Quick 5

Behold, the first fruits of our garden!

I didn't even notice they were growing, and suddenly there they were!  We, of course, grilled up these bad boys.  And I learned that two grilled zucchini aren't really enough for my family.  Oh well, more to come (I hope.)

1.  Last Friday we were able to meet Ben's lady, the lovely Cora, at the zoo.  Bria had to stay home and nap with Daddy, but Alaina, Joya and I went.  The day turned out to be full of misadventure that I don't really want to talk about, but the girls had fun and we were able to see plenty of animals.

The only picture I have to prove Cora was there.  Sorry about that Cora!

 2. It's been in the 90s all week, so we busted out the ol' swimming pool.  The girls learned the fine art of skimming bugs out before getting in.  It was fun to watch the girls practice their swimming lesson skills, and see Alaina swim under the water so much.  We also learned that this pool is a little too big and too deep for Bria right now.  She went under a couple of times, and then she decided that she had had enough of the pool.

3.  As promised, here are a few better pictures of Alaina during her swimming lessons.  The girls have done so well and gotten so brave.  Alaina learned to enjoy swimming under the water, and Joya went from jumping in the pool by holding the teacher's hands to jumping in the pool freestyle to be caught by her teacher.  We're sad the lessons ended today.

I forgot to mention that Alaina was the only girl in her class.  She loved it.  Joya was in a class of only girls.  She loved it.

4.  On Wednesday Sonic offered $1 hot dogs.  We can't pass up a deal like that.  So we called Apple Ben and he came with us.  I find it funny that in this super hot week, during that dinner it was windy, raining and 74 degrees.  Still worth a hot dog picnic though.

 5.  Finally, a few forgotten vacation pictures:

I'll let these ladies see you out:

Homemade chocolate pudding pops and a play date with Avery = a Lucky Lucky Day

Quick 5

You know who loves all this rain (besides me)?  My zucchini plant.

1.  Last Friday was Cow Appreciation Day, and the Kimbles celebrated in full blown cow style.  We even invited Apple Ben to come along, and it was a great night.  It was also the first night we took advantage of the Trade The Toy For Ice Cream deal.  Apparently you can take the toy from the kids meal and turn it in for ice cream.  The toy has to be unwrapped, and even on a busy night like Cow Appreciation Day they were happy to oblige.  So the girls ate ice cream, which was a special treat all it's own.

Apple Ben went as a cow dressed as a banana. 

 2.  We actually had two different birthday parties last weekend.  One was a surprise half-birthday celebration for my aunt that Alaina, Joya and I went to.  Lee had to be at church early Saturday afternoon and Bria had to nap so they couldn't come with us.  But the girls and I had fun.  My cousins had even set up a bouncy house for the kids, and I thought Alaina's mind was going to explode.  Joya had tons of fun playing with my cousin's daughter Lyla, and mourned the fact that she didn't get to properly say goodbye after we had left.  Then Sunday we went to Colorado Springs to celebrate my niece Elisabeth's first birthday.  The girls loved every second of it.  There were tons of kids there and there is not much more that Alaina likes than a whole passel of kids playing in the same yard.

Aunt Jamie had a craft/snack for the kids.  The birthday girl is the one hanging on her back.

 3.  The highlight of our week has definitely been swimming lessons.  Joya has mixed feelings about going each day, but always enjoys it when she gets there.  Lee has been working from home most of the week, so I've actually been able to take just the two swimmers, which has been delightful.  Bria gets her full morning nap AND I don't have to manage her during the 40 minutes we're there.  We missed yesterday's lesson because it was 59 degrees and cloudy at lesson time.  I just couldn't bring myself to make the girls get into an outdoor pool with those conditions.  I scheduled the lessons for this part of July because I thought we'd be out of the danger zone of something like that happening.  Oh well.  Next week is supposed to be in the upper 90s, so we'll be golden.

 I'll try to get some better pictures of Alaina next week.

 4.  This is how Bria rolls:

Stethoscope. Cell phone on the ear.  Lately she's busting out the two-word phrases.  Most popular are "Thank you, Mommy" and "Uh oh Mommy."  I guess those are three-word phrases.  Anyway, she's saying phrases, which cracks me up.

 5.  Joya, apparently, was not made for summer.  Oh she likes dressing in shorts and tank tops just fine.  But she absolutely rejects watermelon, lemonade and Popsicles.  Does this have to do with the fact that she was born in October?  Are fall babies predisposed to be complete weirdos when it comes to the essentials of summer?  I'm having a hard time understanding it.

I feel like the start of school is going to creep up on us, but there is still much more summer fun to be had. Catch you next week!

Quick 5

This morning the first words out of the girls' mouths were "Happy Cow Appreciation Day!"  Because this day is worthy of a greeting like that.  It might be our favorite day of the summer.

1.  I got a new computer from Hofgard Benefits to assist in the work I do for them.  As such, I've been busy transferring over all my documents and pictures to this newer, faster, better machine.  I set my screen saver to a slide show of all my pictures, which is something I hadn't done on my other laptop.  So now, every time it switches over to the screen saver, we are treated to pictures going all the way back to 2010.  And if we happen to see it, it paralyzes us.  We literally cannot do anything else, because we're staring at all the pictures sail by in random order.  Lee calls it "Awwww!" time.  Because that's all you hear while it's going on.  And being someone who generally does not feel like times flies, it amazes me to see how much these girls have really grown in such a short amount of time.

2.  I'm sure you've all seen the picture of me and giant bowl of spaghetti.  The one you've seen is not even the full picture of all the glorious Blue Parrot that we enjoyed:

That's a giant bowl of spaghetti, four meatballs and four sausages.  It's called the Mangia Mangia, and technically it IS family style (which is how we enjoyed it thank you very much) but apparently if you order it and eat the whole thing by yourself in an hour, you get it for free AND you get your picture on their wall.  If any of you decide to take up that challenge, let me know.  I'd like to watch.

3.  The saddest news of the week is when I discovered that Joya and Bria do not like watermelon.  I bought the first one of the summer, cut it up (which is always a huge chore in itself) and excitedly gave my girls the juiciest, reddest pieces I could find.  Alaina scarfed hers down with all the appropriate "yum" sounds.  Joya nibbled at hers and whined about it.  Bria took one tasted, scraped it off her tongue and out of her mouth and then proceeded to throw the rest of hers on the floor.  I feel like they are going to miss out on an important part of their childhood by rejecting watermelon.  Also, I'm not sure Alaina and I can take down the whole thing by ourselves, even with how much we love it.

4. The preferred activity each day has been playing in the sprinkler.  I've been having a hard time convincing them to play outside for more than 12 minutes lately, but turning on the sprinkler has been the key.  They'll even play happily outside for, like, an hour after I've turned it off.  I'm going to ride this train as far as it will go.

 5.  Bria has been giving me false hope about potty training this week.  It is quite obvious when she needs to do some hard core business in her diaper.  And if you ask her in the middle of it what she's doing, she'll look at you and say "Boop."  And when she's done, she'll say the same thing, then "Pee yew.  Teenty."  I feel like the recognition of what is going on is a HUGE step in potty training.  But then I remember that she's only 16 months old.  And I still want to stick with my plan that she either potty trains herself, or I'll start the training after she turns 3.  3 is a long way off.  So I'm trying not to get my hopes up.  But it's hard every time I hear her tiny voice say "Boop."

Next week begins the long-awaited swimming lessons!  Alaina will be a whale and Joya will be a goldfish.  And Bria will probably be a huge pain.

Quick 5

Happy Independence Day!  I always think it's serendipitous when Independence Day lands on a Friday, don't you?

1.  Remember our surprise tulip?  Apparently we also have a surprise rose bush.  Once again, I didn't know that a rose could randomly show up in a random spot, but it did.  It's near the crazy hill and one of our apple trees.  Was it planted there?  Do these things just show up?  I don't know if we'll ever know.  Maybe Lee has been weed whacking it for the past two years because we didn't know what it was.  But now that we know what it is, we're excited to leave it be and see what happens.

See the tiny pink spot in the shadow under the tree?

2.  This has been a pleasant birthday week for me.  On Tuesday Lee made me a steak dinner.  We love to grill, but our grilling is really limited to mostly burgers and chicken.  Sometimes we'll find a good deal on pork chops.  So it is a rare day when we can grill steak.  If birthdays aren't good for steak, then I don't know what they're good for.

3.  We spent the day at my parents' house on Thursday.  We went and had a picnic lunch with Lee at his work, and then the girls spent most of the day messing up Grammy and Grandad's house.  Grammy is in Canada visiting our foreign family, but Grandad was there.  The girls love him and Joya always says "Grandad is SO FUNNY!"  We didn't see Ben as much as we would have liked to, but a guy's gotta work while there's work to be had.

Photo credit: Alaina, on her birthday camera

4.  We spent the day at my parents' because we got a new roof!  We needed to spend the day away while that team did it's work.  It was worth it.  We don't really know how old the old roof was, and we knew it wasn't in the best shape.  We were always concerned that suddenly during a storm we'd have water pouring in.  So a well-timed hail storm pushed it over the edge and insurance concurred. 

Old Look

New Look

5.  And for the grand finale for my birthday week, we're going to Blue Parrot with my dad and brother tomorrow.  I don't have to tell you how much I love that place, right?  It will be the perfect ending to a delightful week.

Hope you enjoy this day celebrating our freedom!