The best way to nap

Lately Cara has decided the best place for naptime is in B's room. According to her, his bed is "more softer." She couldn't quite get herself to sleep this afternoon and I could hear her rustling around in the room. When I had peeked in, she had gathered all of the stuffed animals from A and B's rooms as well as most of the pillows. She has arranged them all around her to sleep. This picture is a close up:

This one is a little farther back for some perspective:

That's one big bear to nap with!

There is nothing better than a twirly dress

Cara has been wanting to see the Winnie the Pooh movie, so we went to see it yesterday afternoon. Thank goodness it was short. I was looking at my watch about 25 minutes into the movie. Cara really enjoyed it, though.

After the movie we went to Safeway and Bi-Mart to pick up a few things. Cara loves this dress because it twirls out pretty far. She twirled her way through Safeway and twirled her way through Bi-Mart. Once we got home she twirled herself around on the patio. Not sure how she can continue to twirl without getting dizzy, bumping into things, or falling down.

Preschool Dress

Its been several years since I've had ANY say on the first day of school outfit. A and B choose for themselves since they are teenagers. I've got to say, I've been looking forward to choosing the "first day of school" outfit this year. Cara loves everything. There has only been one time she has ever told me, "ewwwwww, take it back!"

I ordered this dress off etsy last week from JMhandmade. Joanne was easy to communicate with and had the dress to me in a week. I think it will be perfect for the first day of preschool!

B's Braces Day!

B finally got his braces on today. He has been looking forward to this for a while now. He wouldn't let me bring my camera into the doctor's office, so I could only get before and after pictures in the parking lot. Here is before:

Here is after:

I went back in the room with him to watch him get his braces put on. I got up a couple of times to go see what they looked like. He told me in the car that after I looked the first time the hygenist lady (what do they call them at the orthodontist?) wrote on his chart, "needs mom for appointments." Obviously, he is mortified by this being 14 and all! ;)

He's not too sore so far. He's still in the excited phase, which should wear off by dinner time.

Digging Potatoes for Dinner

Cara loves the garden. She likes to pull weeds, dig in the dirt, and harvest. Tonight, daddy asked her if she wanted to help dig potatoes for dinner and, of course, she said, "Yes!" So off they went and I tagged along behind with the camera.

They dug two hills for mashed potatoes to go along with the ham and fresh corn. Then they thought homemade jalapeno poppers would be a good appetiser.

Cara looking down the strawberry row trying to decide if they needed to be picked again. She went ahead and picked 2-3 cups, but she probably could have waited another day or two.

Don't you just love the ladybug gardening boots? :)

Strawberry Picking

One of the best things about living in the Yakima Valley is that we are spoiled by the fresh fruits and vegetables available all summer long. Not only do we have a garden in the back yard with grapes, raspberries, strawberries, potatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis, onions, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, jalapenos, and many, many types of herbs, but my parents live about 2 miles (if that) away and they have a farm and fruitstand (yay! more fruits and veggies to choose from!). There is nothing like going out into the back yard and digging your potatoes for dinner. Or picking fresh strawberries for strawberry shortcake after dinner, which is exactly what Cara did today.

Playing with Barbies

It's a little bit cooler out today and it's also overcast. We don't plan on going outside today. Cara is taking her afternoon nap right now, but before napping she wanted to play Barbies for a little while.

She takes dressing her Barbies very seriously.

Then she climbed on my lap and wanted to "ham it up" for the camera. I could take pictures of this kid all day! Love her dimples and love her smile.

Afternoon in the wading pool

Every day that we're home in the summer, Cara gets to choose what she wants to do after her nap. She usually chooses either the wading pool or her "lazy daisy," which is her flower sprinkler. She's such a funny little thing. First she needs to splash out all the bugs, leaves and grass clippings.
If splashing them out doesn't work, she tries kicking them out.

Not sure why she felt the need to get out and blow bubbles, but her ruffled little booty is cute!

She plays for awhile, but every time she gets up, she needs to wring out her tutu.

She has a great time out in the wading pool for about 45 minutes.

Then she gets cold and needs to go into the house.

On the way in, I snapped a picture of this flower. I planted the plant three years ago and it has never bloomed. This year for some reason it did! Love it!

Let's try this again...

We tried to go out on the river yesterday. In fact, we made it all the way to Levy park. Then we realized we had left Cara's life jacket in the garage. Oops! So we ate lunch in the park and turned around and went back home. It actually turned out for the best because A and B didn't have to work today so they came along.

This is the view as we drive down into the park. I just love it!

B practicing his cannon ball jump off the back of the boat.

A doing some kind of jump. ;)

My new camera takes awesome pictures, and I don't even know what I'm doing yet! I would love to be able to edit pictures with the new software that came with my camera, but it's too frustrating so these are just compressed and cropped a litte with Microsoft Office.

Cara gets pretty tired by the end of the day.

But she's never too tired to splash with Daddy!

Hope this works

I'm still not the best at blogging. I don't have the skills many of you do, so let's see if I can make this video work. Last night Cara was jumping (2 footed jump) off the chair and onto the trampoline. She kept moving the trampoline closer and farther away from the chair to see exactly how far she could jump.

I kept thinking, this is the kid who couldn't roll from her back to her stomach 9 months ago. She couldn't go up the steps to the slide in the park in Guangzhou without someone standing behind her to keep her from falling. Now she's trying to be a little acrobat in my living room.

She was not interested today

My 40th birthday was on the 5th and I really wanted a camera. A good one. Something a little better than borrowing my 16 year-old's point and click all the time. The thing is, I want to be good at taking pictures, however, I don't have the time or patience to read the 258 page manual that came with my new camera. So for now, I will use the automatic features and point and click.

My subject wasn't into it today. She was outside picking through the grass to find spent fireworks. She really likes the bees because the cartoon bees don't burn so you can still them after the firework is done.

I went outside and said, "Hey, look at me!" And I got this "are you kidding me?" face:

Then she took off running away from me.

I went to the front yard and turned the setting dial to the "taking pictures of flowers" mode (I know, getting fancy already, right?).

Thinking I might get stung, I moved on to the daisies.

I went back around the house to the back yard to see if Cara was in a better frame of mind for pictures. She was hiding out from me in the house.

I guess I'll try again a different day.