Bowler Family Fun!!

  The Bowler siblings haven't been together in a while, so Brent and I decided to invite the clan over to bbq. We even had Nick and Bonnie on Skype all the way from Denmark!! It was around 3 am for them, but they couldn't miss out!!

 

Doesn't my husband take a lovely picture?

 We were all gathered around the laptop to talk to Nick and Bonnie so I snapped a few pictures. We had a great time!!

When I was growing up I always wished I came from a big family. My mom comes from a family of 9 and I loved having so many cousins!! I was excited to marry into Brent's family because he comes form a family of 6. Now I have 2 other sisters and 3 other brothers to call my own. They make me laugh and I love them very much. I'm so glad we could all get together today!!

New Arrivals

 Spring time always brings new flowers to my flower beds. Some of them live to see another year. Some only live for one!! But regardless, it's always exciting to plant them. This is a little sunflower seed that some nice old lady helped Ella plant into a little cup at the fair!! It's flourishing and she is so proud of it. She even has a little watering can to water it with everyday.

 Found this beauty at Ace. I had THE hardest time picking out what colors I wanted! I am also a little color blind so I didn't know if this was red or orange. It looked orange to me and the nice boy who carried it to my car concurred! So orange it is!

 Very small bush. HUGE roses!! And they are SO fragrant!! These two haven't been planted yet. I may or may not have gotten carried away and already bought three other rose bushes. Two just for fun, the other to replace the bush my DAMN resident gopher ate!! I haven't found the perfect space for them yet!! (Nor have I found that buck toothed bastard, who ate my favorite purple bush, and have yet to poison and/or trapped and/or gas him!!)

 We took an impromptu trip to the RC Willey outlet and came home with this! Or I should say, my brother in law hauled this home and we followed! :) My granny had a 'hide a bed' when I was growing up and I loved it. I have always wanted one. Plus, my room is the warmest in the house because it is the farthest from the air unit. So regardless of the thermostat being set at 72 degrees, I still get a little warm. I like to sleep in the living room a lot in the summer and this beats a pile of blankets on the floor!! These old bones aren't as forgiving as they use to be!! Ella is testing it out.

 This is just a close up of the upholstery.

More flowers. I like things to be symmetrical. So all four pots up front have a tall burgundy snap dragon and a two short yellow ones. Yes, I know. I'm a little sick. My dad likes things symmetrical so I blame the crazy genes I get from his family on this one!!

Clark County Fair

Ella was VERY excited to go to the fair. Can you tell?

She had to do "chores" first. She did the sink of dishes almost entirely by herself!! I see this going in a great direction!!

She was so proud of this little black dog we won at the duck pond. She LOVED the pony rides. On Thursday there wasn't anyone in line behind us so the workers let her ride or almost 20 minutes!! Such a nice group of men!!

We rode all the rides on Thursday also. We started out with cousin Jara but her tickets ran out!! So we tagged along with the Leavitt and Terril girls. We has so much fun!! Thanks ladies for letting us join!! It was so cute to see FIVE little girls running around, gleefully hoping on all the rides!!

EASTER and A Big Birthday

Ella colored all her eggs by herself this year. We only had brown one!! We gave her 36 eggs and she was entertained for literally half the day!!

Easter dress. Such a pretty girl!!Up close happy face!!

Easter bunny left these butterfly glasses. Also provided hours of entertainment!

This picture pretty much sums up Ella.

My daddy celebrated his 50th birthday!! OLD MAN!!!

Chelsey and Jara watching him open all his presents. He got bengay, hemeroid cream and some depends!! Haha we think we're funny!!

Jack, Jed, Elise, Jordan and Mom. He also opened his retirement fund (50 pennies) and about 10 gift cards to his favorite hunting store, Cabelas!! We also all chipped in and got him a nice goose call. My brother did the purchasing as I would have just chose the prettiest one, not the most effective one!!

The children riding Grandpa's geese.

Over the hill!!

Keeping Her Entertained!!

Ella is an active little girl and the afternoon hours are especially boring for her. The last few weeks I have tried diligently to keep her entertained with out the assistance of the tv. I don't care about tv watching, but I'd like for her to be more active than that. So I cut down her cartoon time and we have been busy!! Above is an idea I stole from a friend. Shaving cream dyed with food coloring. Then finger paint the shower wall!! She loved it!! Providing an HOUR of fun!!
(Ignore her weird face and partial nudity)

We built marshmallow buildings. She is really good at this!!

She loves to cut shapes in paper. This day I gave her the old Costco coupons and she was so happy!! She is also very good at cutting.

We have also made baking soda/vinegar volcanoes, play dough, side walk chalk,She loves to help with laundry and can fold the hand towels and wash clothes, and any organizing task I have to do I save for the afternoons. She is a great organizer! I am VERY organized and it drives Brent crazy. He's now not only hounded by me to "do things right" or "put them back where you found them" but he is now hounded by his 3 1/2 year old, who is cleaner than him!!