Can't get enough of this photo

This is my little niece Elle, Amy's oldest. We get to see her this weekend.
We are leaving for California on Friday. We'll be gone for 10 fabulous days. Well, 8 fabulous days and 2 Mermaidia-movie filled days in the car.

Seriously, do I check-out Ok???

Today was my first day volunteering at Tea's kindergarten. Ben asked her yesterday if she was excited and she gave this "conditional" shrug. Turns out, she was worried what I was going to look like!
Here's the run down of that one:

>Are you going to look cute, mom?
>>Do I normally look gross???
>Well, sometimes when you come home from the gym.
>>Honey, would I EVER go to your class straight from the gym?
>Maybe, I dunno. But are you going to wear your hair in a piggie, or down?

So, today, I was standing in my closet and I started laughing. I realized I was stressing over what I was going to wear. . .to kindergarten! So dumb. So So dumb. I couldn't help but ask Tay if I looked presentable (for her apparently fashion-forward kindergarten class). She checked under my hair for earrings and then said I looked fine. We took these pictures with my phone at the bus stop right before class today.

I am so in-for-it.

Avery and I spent the entire day playing paper dolls and watching Cinderella III. That's because she didn't get to go to school and wasn't allowed to have friends over.

Last night at 9:45pm she woke up crying. I just about passed out when I saw Rocky Balboa's swollen eye on my daughter's face. I was not prepared. It was awful. I called InstaCare and I basically had 9 minutes to find someone to stay at the house (Ben wasn't home) while I drove 85mph to make it before the doctor left at 10pm. It was Pink Eye. On the way home, she was crying because the eye drops "feels like smoke." I told her the drops were good guys going in to kick the bad guy's trash. She said, "Do they have guns? Or are they just kicking them in the stomach?"

That picture was taken today, 18 hours later. It's is looking GOOD at this point. I feel bad for her. And you all can feel bad for me. . .I could not find her little sunglasses ANYWHERE, thwarting my plans to sneak her into the library for a little "excursion." (I'm desperate ok!) Not to mention, I am out of ideas of what my Cinderella doll can say to her Sleeping Beauty doll.

Summer Catch-up

Summer is coming to an end. I love Summer. Fall is definitely on its way. I can feel it. It is always a bitter-sweet change for me. The only bad thing about Fall is that after Fall comes Winter. Snow is not too welcomed, seeing how I only wears socks like 3 days a year. Here are a few things we've been up to the past little while.

We spent 4th of July in Idaho. The last 2 days of the trip, we dumped the kids on the boys, and took off for Sun Valley. We went to an outdoor Ice Show. Just prior to the show, we also went on what I consider a Gastronomic Safari. Oh was it gluttonous. We all overdosed on raspberries and bread. My sisters-in-law and mother-in-law are so great. That was a fun night.

Tay and Avery are on the same soccer team. It just happened that way because they are so close in age. Téa is not happy about it but little Avery doesn't care. At her first game, she was running-down the other kids and pushing them out of the way. She wouldn't hesitate to "sweep the leg," if you know what I'm talking about.

We have 6 fruit trees in our backyard. We watch and wait and check and wait some more. It seems like forever before the fruit is ripe. Both peach trees and both apple trees decided to ripen ALL of their fruit on Tuesday evening at 8:36 pm. ALL OF IT. I really did paniced. Ben and I were picking fruit as fast as we could. LIterally hundreds of peaches and apples. It's a race against those peach-sucking hornets!

Well, my mother-in-law happened to be visiting and she saved me! She and Roz came over and we made peach jam.

Ok. So we have a real-live friend who is a real-live clown. We took the kids to see him in action, but not before Ben took a ride on his clown bike that was left in his car.

The ever-so-humble Téa who did Avery's hair and makeup.

Téa lost her first tooth on a day she happened to be cruising around in a velvet cat costume. Of Course.

The girls got to take a friend for a day of animal-petting, pony-riding, and shopping.

And then there was the day Avery was a Half-Rainbow Pirate. Of Course.

Labor Day we had friends over to BBQ what we didn't BBQ at the Chili Party. We just sat outside and told college stories (dang, I sound old). This is cute Rachel and Ashley. I genuinely appreciate having great friends live so close.

6th Annual Chili Party and Horse Race

Thank you for another great year at "the races!" We delayed the party 6 months to take advantage of our backyard. I think having everyone squeezed into our house, and up the stairs, got kind of old for everyone involved.
I got some slack for serving chili in August (it's normally in February) but then realized hamburgers are served hot, just like chili, so there. Plus, it's tradition, and if you know me, you know I am an over-the-top sentimental, nostalgic traditionalist (when it comes to these kinds of things). So chili it was!!
The night was perfect and the competition was FIERCE!!! Holy Cow. I wasn't the only one with butterflies when it was my turn. And the group of men off to the side had some serious strategery going with the betting.
Katie N. was not here to reclaim her title. It was up for grabs. And Fancy Pants took the title.






photo credits: Jake West

A Sword Neck

First of all, awesome picture.
So 3 weeks ago I woke up on Sunday and my left hand was completely numb. My entire left arm was on fire. And my shoulder, well, that was something to cry about. Ben tried to talk me into going to the hospital. Oh please. I thought I was tough enough to ride it out. I was. Until the tears came Monday morning. Well, my good friend's husband is a chiropractor.
Skip to the chase, I ended up in his office within 30 minutes where he tells me I am JACKED. It took 2 days to dry up the tears completely and like 8 visits to stop hurting. I am now a believer.
For about a week I couldn't let the girls hang on me as usual. I told them I had a sore neck. Avery kept telling me she wanted to touch my neck "super softly." It was weird though because she looked so so scared. She would touch me and ask if it hurt and if it was going to bleed. I was confused. She was scared.
Then is all came out. I told her I had a SORE NECK. She heard "SWORD IN MY NECK."
Do they GET any cuter than that little girl? Cute, and very confused.

I Couldn't Resist

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Chiquita Girls

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Tay's first day

Let's be honest here. It was actually MY first day. Téa started kindergarten and I started getting stuff done. I miss her. She has been my little pal for almost 6 years. But she's been so bored lately! And I can only play Barbies and have "Dance Party USA" so many times in a day. As you can see by the blow-by-blow shots of her traveling to her first day of class, she had finally had enough. I had officially become part of the paparazzi. I tried to give her a kiss goodbye, but I had totally blown my chances.

The "BooAFool" Solution

The daycare at the gym requires socks to play inside. Well it's 100 degees outside and my kids are not wearing shoes lately. But heaven-forbid she CARRY the socks into gym. No no. She has to be prepared. So she came running downstairs so so excited. She wanted me to see how "boo-a-fool" her feet looked. She was so thrilled she couldn't stand it . . .and neither could I.

A little Gypsy Punk never hurt anyone

You know you want it. You do.
Go ahead and download Gorgol Bordello's song "Wonderlust King." It is physically impossible to not dance to it. The song only gets better if you have kids. If you are a really up-tight person you might just do a little head shake to it, but I bet that is considered "dancing" to your up-tight self.
So, spend a dollar, dance a little.
(P.S. His voice totally sounds like someone. No, it's not Borat. I'm thinking it is one of the muppets. Who is it!!)

Too-Cool-Tea

So Tay starts kindergarten next week. Obviously THE backpack is a big topic of discussion for her. She says "Mom. I want a black backpack, or a dark dark dark dark dark blue one. I don't want a dumb BABY backpack. No way do I want a Cinderella or Ariel one. Those are for babies."
Awesome. Whatever.
So I took her today for the big choosing day. She looks at tons of options with little interest. A lot of cool black ones. When suddenly I hear a screeching 5-year-old voice yell "STOOOOOP!"
Oh wow. She somehow found the shiniest, girliest, fluffiest, ugliest backpack along the 80 foot wall. . .and it was love.
So here's to bad design and one very happy, unknowingly-girly kindergartener.
By the way, that is the actual backpack, in all of its luminescent glory.

An Idaho 4th

We headed to Idaho for the 4th. We spent almost an entire week there. Ben's entire family was there and all 18 of us stayed together. It was a great time. I have been seriously blessed with great in-laws. Everyone gets along and we all just have a good time.

Emily made all of the kids these shirts. They were all so so cute. We all went down to the parade together.


Avery just froze when the tanks went by.

We had family portraits taken Thursday night in the gardens. It was 8pm and we were all STILL roasting!


Our sad, sad attempt at taking a picture of ourselves. Maybe someday. . .


The last two days of the trip, us girls took off to Sun Valley for some shopping and relaxing (pictures to follow). The boys were great and took care of the kids. So off they went to the Demolition Derby. They did great. The kids were alive. Dirty, but alive. When we got back, I just wanted a bowl of cereal. There was no milk in the fridge so I put the cereal box back and Ben said, "No no. There's milk right there." It was a can of watered down evaporated milk. So, as I said, the kids were dirty but alive. . . and apparently well fed.

Hobble Creek

We got together for my dad's 60th birthday up at my grandparent's cabin in Hobble Creek. Did we have a dance floor brought in and a professional sound system set up for a dance in the woods??
Yes, yes we did.