deer creek estates summer celebration....

we had a great time at our subdivision summer party. we had a pretty decent turnout and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. we had perfect weather, about 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. i was the official photographer for the event and got some really fun pictures...like this one...
 
  we had a bounce house for the kids and cooked hotdogs. everyone brought either a salad or side dish or a dessert and there was a lot of food for everyone.
  the mundy township fire department sent over a fire truck and the truck led the bike parade down the street. the kids loved it.
 
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we also had a scavenger hunt, three-legged race, water balloon toss and watermelon seed spitting contest. a perfect way to spend a perfect saturday in good ole' grand blanc. 

happy father's day, dad....

we love you...
 

he's plugged in......

we celebrated austen's birthday yesterday with a few of his friends...







this was his face when he saw his present...

he was so excited to get his wish after months of begging us and us telling him he was out of his mind if he thought he was going to get one of these......

an electric guitar...i know, i know, we must be out of our minds..an electric guitar, what were we thinking...
he is beyond happy about this gift. it came with a digital tuner, strap, carrying bag, picks and an amplifier.

he is now plugged in....can we talk ear plugs???? 

my baby is "9" today......

he awoke to a birthday muffin and celebrated the morning with champ {who obviously really wanted that muffin}. austen was surprised to see the candle in the muffin....
next stop was the barber shop where we had promised him he could have a mohawk {modified} for the summer. he wanted spikes in his hair so the hairdresser gave him some...he loves it...
austen then got to pick where we went for dinner and he chose red robin. he wanted nick to come along so we obliged. he and nick had pizza and shakes, and because it was his birthday, the red robin crew came and sang happy birthday to him. we even got our waitress to take a picture of us.
our last stops were the new barnes and noble bookstore and then to ziggy's, our favorite local ice cream stand. nick has a napkin on his head because while austen was trying to buckle his seatbelt and accidently stuck his ice cream cone into nick's head. we got a good laugh out of that one. we are going to celebrate his birthday tomorrow with a few of his friends and he will get his presents then. i can't believe he's nine.... already....so fast....blink.... 

meet the clarke's....

on sunday i did a family photo shoot at the old abandoned house i posted about a few weeks back. it turned out to be an absolutely great place to take pictures and i am really happy with the results.
the kids were sometimes less than cooperative but warmed up after a short time. the old house was great with it's peeling paint and the old bench added to the vintage feel of some of the pictures....
like this one....
alex {on the left} was a little worried when we got there because of the no trespassing sign but i think this is one of my favorite pictures of the boys... 

these pictures included dad.....

we took these in my yard later in the day when the kids were even less cooperative. but they still turned out pretty well i think.
danny, of course was done having pictures taken...
a little harder to get everyone to look at me and smile, but that's ok. i like real life and everyone's individual personalities.
isn't she beautiful.. a great mom.. and an even greater friend...i'm lucky.

this is danny, alex, nick and megan.....

just some more pictures

 

here are even more

 

house and garden.....

don is doing some yardwork today so i was out there with my camera. this cozy spot is in the front flower bed. i love this garden fairy and i knew she just needed roses to surround her. these roses are so pretty, dark red and darker purple like a regal velvet cloak.
this is the back side of our house taken from behind the pond, i love the reflection of our house in the pond, would have liked a little less scum in the pond but, oh well...
these beauties live at the back of the house next to our bay window in the kitchen. i showed an up-close picture in the last blog entry. this plant spawned two different types of roses, a traditional red and a beautiful red and white open style rose. so beautiful.
this is the arbor that dad made for us a couple of years ago. the copper has aged to a chocolate brown patina and it looks so pretty with the purple clematis growing up the side.

we ordered the stone for our patio today. we are finally getting a patio, and it only took 6 years. imagine that. huh! it's not exactly what i wanted but we came to an agreeable compromise {he wanted the cheapest, i wanted the most expensive so we met in the middle}. i will post pictures of the progress of that little project next week. i spent two hours today cleaning up the front entrance of our subdivision with about 15 of my neighbors and scarlett. it really made a big difference getting all of the weeds out and trimming the pine trees, but boy, am i sore. i'm going to get some pain meds now..... 

this is eden...

such a little cutie. she will be one year old in a month and she is darling. this was just a quick, informal shoot. i saw her daddy with her in the yard with her in the stoller and i went out there with my camera. she wasn't too cooperative but she warmed up after a little while.

this is my favorite.
i love her smile and her beautiful eyes. 

i almost forgot.....

this is the first annual official burning of the school papers, books and notebooks. i swear they were dancing while tossing those papers into that fire....