summer sun!

sand cakes for "somebody's birthday".....after, revealing it's her birthday!

To Rasa & Adia...

bedtime laments....

Adia insisted we close the window's in the girls room tonight at bedtime because if we didn't that the zebras were going to come in and get her. "I don't want the zebras to get in here and get me!!!" "Close the windows or the zebra's will get in!!!"

Even after I told her that zebra's don't live here, they only live in the desert, she corrected me to remind me that they do in fact live here.....at the zoo.

I promised her the zoo keeps them locked up and that they can't escape. It wasn't convincing enough, however, so the window's are in fact closed with the shades down "all the way".

Heheheh silly girl, like a window pane or shades will stop a zebra escapee from getting in here!

UPDATE: A cry from Adia to reveal a donkey has in fact made it into her bed. "It's a big one with a big scary mouth. And there's a little one too and it's scaaaaary" I asked if she got it out of her bed and received no reply so I believe we are safe at the moment....that is until another zoo animal makes an appearance (see I was right about the window and shades not stopping them!).

my sweet babes....couldn't LOVE them more

Welcome July!

We had a really nice 4th despite the fact it was 100 degrees with a 110 heat index! Even for us in the summer THAT'S HOT!
Nana and Grampa came over and brought a build your own sandwich bar (too hot to grill!) and we had a fantastic lunch....ice cream cake too!

The girls and I napped after they left and we woke up and watched a movie in the cool air conditioned house. The Secret Life of Arrietty is fabulous! The girls are really into Ponyo and it's the same creator. They are super sweet movies with lots of imagination and less princess fairy tale stuff.

About 6 we filled up the little pool with cold water and had some fun. Even I was sitting in that pool. In 100 degrees the only way to survive the heat is to sit your butt in ice cold water!

I got the girls all pumped up to see fireworks (sorry no pictures. fireworks were at 10 pm and I don't use a flash!). Royce and I were tired and we tried to talk the girls into letting us light off fireworks here instead but they were not having it.

We decided to see Richfield's finest and drive over to Veteran Memorial Park to see the fireworks display. Enter ignorance here: I honestly thought if we left the house at 9 (which we did) we would mosey on over to the park, pull into a parking lot and sit in a semi quiet park to view the fireworks. In actuality we left at 9 pm, drove to 62 and Portland to see a sea of people walking from MILES away into the park. The city had blocked off the roads within a mile radius and the neighborHOOD's (HOOD!!!! Next year bring a gun and some pepper spray....just kidding...we won't ever go back again lol!) were FILLED with cars parked down every.single.street. for miles. Welcome to the city, suburbanites! After a brief meltdown by me in the car that my sweet little girls weren't going to see fireworks we got lucky, found a spot on the street a mile away and hoofed it. The delight on their faces after the first firework was lit made everything completely worth it. Pure simple joy. It's addictive, I tell ya! The girls had a blast, loved the fireworks and didn't even bat an eye to the fact that Momma drove them to the ghetto and we sat in a park with easily a hundred thousand other people, most very different from ourselves, while teenagers talked about dime bags, and some poor kids begged for our food. Ah Richfield, you are a gem of a melting pot. Next year we will go to Minneapolis where it's safe and we fit in ;)

Snapped a few pics of our evening in the yard. Lots of nudity around here but we don't mind and seriously, check out Rasa's awesome farmer tan! Too cute, that little white booty!

The literal 3's....

Royce: Rasa, what are you an angel or something? Look at your pretty eyes!

Rasa: My eyes are blue!

Me: Yes they are blue and they're beautiful. They're blue like the ocean!

Rasa (looking at me with one eyebrow raised): But the ocean doesn't have eyeballs!

sizzle sizzle summer sun....

What an awesome weekend! We stayed in Friday night since I had a full day of work Saturday morning. After I finished my sessions we had Royce's Brother over and he and Royce fixed up our "around town" car. Royce's Mom made a surprise visit and entertained the girls with sidewalk chalk while the boys worked on the car. It was nice to see them.
Saturday night we were wiped and went to bed early. We were so excited for today!

I woke up this morning to the following conversation:
Rasa: Gabby's coming over!
Adia: No, Gabby's not comin' over 'til Sunday
Rasa: Adia! Adia! It IS Sunday!!

We woke up early so I could pick up bbq food and get the yard all set up. We had Jill, Taylor, Chase, Karley, Gabby and Isaac over for a pot luck bbq. The kids had SOOO much fun playing in the pool and the adults had time to catch up and relax a little. We miss living close to them but it's so awesome that our old neighbors are now wonderful, wonderful friends and it's such a treat to see them now. They're truly like family. We are going to plan another fun day very soon because we don't see each other nearly enough! It was HOT today, in the 90's! I think all of us ended up in the pool at some point!

Amy and Emeric stopped over at the end and stayed a few hours. Royce and Emeric were playing on an antique skateboard outside while Amy, me and the girls were laying on our bed enjoying the air conditioning! Amy & Emerica brough an amazing finish bistro cake that when Rasa saw it she said, "this is the most amazing thing I ever saw in my life!" It was though, she's right! As if the Whoppie Pie's Karley made that they had at least two each of weren't enough sugar for one day!

Royce crashed on the couch (beer+heat=more than he can handle, hahaha ;)) and the girls played quietly with books while I cleaned up the yard. I do have to say that Karley and Jill are the best guests because they left the place as clean as it was when they arrived and that never happens! Miss them already!

I have a feeling we will all sleep well over here tonight!