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Wilkinson Camping Trip, Part 2

Posted Friday, August 19th, 2011 by Mollie

Camping Day 2 was the most eventful, because the rest of the day-campers arrived and joined us for lunch, taco salad dinner, and a little birthday celebration!

 

{how fun is Mike and Argelia’s bike?}

{a walk across the street to the water. we would have loved to rent a kayak but it didn’t work out this time!}

{walk #1}

{walk #2}

 

{the newest family members: Jessica (6 months), Violet (4 months), and AJ (2 months)}

{walk #3}

{there were three birthday boys that week!}

{I just love Evy’s grubby camping hands in the tomato bowl!}

{the whole group}

Wilkinson Camping Trip 2011, Part 1

Posted Friday, August 12th, 2011 by Mollie

We had a great time at this year’s Wilkinson Family Campout– the 2nd annual of the 2nd generation!  Getting the family (and I’m talking just the four of us) organized and prepared for 4 days and 3 nights of tent camping with small children is no easy task, but we made it through with only a couple miphaps! Believe it or not, we were able to pack everything we needed into our little Mazda, and headed off to Morro Bay State Park.   Mishap #1:  Driving all the way to Santa Barbara and realizing we had left behind Ben’s precious blanket, “Beekadee Boy”. Oops.  Back to Camarillo we went, turning a 3 hour drive into a 5 hour drive.  Not complaining, though– believe me, it was the less painful choice!

I wish I could post ALL the pictures… it is going to be really hard to narrow it down!

{note: no blanket on Ben’s lap. oops}

{we had the most fantastic, large, private, away-from-traffic camp site ever!}



{tents are SUPER exciting for kids!}

{kids everywhere! this family is expanding rapidly and we love it!}

{Natalie “interviewing” cousin Eden}

{Evie, Ben and Andrew bonding}

{great-grandparents are the awesome! so glad our kids get to know them!}

While some of the families with tiny babies headed to the hotel for the night, the rest of us roasted marshmallows and watched the sun set.  There is Day One… watch for another post coming soon!

 

 

Photo Hike

Posted Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 by Mollie

Our favorite weekend family activity these days is hiking.  The kids absolutely love it- they  run and climb and throw rocks and chase lizards until they are exhausted and sleep REALLY well that night!  My ulterior motive is turning these “nature walks” into “photography walks”.  I’m trying to scout good locations around Camarillo, since I’m hoping to test the waters of taking on my own photography clients for photo shoots by the end of the year!  The lighting wasn’t perfect since it was a little early in the evening, but I suppose that is good practice for me as well.  What do you think?  Does this place have potential for family photos?







Out takes: just pretend they’re smiling, okay?

P.S.– Natalie would want you to know that those are not tights or leg warmers on her legs, they are “bug protectors” which are very important when hiking!

Summery Stuff

Posted Thursday, June 9th, 2011 by Mollie

A little bit of what we’ve been up to lately…

{backyard parties with friends}

{running in the sprinklers}

{tidepools}

{walking down the street to play with friends & neighbors}

{coffee + Bible study + pretty plant on my desk}

{hosting BFF dinner party}

{once-a-year treat: a bouquet of peonies over the sink}

{blueberry picking on June-gloomy day}

All that fun, and it’s not even truly summer yet!

 

Weekend Projects: Pillow Covers

Posted Monday, June 6th, 2011 by Mollie

I love reading about what other people do on their weekends!  Personally, I love to stay home and work on my never-ending list of “projects” than anything else ( I think this drives Andy crazy sometimes).  This past weekend (yesterday), I got some photography experience at a wine & food festival, which is also awesome…  but here’s what I did the weekend before:

I decided it was time to update my living room’s look for spring and summer.  My favorite and most frugal way to change it up is to sew up some new pillow slipcovers!  I am no seamstress, but they are simple to make and fabric can be found cheap!   This time I got super fancy and attempted some very professional looking piping around the edges (thanks to help from my mom and an Internet tutorial).

I wanted some kind of bold print because my living room has a lot of neutrals, and found this fun and unusual black & white pattern. I am so pleased with how these turned out and ended up LOVING the fabric, which apparently is vaguely reminiscent of animal print… Mom said “zebra”, Hannah said “Dalmatian”, and Natalie threw a scrap over her back and said, “Pretend I’m a cow!”

The yellow rosette pillow was a gift card splurge, and my favorite Target purchase ever. I normally stick to making them myself but I could not resist that happy pillow! The white ruffled pillow hiding in the back is something I made last summer.

After I mastered the piping on the black and white pillows, I tried this one with piping AND a ruffle (the LOVE pillow was an Etsy purchase).  It was not easy, and came out far from perfect, but I am happy with it!  My ultimate goal is to get experienced enough to sew a slipcover for that green wingback chair some day!  As you can see, it is getting quite worn.

I think the living room ended up looking bright and cheerful for the beginning of summer!