Today....

I am thankful for this handsome bugger whose turn it is to stay up late with me and cuddle. He is sweet, funny, tender, and brave:

AND I am most thankful for Ed who late this afternoon was 10 hours from home but who is driving all the way back here because he knows how much we want him to come home, even though he'll get here in the middle of the night and head out again bright and early but he thinks it's worth it just to have a bowl of cereal with his monkeys.

Yesterday....

I was thankful for this monkey, who I let stay up way past bedtime cause she was so darn cute:

And thanks to having an older brother and sister, this is her usual get-up:

a baby and a gun, what more do you need?

32.

I am officially another year older and, hopefully, wiser.

This was a good year. Full.

And I had a good birthday. Every year my kids are disappointed that I don't have a kid party so this year we met some friends and many little kids for a movie and then lunch at the park. And then we napped and read magazines till Ed got home in time to take me to dinner.

A good day and the only picture I have is this:

Which I love.

Cousins and best friends, what's better than that?

Some Jack.

Jack is obsessed with his bow and arrows--it's pretty much all he talks about or wants to play with and I finally had to draw the line at him taking it to bed with him!

*****

The other day he looked at me with his sweet little face and said, "Mom? Is this baby actually coming for reals? I mean is it going to be a real baby or what??"

*****

And this morning he was super cuddly and I said, "Jack, why are you so full of hugs today?" And he said, "Daddy gave me a really big one so I have some left over!"

Kamiak Butte

We finished the 3-day weekend with a hike at Kamiak. It's so much fun to take the kids there these days because they can do the whole 3 1/2 mile loop without a single complaint and Jemma just hitches a ride in the backpack.

Marshmallow and ginger snap sandwiches at the top!

Today...

we're thankful for the pool, hummus and toasted pitas for dinner, and Baskin Robbins' dollar scoop night!

Fillin' the little love tanks

Happy 4th of July!

This is one of my very favorite hoildays!

It was a little dark and windy but that didn't dampen anyone's enthusiasm for the pool:

Makin' mud pies.

Yum.

Four little boys that just turned two!

The one time of year he gets to play with fire. And he takes full advantage of it!

The fireworks!

Jemma took a little nap before we loaded her up to head to the big fireworks--she started out a little sleepy with her dolly but she got very excited on the way over and kicked her little feet.

Jack got to try on the "fire-fire" gear!

And he shared his hat.

Jemma settled in with a bag of honeycomb. She's at the age where every loud noise freaks her out (even the kids yelling across the house!) but she only cried for a second when they started and then she was too mesmerized to make a peep.

Staking out our spot.

Cousin secrets.

Dancing to the Kingpins!

This was a great year of fireworks--I don't know how people skip out on these!

Well, lookey here!

Jack's been talking about riding his bike without the training wheels and he finally talked Ed into letting him try on Saturday. I was busy doing something in the house but neither or Ed or I thought he would really be able to do it so I let them head out front without me. But about 10 seconds later, Ed ran in the house and said I better get out there! And sure he enough he was all set to cruise, training wheel-free!

On Ava's old bike because we didn't want to take his wheels off unless he could actually do it.

Starting out.

Woo-hoo!

Totally got it!

He looked super confident and I'm happy our doubts didn't rub off on him at all!

It wasn't a totally successful day though. Ava crashed into the back of me while I was taking his picture and she totally bit it, with a nice big scab under her nose to show for it. And poor Jem was running around and tripped and got some road rash up her arm. Jack somehow was the only one to make it crash-free!

3-day weekend!!

Ed got home on Friday at 4:30 in the afternoon (a very happy miracle) and I jetted out for a quick wedding meeting and then on my way home I was practically giddy with the anticipation of a 3-day weekend and, even more important, an entire Saturday with absolutely nothing we had to do (the first in maybe 3 months!). I came home to house-full of wild, happy kids (Ed included). But within 10 minutes of finishing dinner, I walked in and found this:

and then about a 1/2 hour later, this:
and then later still, this:

(movie-time cuddles in bed, which is why the kids' eyes are all funny from the flash).

I could not stop cracking up because Ed exists on less than 5 or 6 hours of sleep every night and I generally get another 2 or 3 after he gets up. I cannot fathom how he does it without ever really needing to make up the sleep at some point (and he can't fathom how I could possibly need that much sleep!). But after weeks of walking fields in the heat and big important meetings, he finally could not keep his eyes open!

However, he was somehow up at 5:00am the next morning, raring to go (while I slept till at least 8:00) so the joke didn't last long!

Today...

We're thankful for dinner at the pool:

Where we were pretty much the only people there:
And all we were missing was a magazine for me!

Whoops.

I wanted to get a shot of Ava on the big slide so Ed could see but the one time I had my camera she had quite the whoops. She was turned around, upside down, whacked her head on the slide and came up bottoms first. But she just hopped on over to the stairs and the lifeguard even said, "you are a really brave girl!"

Shootin' birds

Even more.

My parents had been out of town for a long time and when they finally got home, they saved us from complete boredom by having us out for spaghetti and ice cream on the deck. And after dinner, I took a walk all.by.myself (no stroller or 15 million questions from a certain someone named Jack).

Flying a kite with grandpa.

While Ava did crafts with a cup of hot chocolate:

Jack was also busy stacking wood--he loves doing chores!