birthdays & parties

july 1, lucy turned 4. she'd been looking forward to it for ages and i don't think she was displeased:

as she slept, i covered her in pink balloons and waited for her bubbly excitement to overflow:

she didn't disappoint:

the 1st was a sunday and grant had early morning meetings to attend, making him unable to be around for presents. i let lucy open one (a new dress) before church:

and kept the rest back for after, when grant could watch: 

lucy was super excited to receive her very own scooter:

hazel gave her spiderman action figures:

it was hazel's lucky day too:

she received her own present from aunt jewel, along with lucy's. (thanks, jewel! they love them)

oliver thouroughly enjoyed the carnage:

lucy, after she finished opening everything, wanted to test drive her scooter:

don't let the picture deceive you, she really did have fun. as ever, grant and i are safety conscious. lucy was delighted with her spider-man helmet, knee and elbow pads, and finger-less gloves. in fact, she loved the gloves so much, she rarely took them off the first week:

lucy wanted pizza for dinner and i obliged. she also wanted a pink spider-man cake, but i talked her into cookies-n-cream cupcakes with pink frosting and she was happy to switch:

ok. maybe she was mostly excited to have a #4 candle on her cupcake, but they were also super delicious. i even fancied them up by swirling three colors of icing (pink, light pink, and white) using this tutorial. it turned out fine, but i think my frosting wasn't thick enough:

and finally, no birthday is complete without ice cream:

we took it pretty easy for the 4th of july. the library was closed so grant had to stay home with us. we went back to the spider web park:

it was hot:

really, really hot:

but that didn't stop us from getting a nice run in:

the girls rode their contraptions back and forth along the pathway:

lucy was nice enough to share:

we had lots of fun:

but eventually the threat of heat strokes sent us home.

last weekend, grant went to las vegas to visit his sister, so the girls and i had ourselves a party weekend. we went to the movie brave. lucy thought it was too loud:

but otherwise, we all enjoyed it tremendously.

we posed a bit outside the theater:

before heading home to paint:

sunday after church, we picked grant up from the airport and all was well.

monday night flashback #30

dating grant was easy. well, it was after i called to ask him out for the first time (two weeks after our second first date [that's a story for another day]). we got along swimmingly, never argued or tortured each other with silly mind games. 

the *second most stressful moment for me in our relationship was when i had to decide on a valentine's gift. i mentioned that date briefly in this post. i knew grant was planning something special and at the last minute i decided i should give him something. i wrestled with thoughts of doing something nice without doing anything too serious. we still hadn't kissed and i'm pretty sure we hadn't even used the terms "boyfriend/girlfriend" with each other yet. this is making me laugh now but i was having serious anxiety over it at the time. i ended up getting him a ten-pack of ice breakers gum (maybe i was expecting a valentine's first kiss and wanted it to be minty...).

grant picked me up in his mom's fancy trooper a few minutes after i got back from the store. i awkwardly handed him the gum and felt silly for worrying so much when he didn't give me anything. he played his cassette tape full of brazilian music and we went to dinner at rodizio grill (which has since been turned into a p.f. changs). grant tried to order guava juice but confused the waiter by asking for "goiaba" (portuguese for guava). after dinner we got back in the car and he handed me an express giftcard. he had me pegged as someone who likes buying clothes for herself, an apt assessment. 

i bring this all up now because we bought some book cases this past week and while i was digging through trinkets to display, i found these:

does this mean i can't claim to be non-sentimental? grant is more sentimental than i am. he actually taped  up a pack of the gum and carried it around in his pocket for a while (something i didn't learn until after we'd been married for a while):

i was very impressed that grant would walk into a women's clothing store solo to get the giftcard for me. and that he paid enough attention to know what my favorite store was. he's such a keeper. 

*the most stressful moment, if you're curious, was when grant said, "is it ok to say 'i love you'?" (this was two days after our first kiss) it was stressful, not because i didn't have feelings for him, but because i wasn't comfortable expressing said feelings. i think i said something like, "i really really really really like you" that night and the three scary words a week later. 

as for the book cases, we've needed some more for a while. grant regularly has piles of library books lying around and i've wanted to show of my souvenirs for ages now. 

grant put them together while the girls colored:

they became crazier and crazier:

and ended up staining their pajama knees:

awesome.

also awesome, but not in a sarcastic way:

we just wanted to emphasize how small our t.v. is.

and now a quick recap of mother's day. grant bought me the most beautiful shoes:

i love them so, so much! hazel drew me this lovely picture:

hazel (on the right) is handing me a sunflower that is thinking "love". check out the eyebrows. 

my picture from lucy:

grant wrote lucy's explanation, "all raindrops are coming because it's raining. and this is the thunder. she likes it..."

grant let me take a nap, before making me dinner and a tasty chocolate cake. and the girls went to bed in time for us to watch the newest episode of sherlock. a very good day.

and look how good lucy is getting at writing her name:

almost a week with grandma

brace yourselves, folks. this is going to be long . . .

grandma came to visit us on feb. 22. we had some belated birthday cupcakes ready for her (hazel gets credit for that. she wanted to eat cupcakes surprise grandma):

they were vanilla with chocolate buttercream. tasty.

wednesday morning, grant took the girls and grandma to a park (i stayed at home so i could attempt to finish my book club book for the meeting that night [it's an excellent book. i highly recommend it]):

a monkey on the monkey bars

a monkey with hair!

hazel takes the reins

self-portrait #2

self-portrait #3

a monkey plays in dirt

 saturday, we decided to dazzle grandma with the alligator park:

first, was lunch:

then it was on to the main attraction:  

unfortunately, due to the rainy, chilly weather and a noisy water pump, the 'gators were scarce. after our first sighting, the only animals we saw were birds: 

hazel spent her time complaining about how she was "soooo tired and just couldn't walk any more":

lucy spent her time breaking the law by picking every wild flower she saw:

in hopes of spotting another reptile, we struck out onto a new path:

and we did see this guy:

but i'm pretty sure it was the one from before.

by this time we were wet and cold so we headed indoors to pet a baby 'gator:

a king corn snake:

hazel wowed the ranger by knowing that a snake's tongue smells

and a tarantula:

*shudder* yes, it was real. and alive. at least she didn't want to keep it as a pet. ewww.

on monday we headed to the zoo. first to ride the train:

and then to visit the animals:

the meerkats. (grandma treated us to lollipops)

grant's favorite bald eagle. (no, grant. you will never live that down. mwahahaha!)

 we were impressed with this ankole's ability to use it's horns to pull branches down to scratch it's back.

a maned wolf

eventually we made it around to the african forest (the only part of the zoo grandma hadn't seen):

drums:

chimps:

and a couple of ostriches with the giraffes:

who weren't getting along:

somebody wasn't happy that day...

the lions were much more affectionate:

and finally, a flock of flamingoes:

 that night grandma unveiled a delightful surprise:

snow! or fake snow, rather. start with powder:

add water and presto chango!

diaper guts! i mean: snow!

the girls had a ball playing in it and it was amazingly containable, thus easy to clean up.

tuesday morning, grandma watched hazel and lucy while grant and i hit up the temple:

awww!

 and once we got home it was time to take grandma to the airport.

we were all sad to see her leave (even oliver, who only took 4 days to [kind of] warm up to her). thanks for coming to visit us, gail! we loved having you here and only wish that you could have stayed longer.