Way Back When-esday: Some Flashbacks

Every once in a while, I get serious flashbacks. Something will trigger it- an outfit, a backdrop, even a smile. And thankfully, I have Shutterfly to refer back to to scratch that flashback itch.

Like when Claire was born and I couldn't get over how much she reminded me of Brooklyn.


















Or like when, at Allie's birthday party last month, I made Brooklyn and Allie re-enact their first meeting from March 2005.



Or, at our July 4th party, I was reminded of three other little girls sitting on a blanket in our backyard.

[The top picture is (Little) Allie, Brooklyn, and Zoe in 2007. The bottom is Allie's sister, Madeleine, Claire, and Zoe's sister, Bella in 2014.]

I just love modern technology....it helps me not have to think so hard and capture cool flashback moments like these!

A July Picture Dump

Picture dump just sounds so harsh...but that's really all this post is- a place where all those random pictures on my phone can live, so I can erase them.

And so my phone will stop telling me "there is not enough storage left for back up." #firstworldprobs

So, here's some randoms from the first half of July.

Pool date with one of my besties, Sarah, and our coordinating polka dot bikinis.

Fun at Graham's birthday party at a gym in Winston Salem. Jake had a blast in this foam pit.


Chad and I trekked down to Charlotte for the night to see this guy. Love our Brendan James.


Brendan happened to be opening for this Andy Grammer guy. Kinda a big deal apparantly in the tween, teen, and young-ish adult music world. I was impressed. :-)

Brooklyn's becoming quite the photographer.

The kids grew up a TON this month. Facial hair and everything.

We were fortunate to have a great visit with one of my oldest friends and her family visiting from Russia. It's like no time has passed (except 7 children) and our kids had a great time playing together.



Sunday, July 13 (after our family camp weekend), we headed to the Winston Salem Children's Museum for Super Cooper's superhero birthday party.



And then, to top off a fun (yet exhausting) weekend, our closet decided to collapse. Right when we laid down in bed for the night.

And yes, it was still there in the morning. And is actually still like that now, over a week later.

Some things just aren't a priority.

Maybe I'll have a nice neat closet picture for you for the second half of July's photo dump.

Maybe not.

#familycamp

July 12-13, the fam and I left our "big city life" and headed to the country.

Camp, to be exact.
No iPods, no iPads, no TV....barely an outlet to charge the phone. We were ready for 24 hours of family fun!

There was paddleboating...



And Arts & Crafts...

And hiking...

And fishing...

(for sticks)

And more hiking...

And resting...


And wagon rides...

(with map reading)

...which resulted in (shocker), napping...

And loving...


And swimming...

And ended the busy day with sleeping in sleeping bags.

Don't get me wrong. There was also a lot of complaining and scolding and whining, too. But I just didn't get a chance to take any pics of that. :-)

But, despite being out of our comfort zone and it being a tad warm (ha!), it was great to have time away with just the 4 of us.

We survived our first family camping trip.

I cannot say if and when there will be more family camping trips in our future. It's a little early to make that call.

Perhaps in cooler weather.

Perhaps.

Let's not forget the rest of the holiday weekend...

July 4th was really just a great weekend all around.

The next day, we cleaned up from our cookout, and headed to the pool with Jake's pre-school friends. Brooklyn had a friend come with us, too, and we all had a blast!




Later that evening, we had a nice dinner at Chad's cousin's house and had some good family time.

And Sunday, we watched the Big Brother premiere with our God-family and attempted a new S'mores recipe. (You do see a theme with the Henzlers, don't you?)

These were S'mores crescent rolls. Not epic, but not terrible. Just not memorable. They could use a bit of tweaking and there is s'potential there. We just need to do a little more research.

But Brooklyn and Joe had a great time making them.



Though I am definitely a bit late with these posts (hey, it's still July, though!), I hope you all had a fantastic holiday weekend as well.

July 4th...Because nothing celebrates America's independence like Texas Toast

We had a fabulous July 4th holiday with family and friends. About 42 family and friends to be exact. And like 16 kids....but I'm not positive on the number. I think I lost count after about a dozen.

We have a great backyard for cookouts, and thankfully the weather was perfect and we weren't all sweating in our hamburgers.


Before everyone arrived, we played with the self-timer app on my phone...
And only one outtake, too...not bad.

The kids were so excited waiting for guests to arrive on the front stoop.

Unfortunately, with all the food replenishing, I didn't take pics of everyone, but snapped as many as I could at a few different moments.









What a fabulous day off! Nothing beats time with family and friends....and a quarter pound of meat between two pieces of Texas Toast. Yum!