washburn county fair, pt 1

 It was a charming small town county fair, Dannell's idea to take the kids there.

 Lydia wanted to pet a horse. Wish come true:

 Here's m.c. petting a tiny sleeping calf.

love, Val

a poo-TELL

We went to the lake this weekend and took two cars.   This meant some kids and Sam went with Little Jay and some went with US.

We got Maria and Sidney who are very calm. And we got these two, who are not.  On the ride, in his boredom, Tim drew himself a tiny little Simon Legree mustache with a ball point pen.

 He followed that with an additional question mark beard.

Maria complained that he's weird. WEIRD!  I said nobody was ever weirder than you, Maria, back in the day.

 Tim must have thought I meant today because he scoffed at her, "Yeah. At least I don't go around carrying a poo-TELL!"  This was a reference to The Sidney, perched on Maria's lap.

Maria howled, "Oh don't give me that crap!"  (Plus Sidney identifies as Lhasa, not poodle, so there.)

Yeah, it was a weird beginning to a very beautiful weekend. That's Grandpa and My Sweetie, and Heidi and Maria paddling Miss p.j. around, and so July ends on the finest of notes.

love, Val

pictures from a hot week

It was close to 100 degrees as the week started out, muggy, heavy air.

Here they're trying to coax her to take a nap, but she's wise to their devilish plot.

We went back to the splash pad on Monday.

After a while the kids wanted to go over to the playground next to the splash pad, but it was an inferno there.

 

Dannell invited us to the Lifetime Fitness pool with them today.   I locked my camera and phone in the locker so we have only a few pictures Dannell took with her phone.   There were four pools--one outdoor, one with a water slide.   The kids loved it.   Kirsten took them there when we were in Mexico, and they've been thinking about it ever since.

This afternoon, only 85 degrees, very nice.   Onward to tomorrow.   We made it through a long and stressful week, and tomorrow is FRIDAY, which is better than ever.    love, Val

peacefully friday

It was such a peaceful afternoon.

 She's digging in bags and purses here, a favorite activity.

 And eating gummy bears.

 Snorkel auntie

In this last picture, shes stomping around in other people's shoes and thats how it is. (Umm, no. We don't care.)

Happy, happy Friday, beautiful best day of the week.   love, Val

7-19-12, a party

 It was a gorgeous evening, a little hot, but not too much.

 I just love this picture.

Now one kissing the Bieber.  When we picked up the cake, the guy at the bakery asked me who Julia was?  I pointed at her over near the cookies, "That's her."  She ran over, and gasped at the beauty of this cake.

The baker said, "Yes, he's looking pretty snappy," and patted me on the shoulder.

There was an argument today about how she wanted her piece to be of his FACE, and Tim argued his head was too big. She could never eat that much cake. (As usual, he is right.)   We trimmed the head to just the face, not his awesome plume of gorgeous hair.     Tim chose the piece that had Justin Bieber's neck.  Be happy, Guys.

 My Sweetie.

Okay these two fool aunties were going to help Heidi out and get that baby into her pajamas. She was an ornery child, overtired and cross.

Somehow they managed to get feet in the sleeves or arms in the legs. It's unclear to me.  But they can't quit laughing and the p.j. just looks concerned.

 Okay, starting over, pulling ourselves together now.

Julia, my own sweet beautiful baby--this birthday celebration was thrown together between work and not much planning, but it turned out to be a truly great day.   Even though you ask a lot of random questions and stay up too late, it's been a whole lot of fun being your mom.   We could not love you more,  Mom and Dad