Bread buddies and a wee baby shower gathering

It used to be that a batch of bread (8 loaves) lasted quite a while in our house, like, maybe six weeks. However, with the discovery of "honey toast" we find ourselves making bread far more often. And, it can't always be saved for naptime, so sometimes I make it when the girls are up and let them help. :o) I have discovered though, that the best time for me to make it is to start between 3:00-4:00 in the afternoon. That way they can have fresh bread with supper, and I can clean up all the extra dishes when I am doing the supper dishes and evening clean up of the kitchen anyways. :o) So there you have it! Even though I can't eat regular bread, I do still enjoy making it for my family and enjoy the aroma of it baking in the oven. :o) 

 During one of the hottest weeks of the summer, we decided to host a baby shower at our place - indoors! Phew - was it ever hot in here! Thankfully, a storm blew threw just as the ladies were gathering and cooled things off a bit. I had the girls "help" me colour little signs that read "Baby Shower" to hang out on our front lawn so as to let people know which house to come to.

 Philip was delighted with the balloons and ribbon. There were a few bigger babies at the shower too, like Jaxon, fifth of five boys, tackling little Jaylyn. :o)

 Beautiful Carolyn and her two girls, Lilianna and Rachel-Malea. You'd never know that she also has four strapping boys at home, and is still in her 30's! :o) She is such a godly, gracious woman!
As we like to do, several ladies gathered around baby Lilianna to pray blessing over her, starting with her very own Grandmother.

 One of the games at the shower was to make "babies" out of Play Dough. It was fun to watch the ladies getting into it and commenting on their creations.

Rachel-Malea opted for playtime with Hope and Joy after a bit. :o)

 That week was also the week of preschool dance camp at our church, which Hope was thrilled to attend. Joy-Belle was just a tad too young to attend the full thing, so I really tried to do fun outings with her while Hope was at class. As you can see above, she knew what was up. Wasn't too impressed, but at least we were outside trying to have fun!

They let Joy join in some of the class a couple days, and that delighted her little heart!

 The alley behind our place is the perfect spot for the girls to practice their trike-riding skills. I would often take them out there on summer evenings, especially when Josh was working overtime, which has been a lot this year.
And yes, Joy has a longer tongue than some adults. And... yeah... you get what she likes to do with it!

 On this particular evening as we were returning from our "walk," I recall thinking, "Ah, at least one of the children is already in their jammies and ready for bed." Yeah. Right. He was. But I guess the leisurely walk got him all relaxed and he did a good job of filling his diaper and the surrounding areas as I discovered when I picked him up out of the stroller. :o)

 Joy's first haircut. Love her head full of curls. I trimmed up the ends after her bath one day, as they were getting tangled and hard to comb. She's our hair-twirling child too.

 Trying to find hair do's that go with putting (Hope's) bangs back.

Hope's handiwork on the doodle pad. All of our names really are in there. You just have to be creative with where you look for the letters. :o) (She's still getting the significance of sequence.)