Pretending it's Fall

...Well, sort of! My goal is actually to get the entire downstairs organized and my niches cleaned before the first day of fall so I can pull out my fall decor! And, as much as I LOVE fall, I must admit I am not anxious for it this year. Seriously. The pool is still such a new thing for us, and such a great way to spend our afternoons that I am happy to keep summer around for a while longer! :) But, I have done a few "fall-esuqe" things, lately... like baking our favorite ham and butternut squash soup with homemade foccacia bread...

Dressing-up... (ok, that's not 'fall' at all, unless you consider it practice for Halloween!)


Baking chocolate chip cookies...

... And sharing my tea! I was SO excited that Daniel found my Royal Milk Tea at Marukai, our favorite Japanese store. Unfortunately, it is kind of expensive, but I still decided to share with my girlies. Luckily, they prefer chai tea instead. :)

On another note, we went with some sweet friends last Saturday to see a free preview of the Veggie Tales newest release, "The Princess and the Popstar," at a little church in Highland. All I took was this one picture:

More random pictures... Sierra painting away while her sisters do their school work. (I sure wish her attention span for such activities was longer than 5 minutes; it would make the set-up and clean-up a little less daunting!)

Yes, he did... my husband made us awesome sushi rolls for dinner the other night!

And, our little baby praying mantis... Daniel was so excited, he wanted me to take a picture. I thought it was a bit silly, but I will do anything for a man who makes me yummy sushi, so here is the picture:

Fall, I love you... but for now I am content posting pumpkin doughnut recipes and such on my Pinterest account.