a birthday for Fancy Fancy

Sophie Mae turned two at the Starpointe Waterpark (our neighborhood pool). It's one of her favorite summer places. Slides, swimming, greasy food! We all love it!

Charlie & Sophie enjoying the slides.

The girls did her hair; she calls herself Fancy Fancy (which is how she says Fancy Nancy). She's become quite an avid reader of the Fancy Nancy book series.

Ella & Gracie make funny faces at her!

The most amazing birthday cake ever.

{made by Marcia at the Cotton Lane Super Target}

her custom designs are fabulous

A very excited girl sang Happy Birthday to herself with help from the audience.

And blew out the candle!

Delicious!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sophie Mae!

We LOVE you!

her very own friend

We had a surprise visit from the T family today!

Sophie was so excited.

A friend of her own!

Sophie Mae & Ruby Rose

2 years old

rice krispies

Cereal has been very cheap lately...I'm a coupon gal you know...I think I paid 85 cents for my Rice Krispies last week.

With a pantry full of cereal, I decided to make some old fashioned Rice Krispie treats. Last weekend's treats were a bit dry and hard. Really, how difficult can this be? Apparently, there is technique with this seemingly simple dessert. And then Ella told me over and over about how great Ainsley's mom's treats are! How they have sprinkles! How I should ask for her advice...and I became even more motivated.

So, this weekend, I changed it up a bit, and made them fancy! Added peanut butter and chocolate frosting. And Ella told me that mine are the best. And she loves mine better than anything else! (never mind the sprinkles!)

Look out, Ainsley's mom!

Road Trip ~ Avos

We packed the van up again and headed up north to Ft. Collins to my old college digs. First thing, we had lunch at a favorite old haunt, Avogadro's Number. Tasted fantastic!

We tried SO hard to get the timer picture thing to work out, never got a great one. Not sure why Charlie is behind the tree?!?

Did you know...that Avogadro's number, also known as Avogadro's constant, is defined as the quantity of atoms in precisely 12 grams of 12C.

Who knew that? I didn't. Never. Not even after four years of eating their scrumptious sandwiches!

Road Trip ~ Kylie's backyard

Kylie invited us to come over and swim and play in the backyard. We were so excited! This is exactly what we do at home, but the Smith backyard has a bit more foliage than we're used to. You could feel the life in the air!

(Ella, Charlie, Sophie, and Danika)

Road Trip ~ cousins

One of our favorite things about Colorado is getting to see our cousin Erica! The kids had so much fun, playing ponies and Barbies. Ella and Erica are really great friends; they always seem to start right where they left off. Hopefully, Erica can come to visit us sometime this winter!

Road Trip ~ to market, to market

A day spent at the farmer's market in downtown Littleton.

Road Trip ~ Splash Park

Road Trip ~ some LATE night swimming

After leaving Moab, we pulled into Glenwood Springs late on a Tuesday night. We found this hotel, the Americinn, that had an indoor waterpark (and they allowed dogs!). And as would have it the pool didn't close until 11 PM. Which made us VERY happy. We had some energy to burn off!

The girls couldn't get enough of the slides! Charles too! Charlie was happy with the smaller cougar slide and loved to play catch with the beach ball. We put Sophie in a floatie suit and she was SO happy to be swimming on her own (or so she thinks). And me, I was quite happy with the hot tub!

Road Trip ~ canine road companion

The one and only Dharma joined us on our road trip journey. She logged many miles, was a great traveler, and really seemed to enjoy the drive!

Upon arrival in Denver she was checked into a kennel. Her time there was not so great. But, she rallied on the way home; so excited to join us for the last leg of our trip.

Last week, Dharma's vet stopped by to fit her with a brand new DAP (Dog Appeasing Phermone) collar and install a DAP diffuser. Although I was a bit skeptical at first, it really does seem to be changing her attitude for the better. Still nutty, just not as nutty as before.

Road Trip ~ Arches National Park

Last month (July), our family embarked on a summer road trip.

Leaving Phoenix we headed north through Utah to ultimately get to Denver, Colorado

(and some cooler weather).

Arches was our first stop. So beautiful. Yet, still quite hot.

Moab, Utah

July 2009

tree house

This past weekend we (re)discovered the movie, Swiss Family Robinson. The original version from 1960; there isn't any other.

The kids LOVED it! Pirates, wild animals, and most importantly the most fabulous tree house EVER.

Charlie built his own tree house, and he and Sophie played for hours!

He asked later if Charles would build him a real tree house.

I replied with, probably.

He then added, on an island.

Not so sure about that part...but it sounds like fun!

first grade started with a bang

We woke up to thunder and lighting today. And wonderfully cloudy skies!

Ella was so excited for her first day of school!

Her backpack is freshly packed with new school supplies!

Wearing her special first day of school outfit, chosen because it looks just like the shirts that the people in Denver wear.

Off to meet Mrs. S!

And to conquer first grade!

Ella, with Morgan, a familiar friend from kindergarten.

Another eager student! Miss Sophie Mae ~ 23 months old.

She won't see a public school classroom until 2012!

And off we go...home to wait for Ella to finish her day so that she can regale us with her tales of first grade!

road trip

We visited 2 states other than our own

slept in 7 different cities

logged over 1800 miles

of which approximately 400 miles were without air conditioning

and we had an amazing time!

And apparently, we can't get enough of travel because immediately after arriving home, Charlie and Ella set up "camp" and started to play "road trip" all throughout the house.

Charlie is serving up the fish he caught for dinner!

the van (this is the unloaded version)

the horses (in case of air conditioning failure)

despite the play, we are very glad to be home

we are very tired

our own beds are calling

and now...
we have piles of mail to open (3 weeks of bills, yuck!)
many, many loads of laundry to do
and hundreds of pictures to post

in due time...