More

After a walk with my friend, Marisa, we stopped to let the kids play at the park. I had no idea Caroline would decide to drench herself. I had no extra clothes, no blankets, not even a diaper. She had a very uncomfortable walk home.

Cupcakes. Always cupcakes.

Maggie loves to pose for the camera. There are no such things as candid shots these days. Behind her are two colors I was pondering for the kitchen island. Both were immediately vetoed by myself as well as Maggie. She suggested pink.

Caroline had her blood drawn to check for thyroid dysfunction. All clear but I had to deal with the trauma (mine, not hers) of the needle. She has a lovely green bandage:

Preparing for the school year has been a lot more work than I anticipated.. Preschool schedule, ballet classes, making sure there is actually free play time, and the endless list of supplies to buy! Stressed does not even begin to describe it.

I love the way she sits in her little chair to have a snack.

Dairy Queen. Maggie in an old ice cream cone pro. Caroline had to share mine so as not to get too darn messy.

Summer has been fun. Summer has been busy. Way busy. I'm terribly sad to see the warm days slip away. We've already discussed Halloween costumes. Like many, many times. Please excuse the sobs...

More Summer

Almost 16 months old and NOT walking. You so much as say the words "stand" or "walk" and her legs immediately retract! But she has learned to stand. I was elated to see it.





I bought Maggie a sheet of tattoos. Daddy helped her apply practically all of them:

Little top I made for Maggie:

My vegetable garden has been interesting this year. Hits and misses. That carrot is the ONLY carrot I got from the garden this year. How is that even possible?? They are supposed to be the easiest things to grow! Those were also some of the very few heirloom tomatoes that I got--very tasty though.

My attempt at a mommy/daughter shot:

Playdate at the Siggs. They truly have a kids paradise for a backyard. It even comes with frogs. Frogs everywhere! Maggie was super duper brave and held one--a tiny one. Vicki helped her with holding it gently and explained how to set it down when she was done (Maggie started to throw it instead of gently letting it down). I was actually amazed she touched the thing!

Vicki also offered up popsicles:

Summer

In the interest of time (and the fact that the new Flickr page has me totally pulling my hair out!) I'll be posting a bunch of random pictures with no editing--just right out of my phone and/or camera.

I bought a little stick vac to help with small crumb-type jobs around the house. With little ones eating lots of snacks all day we have quite the crumb problem at our house. Maggie took a liking to the vacuum and seemed ecstatic that I let her use it. It's now a chore of hers...oh, yeah!


New pink chair I found at a local antique store. Now I have to completely redo Maggie's room to match it.

A little skirt I made for Maggie:

Aside from golfing a lot Patrick has taken on a little job around the house:

I bought a little craft for Maggie. I quickly regretted it! She wanted to work on it a lot but was much too young for that kind of project. I tried to keep my cool, explaining over and over again what to do.

Just a super sweet pic of the girls:

Randoms

Chocolate cookies are gooood:



It's all about the accessories:

A little top I made for Caroline:

A little skirt I made for Maggie:



Another little skirt I made for Maggie:

Utah for The Fourth

To sum up:
Drive to Utah:


Sandy City parade:


Brave Maggie on the jumpy thingy. She loved it! I was shocked:

Grampy and Caroline were good pals:


We went to Provo's Farmer Market...although it's not much of a farmers market as it is a craft fair. I don't even think I saw a vege, fruit, or anything from a garden really. Maggie got her face painted. A specific request for a small butterfly:

Sparklers at the Barrus house:


The cousins at the family picnic. Maggie LOVED the play time:

Grampy's Garden

Grampy's garden is not something to miss. This "garden" is actually a plot of land in the middle of Provo with what looked like an abandoned house on it (or, at least I think it's an abandoned house). The garden consists of vegetable plants scattered willy-nilly, a smattering of fruit trees, one or two actual rows of plants, and some random cages full of....rabbits. Hmmm.


Grampy holding a handful of freshly picked red onions. We had them in our salad and they were so devine!



Cousin Olivia helping Maggie feed a rabbit a twig or some sort of food (I hope).



Grampy takes a few rabbits out of the cages for better viewing:

What's in the bucket? Two rabbits:

We brought the two bunnies from the bucket back to Charlotte's house for dinner. She was so happy. Not. Apparently rabbits don't like hardwood floors. They sat exactly where we set them for several hours. It was great for my girls to play with them:

It's worth going to Utah just to see Grampy's garden. It's at odd times like this I'm really grateful my girls have him. He's one interesting character--and definitely worth experiencing!

**side note: This is my second season of gardening here in Colorado. I now fully and completely understand just what kind of green thumb my father has! His soil was barely acceptable for gardening. My soil is an expensive(!) store bought mix. His garden was chock full of weeds. My garden has zero. His garden, clearly, has no rhyme or reason. No plan--just a smattering of seeds that soon sprout into the tastiest food I've ever had (year after year!). My garden is carefully planned out and tended to with the utmost care. So, the question is.....why does my dad's garden flourish and mine is hit or miss at best?? Where are MY gardening genes?

Swim Lessons

Maggie needs to learn how to swim. Like me, she's a little afraid of the water and doesn't really enjoy it too much. I hated swim lessons as a kid. She hated them this year. But she was, at least, much more tolerant and willing than I was at her age!

We signed her up for the Turtles class--kids that afraid to put their face in the water. She loved her teacher and all but that cold water and the constant requests to "blow bubbles" in the water drove her a little nuts.

Her first day:

This is how she handled most of the class:

She was a brave girl. Every weekday for two weeks. Some days the water was so cold I could see her entire body shaking uncontrollably and when she'd get out her skin was completely white. Caroline and I would spend each morning sweating to death in the sun waiting for her.

Even after what I could tell was a traumatic 30 min in the water she'd be happy as a clam! She made little to no improvement through the first class so we signed her right back up for a second round. She kept her game face on and bravely got in the pool each day without complaint. Toward the end I started to wonder if I was damaging her emotionally for making her do something she clearly was not enjoying.

After each class I would hold her in a towel in the scalding sun until she stopped shaking then she was allowed to spend a little time playing in the sand (the highlight):

A very thick layer of sunscreen and another layer of dirt on top of that meant we had to do a little washing up. Caroline eating a fresh peach (oh happy summer fruit!) in the sink:

Rather than sign the poor Maggie up for a THIRD time through the Turtles class we've opted for a break in lessons (mostly because I don't want to totally traumatize the poor girl). The rest of the summer will be "practicing" at the pool with friends which is something she does actually enjoy!