My Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday Morrie!!! Here's to my handyman, my computer guru, my roller coaster lover, mythbuster watcher, and all around great guy!

We had a nice BBQ over the weekend for Morrie before the showers set in (which I am pretty happy about since my garden is getting watered!).

The 3 best parts of my weekend:

1) Getting new fridge and dishwasher!

2) Hearing Chris' story of how he rode his bike to work and ran over a squirrel and got chased by a dog (it really was a GREAT story!)

3) Getting a 40% tip from one of my clients, yay!

We're are preparing to go to Salem this weekend for more soccer and I am working crazy hours in preparation for taking the time off work. So if I seem a little dazed, or perhaps not altogether present, that is why!

Oh Darn!

Annie is running after her dog cousin, Maisy. It's so hard when the other dog is so much taller AND has the ball!! Annie does have the advantage of flight however.

The hydrangeas in the background are all in crazy bloom now (this picture was a few weeks ago). I'll have to take another picture...

The mosquito bites aren't quite gone yet, but I'm dealing...and no that doesn't mean I'm drunk right now!!

Pioneer Spirit

These are the carrots that my pioneer girls decided to plant this year. They also planted some peas, herbs and flowers. They keep digging up the carrots, so we are experiencing them in all sizes...I wonder how long they will let the last ones stay in the ground...

The lantern picture is inside their cabin/playhouse. They like to pick flowers and either press them in a book, or grind them up to see if a dye will result or a nice smelling stuff. The last picture is my girls plus Kiana. They are dressed up in pioneer clothes and you have to have braids to make the whole thing work, so Isabelle braided everyone's hair. They are so inventive!!

1...2...3...4..

One on my ankle, one behind my knee, one between my fingers, one on my face, and one in my hair. These are the mosquito bites I got on our camping trip. These are the mosquito bites that I got on our camping trip where my poor child threw up in the middle of the night in someone else's RV in the pitch black. These are the mosquito bites I got onthe camping trip where my child got sick that have pushed me to start drinking...every night...for at least the next week!

A Parade

Okay, okay, so I'm a little late on the 4th of July post. Whatever! Anyway, we went to the Kirkland parade with 2 other families and then had a great BBQ and pool party. Here are some of our parade pics.

The best part of the parade was the 3 year old boy with us. He was 10x more excited than anyone else, abotu everything!! I love the excitement all over his face. It's all about the anticipation!! And yes, those are all the kids (minus the baby who wasn't sitting on the sidewalk) from the 3 families. 2 sixth graders, 2 fourth graders, 2 third graders, 1 second grader, 2 little monnkeys (boys) and a
1 year old girl!

Kent Cornucopia Cup

It was a scorcher in Kent this past weekend, and Isabelle had 4 games in 2 days. We took loads of pictures, but I picked just 2 for today. I like how Isabelle is floating in midair in this top one! However, I do hate it when I get a great picture, but the ball is hiding in between players!! Isabelle had some great games, they played against other select teams as well as a few premiere teams. Sadly, in the heat, they only had 1 sub! Each time Isabelle came off (which wasn't often) I put a wet towel that had been soaking in ice water over her head. The sigh that she let out each time was great!

This one of the girls running is really cute. It is after their final game (which they won!). As usual, us parents are lined up along the sideline for high fives, but they are not all that excited about us. What they are smiling at is a few older Northwest National girls who are are making a tunnel for them to run through before the parental high five line. Such joy on those faces, I love it!!

Dog Days of Summer

The dog loves to go swimming! Well, maybe not the swimming part so much as the playing with other dogs part. We are finally in July and it feels GOOD!

The other morning I came down to find thegirls watching the food channel. They were very interested in the shrimp quesadillas with caramlized onions and peppers (although I bet they would NEVER eat them!). After 10 minutes or so, Maria say to Isabelle "Izzy, what day is it?". That is a pure summer statement!

We're hanging clothes on the line, swimming in outdoor pools, slathering on the sunscreen, and wondering what day it is. We are gearing up for Isabelle's soccer tournament this weekend. They have NO subs for the 4 games in 2 days. Mom here is a little worried, although the forecast keeps going down (down to 75 on Saturday). My baby doesn't like to play in heat!! Not too far back though, she was playing in sleet and snow, I kind of like the warmer weather!!

This is how we spent our weekend, 4 pool parties, in VERY hot weather. It was extremely awesome. Isabelle is flying off of a water slide in that top picture...I have an identicle one of Morrie doing the same thing!! It makes me smile to see the bright sunshine and the joy in their faces. We love doing warm weather activities.

Inches and FEET

So while Maria was out for a swimming event (4th day in a row mind you), Isabelle and I went to the mall. I wanted to hit a sale that I had heard about and Isabelle needed her feet measured. Last week DURING soccer practice, her show wore out and fell apart. She spent the second half of practice with the sole flopping all over. Anyway, Morrie wanted to order her new shoes but I insisted she get measured first. She had been wearing 4.5 and had 2 pairs that were 5's (they probably ran small or something).]

We went to the kids department, they have shoes that go up to a 5, and I knew she was sort of between kids and womens (read: very few choices to try on!). She placed her foot on the measuring device, and her toes sort of went all the way to the other end. Hmmm...the salesman went and got the womens foot measuring thing and low and behold, she is measuring at a womens 7!! How did that happen???

We spent the next hour getting her a pair of tennis shoes - size 7.5 (which when laying on the floor at home Morrie thought were mine) and a pair of flip flops. Two pairs of shoes is plenty, yes? Morrie said that when he was in the 6th grade (which Isabelle is going into) he wore a size 6 in the fall and over the winter complained that his shoes were too small. When he finally was allowed to get new ones in the spring, he wore an 8.5! I guess I'll be paying more attention to Maria's feet as she gets older.

Sitting in the shoe department as Isabelle's foot hit that 7 mark, she and I just stared at eachother with our mouths open. We both thought it was funny. I was thinking of all the mom's who have told me the same story over the past 2 years with their kids and I couldn't believe I was one of those mom's now too. It had happened to us!! Funny stuff. Isabelle is soo happy. She know that when your feet grow, you get taller too. She had told me in the spring that she hoped to grow over the summer. I reassured her that she is always growing, and would of course grow this summer. She said she knew that, but she was hoping she would grow and nobody else in her class would grow!! Oh, I get it now! By the way, we determined that her soccer shoes did not wear out, her feet exploded out of them!!