June Blooms

Just a few quick photos of the blooms in my yard this week…

My white climbing roses are blooming – they are just a little past their prime (wish I would have taken this photo a few days ago).

My spirea is also starting to bloom:

I also have some rose campion in bloom:

And several window boxes with some wave petunia annuals:

The clematis on the fence has finally bloomed and is gorgeous:

I’ve also really tried in recent years to get some ivy established to cover the ugly, cinderblock foundation under my porch.  This spring, it’s really doing well:

I also have a few daylilies in bloom – nothing exciting – just the common yellow Stella de Oro:

But I have some other daylilies just starting to bud that are a wonderful, rich, purple color when they bloom.  I also have a bunch of bright, orange tiger lilies about to bloom too.  And my rose-of-sharon and butterfly bushes are budding too….

 Don’t you just love spring in the garden?  So full of anticipation for the beautiful show of colors about to explode… 

Cool New Stampin’ Up! Stuff

Today, the Stampin’ Up! demos got another little sneak preview into some of the stamps and other products coming out in the new catalog July 1st.

The stuff looks FANTASTIC – rich, bohemian paper, lots of new ribbons, pretty pearl and rhinestone brads, Prima-like flowers, gorgeous new colors, clipboards, scallop and star punches, cool new stamps…I’m in big trouble!!!!

Another Great Camping Weekend

We just got back from another weekend of camping at Otter Lake Resort in the Pocono Mountains – the weather was GORGEOUS! No rain for the Torrences this trip – how unusual…

We did get a really late start on Friday night because both Matt and Andrew had baseball games Friday evening- we didn’t arrive at the campsite until 11pm! But everyone slept in late the next morning, so we were well-rested and ready to go on Saturday.

The boys found some new friends and played basketball for a while on Saturday morning. We also swam in both the indoor pool and the lake – the kids really enjoyed seeing the fish in the lake swim right up to them. We also rented a pedal-powered boat in the afternoon – everyone got a turn…

Except for Daisy who sat not-so-patiently on the dock, watching us intently…

She did dip her feet and nose into the lake at one point – she looked really silly with a really fuzzy body and a narrow, wet head and paws!

Speaking of fuzzy – check out this photo of my son Matt with Daisy…what is it they say about people starting to look like their pets (at least in the hair, anyway…)?

On Sunday, Mike, Andrew and Matt went hiking early in the morning at Bushkill Falls. They completed the Red Trail – 1,267 steps in all! Matt even got a T-shirt to prove it. Emily, Daisy and I stayed behind at the campground – the family hiked the shorter Blue Trail at Bushkill Falls last year and it was really hard for Emily to keep up with her little legs. So this year, we decided to just let the boys hike while we had a leisurely morning at the campsite.

The falls are so beautiful!

We also brought a new horseshoe-type game played with large washers – the boys loved it! We saw some other campers with the game last year and bought it ourselves to try out this year. It worked out really well – Mike and I even won a game against the kids. 🙂

Oh – and the caterpillars were still out in force. But this week, Emily decided to take a few of them home as her new ‘pets’. We picked up a little bug-catching kit at the Target Dollar Spot this week and she brought home about 4 or 5 of the little caterpillars along with a whole tiny habitat complete with rocks, leaves and sticks – this girl’s not afraid of bugs!

We all can’t wait to go back again to Otter Lake next weekend. It’s hard to believe that it’s not actually summer yet and that everyone has to go back to school and work tomorrow morning. Sure feels like vacation-time to me.

As for crafting, I did have some time while we were away to read a book about using transparencies in paper crafts. I got some good ideas and can’t wait to try them out…