Sunglasses

Being cool is a state of mind.

Sunglasses help ...


Sunglasses somehow create a sense of coolness.


They also protect your eyes, but that is not as important as how cool they make you look.


It was a beautiful 85 degrees at the park yesterday. Summer was really impressed with her ability to climb up the twisty slide. Up, not down, the direction slides are meant to be used. She had her shoes off to help with traction. Her feet were filthy. Very filthy. But she had fun and looked cool, what a great day.

Hair

I want to talk a bit about hair but first I have to tell you a story before I forget!

Do you ever watch Malcolm in the Middle? You know Reese, the bully brother, and Dewey, the younger brother? Well in the episode the other night Reese walked up to Dewey and punched him and he fell. I looked at Summer and asked her if she wanted a brother, thinking how boys were so violent. She said "yes" and after a few thoughts she said "but I don't want him to knock me down". So I asked, will you knock him down thinking she would say no, but she looked at me very seriously and said - "Yes". I wasn't expecting that answer and it cracked me up, I guess she might have a mean streak hiding in there somewhere.

Back to hair, don't you love little girls with long blonde flowing hair or is it just me? Summer has such fine whispy hair, lately I have been leaving it down and letting it just be natural. She had a clip in her hair earlier and that helps hold it back but these photos were taken after her nap and after she had eaten a few cheetos. Too bad I didn't think to wipe the cheese from around her mouth, oh well.




She has hair just like me, I think, which is really hard to fix. I brush it and it frizzes and flies all over the place. I am trying to use stuff on her hair, stuff that I use to tame my curls, or waves, and it is helping.

She is so pretty, I am so lucky. Oh and a photo tip, the evening light just cannot be outdone, morning light is so bright but early evening and afternoon light never lets me down, gives me the wonderful shine in the eyes that I crave. I try morning photos I really do but look how harsh the light is, even in the shady areas.


Still cute but just not as soft and powerful and afternoon sun.

33 Months

Since Summer was born I have been addicted to recording the small things. You know, the first time she did this or that and her weight, height, when all her teeth came in, or at least when I noticed them, things like that. Once she turned two I slowed down on that kinda stuff, sorta. Now every 3 months I measure her height and get her weight. Today was a measure day since Summer is exactly 33 months old. She will be 3 in 3 months, can you imagine? I am not really sure how that happened, time is just slipping by so fast.

Anyway so today I measured and Summer is ... drum roll .... 39 inches tall! She grew over an inch in the last 3 months. That seems so unreal but I guess children do grow quite a bit. As far as her weight she now weighs an astounding 36.5 pounds. She was 34 pounds 3 months ago so she gained 2.5 pounds, in 3 months. Can you imagine how horrible that would be if you gained so much weight in such a short amount of time? Wait, I think I have /sigh lol darn the bad food and non active lifestyle I live! If only I had some sort of motivation, but don't fret, I am looking for it, actively.

Now I have to create a new photo book, the next three months in the history, though short, of Summer. I love making photo books, so much easier than printing out photos and sticking them in a book, but probably a little more expensive. I would probably enjoy making my own books but that takes time and I am too picky - it would have to be perfect, so photo books (shutterfly, snapfish) it is!

Time to go look through my pictures ... I will leave you one to enjoy. This was taken a few days ago in the neighbors garden err backyard. No one lives next door and no one has lived next door for almost a year. The house is being turned over to the bank and I am hoping someone with small kids moves in soon. Until then the backyard looks more like a jungle but I call it a garden to be nice. Summer and I took a walk around it so I could take a few pictures of the flowers. Enjoy!

First hike of 2010

Yesterday was warm enough to hike, or so we thought, and figured we would give it a shot. We decided Red Rock should be nice and we wanted to check out the short hike with the waterfall, hoping it would have water. The weather ended up being perfect, the hike was nice and short since it was our first of the year and the waterfall was really falling! We weren't sure how well Summer would do, last year we ended up carrying her a lot and this year she is a lot heavier but to our surprise she did so well, so much better than last year. She had a great time hiking through the "forest" and climbing all over the rocks. She kept jumping off small rocks and it was kinda scary because I kept thinking she would fall. She did fall a few times but got right back up on the next rock that got in her path. She even diverted her path so that she could find some rocks to climb on and jump off of. She got quite dirty but was loving everything. It was warm enough that we didn't even need jackets. The hike (Lost Creek Canyon I think) was about a mile in and a mile out so just far enough to get us adjusted. Summer walked the entire way all by herself. She had a little help when we got to the larger rock decline area, but overall she did an amazing job.

Here are pictures at the waterfall, Summer loved trying to touch the water. Both her and daddy got a little wet but it was so worth it! I was able to get behind the waterfall to take a few pictures.



Random photo wearing her new hiking hat that Charlene got for her. She kept the hat on the entire time, which was nice, she usually wants the hat off. It is a really pretty blue color and the style of hat matched my own.


You can see how wet she got, see the bottom of her pants? She didn't mind, she kept saying she was going to need a bath.


Summer picked up that big rock and told us that she was very strong. We agreed, she is very strong!


On the trail back to the car. At this point she did ask to be carried but we told her we were almost to the car and she was ok with that answer and walked and ran the rest of the way.

Roller coaster fun!

We went to a Spring Celebration today. It had a wagon, carriage and pony rides, a farmers market, square dancing (but we didn't see them), a petting zoo, games, children's crafts and carnival rides.

They also had 3 bouncy houses and Summer enjoyed those twice. She will get in, jump two or three times, get out, smile, get back in, jump two or three times, get out, look around, smile, get back in, jump one or two times ... you get the idea.

After the bouncy house we walked to the carnival ride area. The first ride we rode took us spinning in circles in circles. Luckily I sat on the outside because the force of the spinning made us fling to the edge and Summer was parked right up against me. The ride lasted forever, unlike rides you actually pay for and Summer enjoyed it. I was having issues trying to keep my head up but Summer was able to rest her head against me.

Next we rode a dragon spinning thing. April & Noah joined us and that was a lot of fun, well until I dropped my purse causing the bag of pretzels to spill all over the floor, all while we were spinning, but we still had fun.


Next we stood in line for the roller coaster! Rachel, Carissa & Bradley joined us for this ride. I could tell small children were riding this ride alone and luckily Summer and Carissa were able to do this one by their self! Not that I didn't want to ride with her but I can't take pictures if I am riding now can I? Anyway they did just fine, they even put an arm up a few times.






After the fun rides we checked out the petting zoo. It had a sheep with two babies that were hiding behind its mother, a baby cow, some goats with babies, and seems like something else. Summer normally is shy when it comes to touching animals but not today, she went right up to all of the animals and "petted" them. I didn't get any good pictures because it was close but can you guess what this animal is?


It was nice outside, a little windy and quite warm, so next we stood in a line to get drinks. Noah and Summer made the most out of waiting in line, aren't they just so cute?



After we drank our water we hit the bathroom and headed to the bouncy house one more time, Summer went in and out at least 3 times during her jump time. Then it was time to go home and take a nap. Summer fell asleep in less than 5 minutes once we got in the car. It was a great fun action packed day.

Happy Un-Birthday

For some unknown reason I had an idea to have a birthday party at my house for kids, an un-birthday party, and invite everyone with children that I knew. Originally the party was suppose to be on April 1st but since the weather was going to be crappy I decided to have it two days earlier, on Tuesday March 30th. I planned several games, made cupcakes and planned on boiling hotdogs to eat. 14 children showed up and their parents, it ended up being a great party for the kids, and I can prove it with a few pictures.

We started the party with the episode from Alice in Wonderland, and then all the kids had a gift to open. Each kid got two puzzle pieces and they had to work together to put a 28 piece puzzle together. Luckily one of the kids was 9 and he helped get it together.


After that we played some games, like musical chairs. All the kids loved musical chairs, they all got the basic idea. I didn't play down to 1 chair, I just let the kids keep finding chairs and sitting, I didn't want anyone to lose.


Next we gave everyone a cupcake with a candle, sang Happy Birthday to everyone and let them blow out the candles.


It was really cute to watch, they went outside to eat their cupcakes. After cupcakes and a bit backwards, we had hot dogs outside. Even after eating cupcakes first they still ate their hot dogs just fine.


Once we finished eating we went back inside for more games. We tried a couple bean bag games, we tried stick the sticker on the paper, and we tried to pop balloons with our butts. That was hilarious and not as easy as you would think, in fact Summer and several of the kids could not pop the balloons so we had them go outside in the grass.


After we popped the balloons we opened gifts. I had each child bring a used wrapped toy and we traded. I think all of the kids got something fun and it made it just like a real birthday party. I even had all the moms bring a goody toy for the goody bags I had and everyone got to take one home.

I don't know why I wanted to have a fun party like this, mostly for Summer, she loves having kids over and plays so nice with everyone. She kept up with all the kids, mostly the girls, and enjoyed doing whatever it was they were doing together.

The party was a success and a lot of fun. I might try to do another one again one day, for now I will wait because I have just over 3 months to plan Summer's real birthday party. I don't know what I want to do this year, pool party maybe? At least I had some practice and I know what I will be getting myself into.

Kris teased me and told me I should become a party planner. That would be a fun job - having parties all the time. Eating yummy party food, cupcakes, cookies ... yah I better not :o)

Easter Time

I have been so SUPER busy with Easter activities that I have shamefully slacked here, so sorry! It seemed like Easter started two weeks ago and is just now ending. We had 4 Easter egg hunts and throw in three birthday parties (one un-birthday party), that alone made us extremely busy bees! Let me take a moment here to try to catch up!

Last (because it is easier to go backwards) was Easter. We had a nice day on Easter. Summer got to color eggs. No, I lie, we were too freaked out about the dye staining her and everything else so we didn't actually let her touch the dye but she did get to use that magic white crayon to design the eggs, then she helped us drop the eggs into the colored cups. We only colored 8 eggs because I knew we wouldn't eat them. I actually ended up turning them into deviled eggs and I think they all got devoured.


On Easter we went over our friends and had dinner. It was delicious and we had a great time hanging out. Summer had so much candy on Easter that she was quite fun to watch, the saying "bouncing off the walls" could have been used on her, she would not stop jumping, yelling, playing, it was pretty funny to watch. Eventually she crashed and turned into a zombie. We headed home and Summer happily napped a good long nap.


The day before Easter we went to an event at the Spring Preserve, we went, we got candy, we saw the Easter bunny! Summer loves everyone, even scary looking people dressed up to look like an Easter bunny ... she kept looking at it, it because I don't know if it was a him or her, she kept waving to it, she was quite amazed to see the Easter bunny, even though I don't think she knew what he does, you know bring candy and hide eggs.


The line for the Easter bunny was the worse part of the day, we waited at least 45 minutes if not more but Summer was in a good mood and so were her friends that came with us.


The Easter hunt at the Springs Preserve was quite different from the other two we did this year, there were no eggs, there was only candy, everywhere, lots of candy thrown all over the ground and once Summer realized it was candy she was happy to get as much as she could, unlike the eggs at the other hunts. She would get a few eggs and when I told her to get more she told me she was all done and that she had enough.


Keeping with the theme I tried to take some cute Easter photos on Friday before Easter but the weather was just annoying, mostly windy and kinda cold so we had to have a shoot inside and inside photo shoots are never as fun or as good. I kinda got one good photo of my baby girl.


Earlier in the week me and my mommy friends put on our own Easter egg hunt at a park, we bought and stuffed eggs and threw them all over the grass for the kids to collect. We plan on doing our own hunt again, it was a big hit and the kids all got a bunch of eggs. Inside the eggs was fun little toys, candy and some more candy. Summer got a few eggs and announced she had enough.


Days before this ... another Easter egg hunt, this one was at a very populated park with helicopters.


This Easter egg hunt had a ton of eggs but they also had as many people and Summer didn't end up getting many eggs because there were too many people in the way, plus we had to wait over an hour for a 5 second egg hunt - yah we won't be doing that again next year.



We also went to another small egg hunt, I didn't get any pictures but it was nice, all except the annoying wind. Plus we had our own Easter egg hunt on Easter morning. I guess that makes 5 Easter egg hunts in two weeks which is more than enough. I was super happy to put all the eggs away for next year.

During those five Easter egg hunts over the two week period we also had three parties, two birthday parties for friends and one un-birthday party at our house. The un-birthday party was a ton of fun, I will tell you about it tomorrow.