Finally....Some Summer Sun and Some Summer Fun

We finally got some sunshine and stinkin' hot weather. Hurray! Late last week, we pulled out the water table and the sprinklers and Molly had a blast getting soaking wet:
As I looked through the pictures for this post, they seemed awfully familiar. I could have sworn that I had seen them before. I was right. I took the same pictures last year. Funny how similar they are. Here are some comparisons of Summer 2008 and Summer 2009:

Molly laying in the water table (view 1) 2008

Molly laying in the water table (view 1) 2009

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Molly laying in the water table (view 2) 2008lMolly laying in the water table (view 2) 2009

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Molly at the Splash Park 2008

Molly at the Splash Park 2009

She has gained a little height, lost a little baby fat and no longer wears a swim diaper, but my cute little chubby cheeked girl is still is still just that: cute and chubby cheeked. And I am even more in love with her today than I was a year ago. Good Golly Miss Molly!

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Molly's friend Alex just turned four, so you know what that means? PARTY!

Molly loves any chance to socialize, but parties are especially fun because they involve all of the following:

• Friends
• Games
• Goody bags
• And most importantly, cake (something she doesn't get a lot of at home)!

As you age kind of forget about all of the excitement that you felt as a kid. Having a child lets you relive that excitement, so birthday parties are almost as thrilling for me as they are for Molly. Faye outdid herself with her outstanding hostess skills: All of that delicious food--enough for feed an army; Lots of friends and conversation; Kids who were occupied for every second of the day.

Oh, and since its not All About Me, Molly had a great time celebrating with Alex. Take a look...

Alex looking beautiful in her birthday dress.

Molly and Avery eating lunch. Yum!

Enjoying some conversation with Mia.

Singing Happy Birthday to Alex (I love all of the girls' expressions).

Oh yea, did I tell you? Molly enjoyed the cake. I think that she would have licked the plate if it was socially acceptable (read: If mom wouldn't give her the stink eye).

Hey, look! There's all sorts of water fun at this party. Cool!

Which way to the pool?

Hope your birthday was great, Alex. Have fun being a great big four-year-old girl!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Just the look in Molly’s eyes lets you know how much she adores her father. She thinks that he is the greatest thing on earth. And she’s right, he is. I should know; I married the guy!
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When Father’s Day rolled around this year, we knew that a tie, coffee mug or key chain was not going to be good enough for Daddy. What we needed was a craft, into which Molly could pour all of her love for her dada. So, off to the craft store we went.
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We decided to make Daddy a stepping stone for the garden. Molly was thrilled when the time came to make it. She did so much of the work herself and was so proud of the finished product. She was even able to keep it a secret until the day she gave it to him. Not bad for a three-year-old.
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Here’s Little Miss Molly hard at work, showing you the process for making stepping stone.

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Step 1: Pick out your favorite beads to decorate the stone.

Step 2: Pour the concrete into the mold and give it a little juggle. Step 3: Strategically place the glass beads around the perimeter of the stone. Step 4: Stop to admire your handiwork. Step 5: Back to work. Place favorite sparkly beads randomly around the stone—this is a must. You can’t make a proper stepping stone for your father unless it has pretty sparklies. Step 6: Pose for a cute picture:Step 7: Wait for concrete to set up a bit and then press hand into it, leaving a memory that will last a lifetime. Step 8: Give the stepping stone to Daddy and watch his surprised reaction. Step 9: Give him the lame gift that mom picked out. Step 10: Select a location in the garden for the stepping stone. Step 11: Tell Daddy how much you love him.
Happy Father’s Day, Daddy! I wuv you! From Molly (and Mommy, too!)

Ka Boom!

What do you get when you take a slightly damaged tree limb and add a lawn covered in little shards of bark?

A lot of trouble if the damage and bark shards are a result of a lightning strike!
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Who knew that a lightning strike in our backyard could fry so many electronics in our house? Not me. And wouldn't you know it, we just raised the deductible on our home owner's insurance because, "Gee, we have never made a claim in the ten years that we have lived here!" Great.
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It could have been a lot worse. If the lightning strike would have hit 10 yards to the north, it would have got our house. Then the damage wouldn't be limited to various household electronics. So, I guess that we are lucky.
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As it stands, we lost our garage door opener, automatic sprinkler control units, Internet modem, cable splitter box, the HVAC controller, computer speakers, keyboard, and mouse, bluetooth headset and charger, digital picture frame and a few other miscellaneous things that are so insignificant that I can't even remember what they are right now. Very random items located throughout the house. Weird.
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I was without Internet service for four days and fell behind on my blogging. Just when I had a lot to blog about, too. Keep checking back over the next few days as I have several new blogs in the queue that I need to post.
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I will close with a quote from Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You? by Dr. Seuss : "BOOM BOOM BOOM, Mr. Brown is a wonder. BOOM BOOM BOOM, Mr. Brown makes thunder! He makes Lightning: SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT And it's very very hard to make a noise like that." Good old Dr. Seuss.
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Arrivederci!

Colorado Dreamin'

I’ve been home from my Colorado vacation for less than 48 hours and so far I have:

• Unpacked 2 suitcases and 3 carry-ons
• Conquered a mountain of laundry
• Cleaned the house
• Grocery shopped and restocked the pantry, fridge and freezer
• Sorted through 2 weeks worth of mail
• Sorted through 2 weeks worth of email
• Paid a stack of bills
• Scheduled multiple appointments
• Took Molly to the doctor for a sinus infection (this is infection #587, if you are keeping track)
• Filled a prescription
• Cooked 6 meals
• Made a Costco run
• Took Molly to her Little Gym class (She did her first unassisted pull over…she was so proud. Heck I was proud and all I did was watch!)
• Played at the park (twice)
• Worked out (twice)
• Downloaded and viewed pictures of our trip
• Blogged

Gee, how I long for another vacation! Since that ain’t gonna happen, here is a brief rundown of our trip:

We went to Tinytown, Colorado which is, well, a tiny town.

We people-watched at Red Rocks Amphitheater:
Took lots of cute pictures there as well:

Molly played in the fountains at Southlands. A tornado touched down a few feet from the fountain a few days later. Yikes!
We went to the Denver Zoo. Molly climbed all of the statues just like at the zoo at home.
We had dinner with Carey, my friend from college. I haven't seen her in 20 years. We sat down and talked like we just saw each other last week. Love ya Care-Nels!
Molly played with Anna. She told me that she wanted Anna to be her sister and also said that she would share her toys with Anna. You know Molly is serious if she is willing to share her toys.Anna is actually Luke's sister. Molly and Luke had cribs right next to each other in the orphanage. We love spending time with Luke and his wonderful family. We are blessed to have them as friends and are so grateful for the bond that we share: our children!

Molly and Luke look took one look at each other, hugged, then ran off to play. What a joy to see! As you can tell, they really have a hard time having fun together.
We also got to spend some quality time with the grandparents. Molly was spoiled with attention!
And we even had time for some gratuitous cute shots in my sister's garden:

There were some other important highlights from the vacation; however I neglected to take pictures.

• I had a dinner party with the 7 Less Lonely People (minus one—miss you Peg). Long story about our name, but this a group of 7 friends. We met our first day of college and have been together for 27 years. Needless to say, they are very special people and I love each one dearly.
• I had coffee with another friend, Jill, who I haven’t seen in 15 years…this was a trip about reunions, I guess. Loved catching up with you, my friend. Let’s not wait another 15 years to see each other!
• We took Molly to the pool a couple of times...what a little fish. She was on cloud nine. Me…not so much.
• I had a girl’s night out at my favorite restaurant with some of favorite people in this world: my daughter, my sister and my niece.
• And finally, I drove my 19 year old niece’s car and lived to tell about it!

It was a very full, very fun few weeks! Now it's time to think about the next vacation...