sunshine

She'll always be there to help you up, Bug.

Hope your day was a {sunshiney} as theirs was. I heart summer!

water babies

 

This summer, we’ve been living at the pool. We joined a small neighborhood bathing club, and it’s been perfect for our kids at these ages. Emerson is learning to swim but is not proficient by any means. And Pete, well he’s basically a danger to himself at any given moment. So the kiddie pool at the club is just right for us.  We love to bring friends and are so happy to spend the hours splashing in under the sun. I heart summer!

 

she's got moves (another sideways video)

I never proclaimed to be a technology guru. My apologies for yet another sideways video. Hope the sound works, or else this is just silly.

Elvis ain't got nothin' on this kid.

Someday, they'll show this after she wins a Grammy, I'm guessing. This kid just LOVES music. I think her friend Lucas P. may be interested in forming a band with her, right Didi?

choo choo

Emerson has been asking to take Pete on his first train ride for some time now. She has always loved riding the train, and Pete is definitely starting to share her passion for them. When we cross the tracks or park at the local library (which is right next to the tracks), Pete pipes up with “Choo choo.”

As we were walking towards the train on Friday, a freight train was chugging along, and Pete was shouting “Toot!” left and right. So imagine his surprise when a commuter train stopped right in front of us and we walked on.

Now, Emerson is a veteran train passenger, but it’s been quite a while since her last trip. It has not lost it’s novelty for her either, and she was excited to share the fun with her little brother (who she does  enjoy from time to time, but don’t let that get around, ok?)

Thanks for joining us, Grammy and Grandpa!

 

{I was going for an artistic look on these last two. You know- like I was some random passenger observing a tender moment between a grandma and grandchild. But I guess that if I have to explain it, it probably didn’t work. Oh well."}

bedtime conversation

Don't know WHERE this one came from tonight, but man, was I ever laughing.

E- What does God's bed look like?

M- Well, God doesn't ever sleep because he watches over us all the time. He never gets tired. He has special powers.

E- (incredulous) He doesn't ever get tired? Not ever? How does He watch everyone at once? Does He have 10 eyes?

M- I'm not sure. Maybe.

E- We'll have to ask Him when we go to Heaven.

E is quiet for about 15 seconds

E- Does God toot? (AKA fart)

M- Um, I'm not sure.

E- We'll ask Him that when we go to Heaven too.......Mama, can we go to Heaven tomorrow?

Let's hope not, little one. Not just yet.

summer smoothie

 

 

Admittedly, this is a half-drunk smoothie, only because it didn’t occur to me to take a picture beforehand. But behold the smoothie goodness. I whipped up these yummy treats for dinner last night, and Emerson could hardly believe her luck. Smoothies, for DINNER? She wasn’t going to point out that we don’t have smoothies for dinner, lest the best thing to be served at the dinner table in months be whisked away.

Here’s the recipe for you:

1 mango

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

1 tsp. lime zest

1 tsp. honey

2 tbsp. water (enough to get the desired consistency)

Mix these ingredients in the blender and then pour into 4 glasses. Set glasses in the freezer to set the smoothie. Rinse out the blender.

 

3 kiwis

1/4 cup vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup packed spinach leaves

2 tbsp. green tea

1 tsp. honey

Mix these ingredients in the blender. Gently spoon onto the chilled Mango smoothies. Garnish with a kiwi wedge, if desired.

 

Yum!

I heart fonts

My grandpa ran a typesetting business in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. He’d set the type by hand)for local newspapers, restaurants, and businesses. And although I never saw his shop, I can visualize the rows of trays filled with tiny letters and pictures. I’m sure the place was never clean- they worked with inks all day long- but I’m also sure that it was quite organized. Imagine the frustration of losing a couple of letters in any given font. That would get old pretty quickly.

I like to think that my love, no obsession, with fonts is in my blood via my Grandpa. On my old computer, I had downloaded over 700 fonts. I’ve toned it down a bit on the new one…I probably have 100 or so now. That’s a good bit of restraint on my part.

I use them on work documents, in my scrapbooks, and on little projects around the house. I love pointing out commercial fonts that I see on TV or in magazines that are a part of my personal collection.

Here are some of the famous ones in my collection. Do you recognize them? (I’m typing their names in case you’d like to add them to your collection.)

started by a mouse

Loki Cola

brother bear

Florida Project

pac font

walt disney script

 

scenes from our Fourth

Happy 235th Birthday to our great nation! I’m sitting in my living room, listening to our town’s fireworks. Tis the life with small kids, I suppose. But don’t let me fool you; this has been The. Best. Fourth. Ever. The whole weekend was fantastic- so much fun with friends and family. God Bless America!

Em and I headed to a water park with some friends. She was so brave, riding waterslides and bouncing on the waves in the wave pool. It was the best time I’ve had with her in a long while (Disney World included!)

We met up with some friends for a cookout and some fun. E loves to hang with L and T…

…partially because they have The. Best. Toys!

She lit her first sparklers this year. The kiddos were funny-after about 5 minutes, one of them piped up with “Why are we doing this again?” Um, well, hmmm. Not sure what this has to do with anything, as a matter of fact :)

Adri and I are college sorority sisters and former roommates, and she’s married to one of my good high school friends. Always good times with these guys!

I vowed not to stress out about Emerson’s bedtime and let her stay up late with the other kids. But at 8:30, she said “Mom, I’m ready to go to bed.” Don’t have to tell me twice. We got her ready and snugged in, and a then neighbor started a (2 hour!!) private fireworks show. We got to see the whole thing from the backyard,which was awesome but also pretty loud. Pete was down in the bunker (basement) but when I went in to check in Miss E a bit after it started, she was still up. We invited her to come outside to see the fireworks, and I was able to capture some priceless photos of her first ever fireworks show. She was totally captivated!

Not to be outdone, Mr. Pete was pretty cute himself. He loves to be the center of attention, and he certainly got his fair share at Grandma and Grandpa’s party today.

We had a great time doing smoke bombs, snakes, snap poppers. She really “got” it this year.

The current school of thought is that Pete is a dead ringer for his Uncle Craig. What do you think?