Small Town Charm.

I think you're either a small town person or you're not.

I've always lived in relatively small towns (except during college). Growing up, I wasn't a huge fan of the small town "charms": everybody knows about everybody else's business, small town drama, etc.

But now, I really love our small-ish town. Especially on nights like this:


Our town's 3rd of July parade: it's about as all-American as it gets.


Cotton candy for dinner.


This man was dancing with his cane.


I think he might have been my favorite part of the parade.


And of course no parade would be complete without Mr. Deere:


(I saw a lot of men clapping for the tractors.)

We have more small town fun planned for tomorrow.


Happy Independence Day to you all!

My Fab Friend.

Today is my dear friend Kacey's birthday. She is 1/3 of the 3BayBChicks, and a friend of mine for *gulp* almost 25 years.


What can I say, Kace: you are one of the funniest, most stylish, sophisticated ladies I know! And I'm so lucky to call you a friend "in real life". I look forward to 25 more years and beyond.

Cheers to you, Kacey! Hope 34 is your best year yet.

The Big Picture.

One question I get asked a lot is how I get the pictures so large on my blog. Let me show you.

I really like large pictures on blogs, and unfortunately Blogger doesn't really give you many options for sizing pictures. Here's what a photo uploaded into Blogger's "Upload Image" tool looks like:


A little too small for my taste.

So the first thing I do is go to flickr and upload my photos to flickr. (flickr is a free photo sharing site, and a super cool resource.)

Once the photo has been uploaded to flickr, click on the photo you wish to put on your blog. Then click on the "All Sizes" button above the photo.


After clicking on the "All Sizes" button, flickr gives you several photo size options. I almost always choose the 'large' size. Then, after choosing your photo size, copy the photo's URL,


then go back into Blogger into the 'upload images' button, and paste the URL here:


And there you go!


I like that much better.

This might have been clear as mud, so if I didn't make any sense, let me know. And if you put up a big 'ole picture on your blog, show me!

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(Also, I should mention that you'll likely need to tweak your blog's html code a bit to make your margins wider to acommodate the larger pictures. This is where my limited knowledge gets even more limited. I just kept changing the margins little by little until I got the size I wanted. Here and here are a couple of links that may help with that. Hope that helps some.)

Laundry - After the Vacation Style.

It's so nice to be home.
My own bed.
My own food.
Being able to walk into the bathroom without that grossed-out feeling of not being in your own bathroom. (I'm weird like that.)

But of course you all know how it goes when you get home from vacation:


The laundry.

If you don't hear from me in a few days, send reinforcements.


The reinforcements I've already hired don't seem to be of much help.

Best and Worst: On the Road Style.

Best (to the kids, at least): hotel pools, beaches, and spray grounds.


Worst (to the parents, at least): the food.


OK, so Mickey ice cream pops are pretty darn good.

But...restaurant food for a week?

Y - U - C - K.

Baked chicken, broccoli, and brown rice has never looked so good.

A Bunch of Characters: Theme Park Style.

Boy, it seems like we sure have done a lot of the theme park thing this week.


I'm pleased to report that Avery is officially over her big fuzzy character fear. She has embraced the guy in the suit thing.

Maybe I'll actually get a picture of her smiling with Santa this year, and not with this look on her face from last year:


(And, for the record, the boys did not really want their picture taken with Elmo or Big Bird. They did it solely for the sake of their little sister. I really had to twist their arms. Uh-huh.)

Fun - Beach Style.

We spent a little time at the beach today. (Well, judging by the color of my back, I guess it was more than just a little time.)

I do believe if you were to ask the boys what their favorite part of vacation has been so far, they'd say the beach.


Gary bought them a boogie board and they boogied on the waves for awhile.

I snapped this picture of them.


(And just happened to capture this lovely European gentlemen in the shot as well.)

Avery was all about the sandcastle.


She also liked this "feefee" (aka fishie). This guy washed up on the beach and got stuck.


We looked at him for awhile and then released him back to the sea.


It was a good day.

I think I'll be finding that powdery sand in our clothes, shoes, towels, bags, etc. for a good long while.

And I'm definitely sporting beach hair. (Which - trust me - is not necessarily a good thing.)