Spring Fun!

 We've had a mah-velous time lately.  Everything is winding down to summer, including Girl Scouts.  The troop got an AWESOME fire station tour.  Above is my favorite shot, everyone is so happy!  The fireman was showing them what people look like through the lens of a camera with a heat-sensitive lens.  (Apparently it's hilarious).

 Gretchen in her tie-dye hippie outfit (it was tie-day day at Ella's school, and even though Gretchen doesn't go to the same school, she was DEFINITELY getting in on that action!

 And Ella bein' all cute an puttin' out fires and stuff.

 That helmet is REALLY heavy.

 See?  I know.

 And since we tried on the fireman uniforms, the firemen decided to try on a girl scout uniform.  Awwww!  I'd maybe buy cookies from him.  He looks legit, right?

 And here are some random pictures of the girl from last Sunday after church.  The girls got new church dresses (Except Ella changed into her pajamas within 30 seconds of arriving home.  Because she's my child and knows that comfy clothes = happy day.).  And happy, happy news, Colby finished putting in the sprinkler system in the backyard!  Hooray for Colby!!!!  So soon our lovely trees will be shading some lovely grass!!!  Hooray!!!!!!!!

 I titled this image "SISTERS".  Just bout sums it up, right?

 Super Dramatic Swing Ride!

 Ella learned how to send a telegraph message at the State Capitol with the fourth grade.  She wasn't overly impressed.

 Gretchen found a "little baby baby caterpillar!!!" and made me take a picture before letting it go.  She wanted to bring it home for her bug-catcher.  Also known as the bug-graveyard.  So so sorry bugs.  If we catch you, you will die.  Put your affairs in order.  The end is near.

 I was the Art Mom in Gretchen's class this year.  (Me and about 5 other volunteers, without which it would have been literally impossible!!!  Because kindergarten art is HARD!!!)  We had the Roaming Art BBQ at her school last week.  Parents came to school with picnic lunches, and then walked around the school to see all the art.  We had six projects on display.  (Including the awesome clay fish (above), which the kids made for Father's Day.)  Don't you love those "Mountain Lion" charcoal drawings (on the toned brown paper above the clay fish).  And the "Van Gogh Sunflowers"???  Kindergarten art may be hard, but it's also SO CUTE.

 GG & her BFF PaiPai being all emo in front of the art wall (not her real name.  But the name by which she shall be known for all time forever in our house.)

 I had to bribe GG with an ice cream cone to get her to take this picture in front of the roses.  This is one of the vintage dresses that Grandma Diana/Auntie Adrianne sent from our childhood.  Awww!  Gretchen wants so badly to sleep in the under-dress like an old-timey pioneer child.  And I shoot her down every single time.  Sorry honey, that's what happens when you have the meanest mom ever!

And, lastly, here's a sweet pic of me & Ella at our little friend's "Candy Land" themed birthday party yesterday.  In the words of our little friend's mom, "I'm NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN!"  It was very very very cute.  And she is now very very very tired.  I should tell her to give up now and start doing birthdays at Chuckee Cheese's.  Where people who've totally given up throw their children's birthday parties.  That should be their slogan.

Ella has 1.5 more weeks of school, Gretchen has 2.5.  AND THEN IT'S SUMMER!!!!  This is wonderful and horrible at the same time.  I'm really looking forward to going to Lake Tahoe with our besties, but I'm dreading how many times I'm going to hear "I'm so bored, why can't I just watch a show?" (repeated ad-nauseum until I give up in a fit of wondeful parenting and yell, "FINE!!!  JUST GO!!!!!"  You know, cause I'm awesome like that.) 

I have a few ideas to keep us mentally healthy and emotionally un-scarred.  Gretchen is going to build herself a dollhouse.  In fact, she's building THIS dollhouse.  And Ella is going to work on her comic book, "Candy Duck".  Which is about the exticential crisis of a white house aide in a time of political upheaval.  Just kidding.  It's about a duck that likes candy.  Also, I'm going to have "screen free" hours til 1pm every day, and "not allowed to ask mom for ANYTHING" from 8:30 - 11:30 every day so I can attempt to get my work done. 

Can you tell I'm a little stressed about summer?  Ha!  But then comes fall, and everything is going to be AMAZING.  Yup.  For the first time in 9 years I'll have SIX UNINTERRUPTED HOURS A DAY TO WORK.  This is tantamount to a miracle.  And I'm not exaggerating.  I've already mapped out a new marketing plan and everything.  Hooray for not working til 10pm every night!!!!

Ok, now I'm going to go enjoy my sabbath with the girls.  Which means, of course, that we're going to eat snacks and watch stupid movies for hours and hours.  Woo hoo!

xoxo

Love Was In The Air

 We are honored to announce that Ella has been officially inducted into the Elementary School Honors Society.  This is a very big deal because we have a certificate AND a pin now.  And because her boots look cute in that picture.

 Here's the ONE PICTURE I got of Gretchen at the dance.  She looks pensive.  She's worried that Mr. Darcy won't notice her new muslin gown.  (Silly Gretchen, the ton does NOT approve of wearing muslin to an evening dance.  She should be so embarrassed!)

 Of course Ella and friends thought it'd be hilarious to hide out in Mr. S's room for half the night.  Though they did leave to run through the dance floor giggling the requisite 1,000 times.  And, they even did stop to ACTUALLY DANCE for a few minutes.

 Gretchen's poor teacher had an unexpected emergency, so her even MORE POOR SUBSTITUTE got to deal with this for Valentines Day!  The kids were extremely excited about all aspects of the day.

I was extremely excited that Gretchen got a very special invitation from her friend D to a Valentines Lunch Party directly after school. 

 Mr. D. had been saving this little mini-light-up-pillow-pet for Gretchen since he saw it a month ago.  Boy, does he know the way to my little girl's heart.  Did you read that?  MINI.  LIGHT-UP.  PILLOW PET.  She was beyond thrilled.  He got a matching puppy (see below).  And if you've spent any time with my darling girl over the last year, you will recognize the following phrase, "That'd be PERFECT for my American Girl Doll!"  And it is.   

 We won't let that 6" height disparity come between their love.

 Because look at those faces.  I just want to SMOOSH THEM!

I told his mom that I wasn't sure if I should file this under "Senior Yearbook" or "Wedding Reception Slideshow".

Last week Ella turned in her Science Fair project.  I didn't even have to threaten much violence to get it finished this year!  Hooray!!!  (Though we could do a study on whether the Science Fair makes parents hate their lives.  My Preliminary Hypothesis:  YES!  Oh My $*#@ YES!!!)

Yesterday we had a baby shower and three birthday parties (we only made it to two of the birthdays, but the first one was a double party for TWO boys, so I think it should count as more).  And then Colby and I went out to celebrate 14 years of wedded bliss.  Auntie Krista was kind enough to watch Gretchen while Colby and I went out.  They had so much fun!  (Ella was at her 2nd birthday party at the time).  But the busy Saturday kicked our butts so hard that we slept in.  BY A LOT.  We got to church an hour late.  And then I missed Sunday School (I decided to talk to my friend instead and called it a Mental Health Break.  It was awesome.)  And you know what?  One hour church is so pleasant!  I had a great time!  It just goes to show, sometimes you should be irresponsible.  Just enjoy life.  I carried that theme on through the afternoon. I sure had a great nap in the hammock!  And don't worry pinterest, I'm all caught up!  (Good thing too, cause this week is set to kick my butt again.  Sigh....)  So how was your week?

WHAT? HEY!!!!

Gretchen chose Red Robin for her 6th Birthday Dinner.  Guess how long the balloon lasted before it popped*

What?  I'm updating our family blog!?!?!  Woo hoo!  The new 9am church schedule is wooooooonderful, and I'm hoping this will be the first of many weekly updates.  So, my dearies, how have YOU been doing?  We've been doing well.  Busy, busy, busy.  Getting older  (See above)  (See below).  Getting cuter too, if that's even possible.
(*The balloon lasted less than 5 minutes.  Mostly because she kept shoving it under the table cause she didn't want everyone looking at her.  Cause guys, DON'T LOOK AT HER.)

Living Room Photo Shoot.  Bulldog shirt was a birthday gift from her friend.  Thanks friend!

 The girls signed up for City of Reno Ice Skating Lessons.  And we made it for 1/2 of them!  Look really really closely & you'll see Ella below.  If you're ever looking for our sweet girl, be sure to watch for the brightest, most rainbow-ey outfit possible.  Find that & you find Ella.  Or a pride parade in full swing.  But probably Ella.

 Gretchen is going through this super fun phase where she doesn't want me to take her picture.  She lost her first tooth, a little baby front bottom tooth.  I got a picture of her, but then it descended into head-banging.  "Mom, take my picture when I do this!  HA HA HA HA!"

We found a snapcircuits set at Savers and invested $8.  Cause we value education.  But then I had to come home and actually figure it out.  I hate figuring stuff out because I'm lazy and also tired. But I rallied and IT'S SO FUN!  GG and I built a real live working radio! 

Also because we value education, we went to Sutter's Fort in Sacramento so Ella could see the little Donner Party doll that they've been learning about for 4th Grade State History.  Well, really we went to Sacramento because Colby had a bike race.  Our lovely friends came with us.  Their daddy has been sucked into the world of cycling, just like Colby (sorry children and wife of lovely friends!)  We got a hotel right near the old downtown on the river, right down the street from the capitol.  I love vacations SO MUCH.  SO MUCH.  How much?  SO MUCH.

So we drove to Sutter's Fort to see some Real Live History, especially the much anticipated doll of Patty Reed.  (Oh my, little doll.  Do we really want to read your story?  Ick.)  Then we found out that the doll was approximately two inches tall.  For reals.  See below.  We all went, "Oh.  Neat.  Yeah, that's really small." 

 The gift shop was great, of course, and we couldn't leave without a surprise.  Not the Donner Party Cookbook.  (I'm not kidding, this exists.  Christmas?)  But we DID find some sweet rag dolls!  They carried them around for almost HOURS.

 Gretchen got the alternative "Mini Working Telescope" so she can watch out for mini enemy troops. 

 We learned so many interesting things!  Like that living back then was awful!  And Sutter of Sutter's Fort and Sutter's Mill was sort of a jerk face.  He married rich, spent all his wife's money, and then left his family in Switzerland so he could try again in the new world!  (After changing his identity, of course.)  Talk about the American Dream!

 Also, sucked to be anyone owning land near Sutter's Mill!  Who wants to die penniless in the middle of gold hysteria!?!  Good times.

 Ah, history!

So we came home and went to a fabulous birthday party at our friend's fabulous dance studio.  Here's GG hanging up her paper doll. 

Friday was the school dance (grades K-5), where we got LOTS of amazing pictures of kids doing LOTS of amazing dance moves.  But they're all on the camera still and I'm tired, so that's a project for next week.  But Oh How I Love Dancing.  Dancing is right up there with vacations.  I danced all night til bedtime (8pm) to some sweet dance songs.  Embarrassed the h-e-c-k out of my girls.  It was me and two of my other favorite moms, working our little hearts out to all the top 40-hits.  And then Katy Perry's "Roar" came on and every girl in the building joined us on the dance floor and danced like they had the Eye of the Tiger.  Yeah, it was great.  Little kids dancing is my favorite. 

Ok, that's it for now.  We've got a Big Week with Valentines Day and an 8 mile run (a very very slow 8 miles, don't be too impressed) and a spa day coming up.  Twil be amazing!  So I will take pictures, remove them from the camera, and share them with you next time.

xoxo

Summer Fun with the Stotts

The pictures are limited but we had a ton of fun with the Stotts on their summer trip.

Ella at Sno 2 Go

Ella at Harbor House

Veronica s first time going swimming

Veronica loved playing in the sand. Mission Bay was a hit!

Thanks to Apryl for planning our family gathering!

Xoxo

Hot! Summer! Fun!!!!!

We don't mess around with Summer, you guys.

Within an hour of bidding the BEST TEACHER EVER adieu, we were at the hotel, ready to rock.  (Just in case it wasn't obvious, I didn't take this picture of the pool.  Totally stolen off the hotel website.)

And let me tell you, it was NOT that serene once we got there.  We met 5 other school friends there for a family sleepover.

Despite the fact that they went to school that day, we were still able to fit in 8 hours of swim time and a 2 hour break for dinner.  How tired were they?  SO TIRED.  I kept waiting for GG's meltdown.  It came.  The next morning.  While again in the pool.  Nothing like a temper tantrum in the pool, my friends.  But, like always, we got through it.

On Monday I rallied enough to help Ella and friends put on a Lemonade Stand in front of our house.  Our house has the best location for selling lemonade!  When the district school down the block gets out, we get some good foot traffic.  They sold $16 in lemonade at $.50/cup, which was just about perfect.  Please note the "Happy Lemon" balloons, decorated with faces, and awesome sign that Ella made ALL BY HERSELF! Hooray for happy brownies and lemons!

And I also rallied enough to take the girls to Lake Tahoe on Tuesday.  I was going to invite friends, but I didn't quite rally enough to organize that, so we went solo.  But, as I've said before, RENO IS CRAZY.  Practically everywhere we go, we will run into someone we know.  GG saw her old friend from preschool last year & they spent the afternoon playing together.  Good times had by all.  Except maybe the crawdad that I caught for the girls in the rocks with our handy dandy new fishing net.  He might have been a little freaked out.  I ended up gifting him to the little boy down the beach with the promise he'd return him to the water when he left.  Also, crawdads are GROSS.  How can people eat those things?  They're like gigantic insects.  No literally, they are GIGANTIC INSECTS THAT LIVE IN THE WATER.  Just like lobsters and shrimp.  I know insects might be the wave of the future for providing protein to a growing population, but I think I'd rather go vegan.  Is there a name for an insect free diet?  That's what I am.  And I'm starting now with a boycott of crawdad, shrimp and lobster.

Anywho, here's more pics of my cute kids in the sun.

GG art directed this one.  "Mom, take a picture of me slowly pouring sand out of this bucket!!!!"

Ella had a playdate on Friday.  They hadn't decided where they'd be going when they left, but as I got about 6 emails with a similar theme, I realized they'd gone to the Discovery Museum downtown.  Woot!!!

GG had her VERY LAST FAIRYTALE BALLET recital yesterday.  Uncle Ian, Auntie Amber and Baby Lucy joined us to watch.  It was awesome.  As always.  Their little peach dance costumes were ridiculously cute.  I think I'm going to take her to a studio & get her portrait taken.  In hopes that she can one day send it to Awkward Family Photos.  (Aren't 1/2 their pics of dance costumes?)

HAPPY SUMMER!!!!!