Camping with the neighbors...

Since we are now huge fans of camping we decided to have a campout with the neighbors in their backyard. Tons of fun was had by all. We had an awesome fire, smores, night-time trampoline bouncing, and we didn't get to sleep until very late. The BEST was the Dunkin Donuts Coffee and doughnuts that our neighbor ran out and got early in the morning.

Totally sporting my "Team Bisson" T-Shirt

Princess Lulu crashed during the pre-camping movie. She woke up in the middle of the night inside the tent and was totally out of sorts..... "I can't see" she kept saying. I was all.... We are caming you are in our tent. Go back to sleep. Poor girl.

Moon-light trampoline

I am not the emotional one....

We have always known that Simon is the emotional one. He can cry at ANYTHING, and usually does. It is very cute, but I am sure that the girls will start to get embarassed when he starts blubbing all the time in front of their friends.

Ruthie went to VBS with her good friend Anthony at the beginning of the summer. She loved VBS and wanted to go there instead of her preschool she told me the other day. She loves to listen to the music CD then gave them from their class and dances all over the house singing her songs.

I cry every time she is singing and dancing to this CD. So random, yet it is so cute that she gets into this. She wasn't willing to perform at all and so these aren't the best since everytime she saw the camera she stopped.

Anyhoo, if I am like this for her VBS CD lord knows what I am going to be like at her First Communion.

Daddy.... I got married today!

The bride

fist pump, no kissing

the groom

Yes, these were the words that caused the big heart attack of 2009. Simon was out of town, Ruthie calls him. Yes, she is so excited that she knows peoples phone numbers and any chance she gets she calls them on my cell phone. (I am looking at this as a positive - In case of emergency). SImon answers the phone and all that she says is..... "Daddy, I got married today"

On any given day we have between 3 and 7 neighborhood kids moving in a mob around the neighborhood wanting to be entertained and play. On this particular day,we had 5 kids, in the bouncehouse, and on the swingset and then the boredom set in. Someone made a comment about when was Anthony going to get married, and the event just took off!

There were costumes, fake flowers, and rings, and I was the master of ceremonies with a makeshift Bible. Such a fun activity.

The wedding party

Lulu wore the purple flapper dress.

I give blondes a bad name....

Seriously, some days I just have to shake my head and admit to being the cliche.

First story

At McDonalds with a bunch of moms and kids, we are all talking about sunglasses, as mine have fallen off my head and crashed on the floor a few times.

Me: "These are my third pair of the season, I can't buy expensive ones because I break them or lose them" "Maybe if they were expensive, I would take better care of them"

I go to take Lulu to the bathroom and what should fall into the dirty toilet....You guessed it, my sunglasses. I am so annoyed I haven't even bought another pair.

Second Story

For my triathlon, I am borrowing my friend Bob's bike. His bike is a great roadbike that has the clips on the bottom of the shoes for pedals. Super cool yet, somewhat tricky. I practiced at Bob's trying to make them work. i got home and jumped right on the bike to give it another quick test run around the neighborhood.

In the street at the end of our driveway and there is a bit of wobbling and I can't get my feet unclipped, so I COMPLETELY wipeout. Good thing nothing else on my body got scratched since I held on to the handlebars the entire way down and left my leg to break my fall.

I laid in the middle of the street for about 5 minutes laughing so hard, blood everywhere.

I mean SERIOUSLY!!!!!

Camping

Obviously we met at summer camp so camping is in our blood. We spent years of all of our time off from camp, camping. I know bizarre. "Let's finally get out off camp grounds and lets go camping!" The last camping trip off of camp grounds resulted in...... a horrible night of being dive bombed by bugs, finishing off the night in the car, and waking up to Debi yelling....."What happened to your face?" End result... Chiggers of the face. Yep, steriods, and a huge fishing hat for me for a few weeks.

Fast forward 12 years:

Simon has always dreamed of taking the girls camping. I have been a little less excited, not just because of the chiggers but because of the sleep walking of the little ones. But a few friends were all out at a state park camping with their families nearby so my good friend Kris and I decided to join them with our families. Safety in numbers.

Random Wednesday I call Simon:

Molly: on his voicemail.... I think we are going to camp tomorrow with some families call me so we can talk about it.

Molly answers call from Simon: "Dude"

Simon: "Dude, I am all in, can I start shopping?"

(seriously, who is the girl in this convo and yes, we totally talk to eachother like that. Dude, is still SO one of my favorite words)

OK back to the story......We went camping and I was the one to do ALL the shopping, not because Simon didn't want to or try but because we had less than 24 hours to plan, we had a fundraiser to go to, and Simon had a full day of Board Meetings the day we left. Good times!

The girls had an AWESOME time. We were there with 4 familes, we went to the beach, ordered pizza, avoided killer racoons, slept on the ground the first night because our air mattress had a hole. No sleep walking occured, lots of bike rides, slept through a storm, made tons of smores and laughed alot.

This I know will be the first of many camping trips for Team Bisson. And I am in full support of Simon "shopping" for an RV.

**** Almost forgot, Lulu had a strapless beaded dress on and her yellow beaded purse. I had to bribe her with Starburst to take off the heels that they were not safe. OY, this girl!

Dairy Farm

We went with our good friends and neighbors to the dairy farm last week. The girls LOVED it. They were really into the "Kitty's" and wanted to see more of them.

This baby calf was born the morning we arrived.

Thanks so much Deann and Andrea for such a fun and exciting trip!

4th of July

The 4th this year was a bit of a bummer. Every year we have a HUGE balloon festival where they fly so close to our house that you can talk to the people in the baskets. Then we have an air show that is amazing and yet again, can read the sides of the plain. This year we were out of the flight patterns for the balloons and the planes. So we had all these fun plans and we ended up sitting outside and waiting, FOR NOTHING!!!!

We did however make the best of the situation by hanging out with wonderful neighbors and friends. I decorated the girls bikes for them to ride up and down the street. Even though we didn't have any official bike parade's I thought they would like it! Of course Lulu wanted her Barbie car decorated (we have a rule that you can only wear tennis shoes or their keens while on their bikes or scooters - safety first people) and for Lulu to ride her bike or scooter would mean she would have to take off her high heels. So clearly that was not an option.

our neighbor friend really likes to drive the pink car. Lulu is so lucky that not only does she have her older sister to boss her around she also gets our 6 year old neighbor! Don't let the high heels, purse, and dresses fool you. She could take them all!

We also tye-dyed t-shirts. We tried this new spray that was equally as messy as the dye is.

Almost forgot we started the day our with pedi's at the mall. the girls got their nails done too.

We had a super yummy dinner at our neighbor's with delish food. And then when it was dark we played with sparklers. Lulu was in bed at this point and I think we scared Ruthie with all the long pants/hair in a bun/ stop drop and roll talk that she was as stiff as a board while doing her very first sparklers. Better safe than sorry! We certainly paid for letting her stay jup so late the next day with major grumpiness, but I think that she enjoyed herself.

Daddy the Superhero

We really are blessed with the best daddy out there. .....

Ruthie had to go to the dentist today for her very first time. Lulu has already been, and Ruthie watched but was not into it AT ALL. Simon says this morning.... "By the way, I talked to Ruthie last night about the dentist and she is not having any of it." Good Luck with that.

Well, I couldn't get anyone out the door, then full on traffic jam on the highway on the way there. And yes, for the record we live in the middle of nowhere, there is never any traffic except for when you are going to be late to the dentist. Ruthie is so worked up she won't even speak and who should walk into the office a few minutes before we get called back but Simon the Superdad!

She was pretty low key about him being there until right when they wanted her to get in the chair and she about needed to be peeled off the ceiling. Good thing daddy was there to lay down in the chair and have Ruthie lay on top of him.

She did so awesome. She even said that she didn't think it was that bad and that she liked it! YAY. Brought my camera and of course it was out of batteries from all the 4th of July pics (still to come).

Simon is the calming force of this family and we are so happy he has the patience of a saint. Us Bisson girls can get rather bossy, and needy!

We love you!

I know that I can do this......

I have to keep reminding myself of this. My training is going well. I am still nursing some pretty severe shin splints, so I run for small amounts and have just amped up the swimminug and the biking. I feel great.. Ok, maybe not great. everything aches. Every Monday when I do a cardio weightlifting class, I mentally quit the race halfway through the class. But yesterday I kept saying to myself...this is not that bad, this is not that bad. I looked at the times from last years race and it appears the times I had given myself for finishing in my head were at the very bottom of the finishers. I am not looking to win it, just looking to finish.

I rode 9 miles on Saturday and felt great but then thought to myself as I was getting off my bike, now imagine running into the transition area, putting down your bike and running 3 miles at a pretty quick pace. That's when the panic hits.....Swimming, then biking then running. My legs I think are staging a mutiny!

But back to the positive..... Where did that go? Oh yeah, positive....... crossing the finish line, accomplishing this goal, doing it for TEAM BISSON! And another goal I jokingly told Simon.... "Have you seen all the adorable clothes at Gazelle?" (our local running shop)

***And the obligatory photo, since according to Simon all posts need a picture...... One of my favorites, and their little faces drive me to be better ever day. This is picture is an oldie but goodie.

And people wonder why he is late to work.......

The girls have been having a hard time with Simon's schedule this summer. I have always said they have a quota of time they need to spend with their daddy daily. I know that they intentionally wake up early some days just so they can sit with him in the morning while he watches the news and has his coffee. This past week was really busy with traveling and working so their time was even more limited.

Lately, they just want to be with him ALL THE TIME. In the morning while he is getting ready for work they are there under foot. It is certainly hard to get things done while you have 2 shadows in the bathroom with you.

Shaving with a spoon