s'mores

(love that they all have such different looks on their faces)

climbed trees

and stayed here one night

boom.
what'd you do?
linking up with instafriday @ liferearranged