Parker Reunion

Last weekend my moms side of the family got together for our 10th year reunion. I can't believe my grandmother has been enjoying her time in heaven for that long. She was one special lady! I could tell you about her but I would be here for a week and that wouldn't even scrape the surface. 

My cousin has planned a 10 year cruise for September. I am sooooo excited! All 5 of us are going! Unfortunately not all(110??) of the Parker clan can make it. For those that are not able to go, we had a day reunion. We laughed...ate.... laughed... talked.... laughed....etc! Let's not forget pictures. Here are a few of our family.

We had several cameras taking our picture at the same time. I did not have a single picture where we were are all looking at the same camera.

 

After pictures, the kids could finally swim.

 

There was a slide that sat on top of a deck connected to the pool. It seemed so high off the ground. My niece did not have any problems going down it!

It was great to be with family again!

If you are reading this and did not make it........you were missed!

High Falls Water Park

Last week, several moms and their kids traveled to High Falls. I have heard about the water park there but have never been. Online it did not seem like very much. There are basically 3 things that make up the park.

2 water slides

a swimming pool

a pirate ship splash pad

There are several places to sit, lay out, eat and relax!

 

Even though there is not much to it, we still had a great time!!!!!

 It was great to be with friends because we all watched out for each others kids. 

I think the water slides were definitely everyone's favorite for the day!

It amazes me that we have lived here altogether 7 years yet still have places we've never been.

 

Happy 4th of July!

I hope you all have a wonderful day celebrating your freedom!

I thought I would share with you how we kicked off our celebration a few days early with friends at the Perry Celebration. 

After an evening of worship, we grabbed something to eat and headed to watch the fireworks. Since we had a little wait time for the sun to go down, I ceased the moment with a few snapshots.

It was such a great night to be with friends! 

I sure am going to miss them all when we move!

Before I end, I wanted to share the appliqued shirts I did for a family going to Disney. I loved the way they turned out. I am definitely not to be mistaken for a professional........just a trainee having fun learning!

I did this one for the Papa(grandfather) in the bunch.

These were the 2 girl's shirts along with a special Minnie clip.

 

Kids Connect for Christ

Over a year ago, I started planning activities for the kids at church during the summer. Since then, we have formally picked out a title to call them. They are known as KC4C(Kids Connect for Christ). During the school year we meet once a month. The summertime allows us to meet once a week. We have several moms who are teachers or stay at home. I wanted my kids and hopefully the others to have something to look forward to each week. It gives the kids extra time to play together outside of church and us moms social time........WHICH WE DESPERATELY NEED! 

Instead of cramming all the events into 1 post, I will share them as they happen.

Our first event was the $1 summer movie and lunch. Sorry....no pictures of this event!

The next activity was a trip to a local farm to pick blackberries. We were supposed to pick peaches as well but they were not ripe yet.

Looks like he had a fight with the blackberries!

 

We had a picnic lunch after all our hard work along with.........

homemade peach ice cream!

It was such a fun day!

I am lovin all the fresh fruits and veggies!

We are so blessed to have access to so many wonderful fruits and veggies.

We have a friend who has a huge garden. Carmel and the girls went a few times to help him out with weeding and picking. They came home with tons of produce! I quickly had to look up some new recipes to try.

I found this recipe for Fresh Green Beans. I did not have any bacon grease so I just used a little olive oil. I am not sure what I did wrong but my chicken broth did not evaporate like hers did. They were still yummy but hers look better.

Carmel brought home more zucchini and squash than any other vegetable. 

For the squash, I either sprinkled it with seasoning and baked it or sauteed it. 

Squash straight from the garden taste so much better than store bought!

I had better luck with finding new recipes for the zucchini.

I made zucchini bread. 

This recipe was really good. Especially, straight out of the oven! 

I also made Frosted Zucchini Brownies. These were delicious! Of course....you could probably cover any vegetable with chocolate and call it yummy.

We have also picked some local fresh fruit. 

Blackberries which I will post about later and blueberries.

So far, I have picked 2 buckets already this season but I see many more in my near future(like tomorrow morning)! I go to a local park to pick these because they are FREE! I load up the kids(and sometimes their friends too!)  :) We pick as many as we can.....or until I have had enough of the complaining. :(   It does get really hot out there!

I have frozen and shared many of these blueberries but I also see several recipes to try. Check back later to see my favorites!

I can't wait to finally have some land so we can grow our own food!

Chickfila Daddy Daughter Date Night

 Chickfila hosted a Daddy Daughter Date Night. The girls wanted to go last year but couldn't due to prior plans. They were so excited about going this year. I took this shot before they left.

The girls picked their own outfit. They curled their hair and was allowed to wear a little makeup just for the night.

Since I was not there, I think I will let Laney explain how the night went.

Hey  this is Laney. This is the whole story of the daddy daughter date night. We got dressed and my mom finally let us wear makeup! After that, we were in a rush to get there. It was a disaster! My mother wanted to take a bunch of pictures but on the other hand my  dad wanted to leave . We were in the car and on our way.  My dad asked us a lot of questions. When we finally got there, this kind lady welcomed us. She gave me and Ella a rose then she greeted us to our table. It was decorated with a candle and a tablecloth. A waiter came and took our order. All of the waitresses had these pretty dresses on.  Our food came and we ate. We got our dessert and they even had a picture booth.  We took some pretty crazy pictures.  We went outside and  stood in line too ride the limo!!! I had to remind my dad that mom would want some pictures of us. If I  hadn't done that, we would not have had any pictures. Ok.... maybe like two . Then it was time to go home. That's my story..... bye !

Nothing like hearing a story through a child. I keep telling her (one of these days) she WILL appreciate me remembering to take pictures of all these memories!

Now for the pictures from their special night.

 

Daddy did a great job taking pictures!