Beauty in the Common Things: Having people to rely on. What is not full of beauty is those that don't think beyond their nose.
Listen In: the normal around here. Wonder Pets and Daniel on the phone.
View from the Kitchen Window: a bean stalk almost a foot high! The bean Grant planted at VBS is flourishing! (see previous post)
We started out July by celebrating my niece's 1st birthday. It was an outdoor cookout with plenty of heat, but we had a good time.
I'm mad because I didn't realize there wasn't one picture of me and the birthday girl until I got home. I even did my best to keep my hair out of a pony tail for the occasion!
We knew we got to the right house when we saw this in the yard. One of Vivian's sweet cousins did this!
Adorable birthday cake!
Baby girl was not the biggest fan of the cake. We had to basically force her to eat it, then she hated being dirty!

These boys chugged the Capri-Suns like there was no tomorrow!
In our area, we've had record temperatures for this time of year. I did yard work for a while one morning and got so hot I felt awful for the rest of the day. Needless to say, we've been doing our best to enjoy our wonderful new a/c system.
So how do you beat the heat?
1. Bring the outdoors, indoors.
Grant and Daniel popped up the deer blind, brought out the coyote decoy, and set up the animal calls. Don't worry, no real guns were used during this fun time.
Did you know they have a Redhead Appreciation Day? I didn't, until I saw that Marble Slam Creameries was giving out a scoop of red velvet ice cream to all redheads (fake and real). We made a day out of it. The ice cream wasn't that wonderful, but who passes up free ice cream? If you live in the DFW area or not, you need to follow My Dallas Mommy (linked on my blog) via her blog or Twitter. I find all sorts of neat discounts and deals this way. Some are local, but a lot are online or at national chains.
3. Go topless!