Quick 5

"It's a sure sign of summer if the chair gets up when you do."

— Walter Winchell

1.  Last Saturday we went to my parents' to celebrate the summer birthdays.   There are five of them in five weeks: Naomi (5/31), Alaina (6/2), Lee (6/11), Dad (6/27) and mine (7/2).  Toss in Father's Day and you've got a whole lot of celebrating going on.  So we smashed it all into one day.  Right now the little girls are cool with it.  They may not be in the future.

Blowing bubbles at Grammy's.  Alaina hijacked Naomi's birthday helmet.

2.  Father's Day was low-key around here.  But I did get Alaina to do one of those interviews about her dad.  Here's how it went (Alaina's answers in red):

Dad

My daddy's name is Dad

He is 13 years old, 39 inches tall and weighs 14 pounds

His favorite food is Daddy's cereal

My daddy is really good at mowing the lawn

He loves to grill and watch his favorite grilling show

My favorite thing(s) to do with my dad is going on walks

I'm just like my dad because I like sleeping

What I love most about my daddy is he hugs me and pats me on the back when he hugs

It makes Dad happy when I hug him

Dear Daddy, I'm so excited to go to your work.  I've never seen it before.  I remember feeding the ducks and eating on the bench in the little tower.  Love, Alaina

3.  Lee got this idea to take Alaina to work with him one day.  I must admit I was very skeptical about the whole plan.  She's only 5 and sometimes has the attention span of a goldfish.  AND she asks hundreds of questions a day.  That didn't seem like a very conducive work environment to me.  But he planned it for when he would only work in the morning and take the afternoon off.  He packed a bag with crayons and a coloring book, snacks, and my Kindle.  And the morning went just as he planned.  They worked for the morning, then had a picnic lunch and fed the geese that have taken up residence around the complex.  Alaina is already asking how many days until she can go back.

Alaina was proud to have her own desk

4.  Our 9th anniversary passed in low-key fashion too.  I'm absolutely not kidding about this: to commemorate the occasion we made Doggy Mac.  That is, mac and cheese with hot dogs in it.  I threw in a slice of pepper jack cheese to make it fancy.  It's just where we are in our lives right now, and I don't want to forget it (not that I could.)  Alaina was most impressed that Lee and I made the meal together.  Apparently she's never seen us cook together.

5.  I finally got a good picture of all three girls.  Joya is usually the hardest to nail down, but she was feeling especially cooperative this day:

Alaina was perfecting the art of the photo bomb

This might be the only picture I have of just Joya and Bria

 Happy First Day of Summer!  May your summer be filled with thunderstorms, cool nights, s'mores and burgers on the grill.