Since then...

Tess brought her friend Buddy to life and has thus far been enjoying trimming his locks and keeping him alive.


the girls have enjoyed endless play dates together,


and evenings at the park.


we've watched countless sunsets,


and have continued to spend time writing in our journals, well at least they have. I haven't been as good as I'd hoped.


we've caught a Bees game,


and had a bbq in the lovely outdoors with our friends at their cabin.


the girls had the chance to dress up like pioneers for our annual church meeting at This Is The Place bowery,


and learned to play the game of life, they love it.


we've enjoyed probably too many nights at Nielsen's Frozen Custard. mmmmm delicious!


Bella's been doing a bit of babysitting, at home, with the ween little ones,


and thankfully Adam has been helping me get ready for our primary parade this weekend. thanks love.


Happy Monday!

tess bday revisted

I'm certain if you asked Tess she would tell you her birthday was a success, that she very much enjoyed her day. Except for maybe one part--piercing her ears.


It was of course her choice, but apparently she wasn't quite prepared for the stick. She later told me it felt like they had stuck pins in her ears and I gently had to reminder her that's exactly what they did. I mostly felt bad for the poor little girl who was watching Tess get them done. I guess the mom should never had told her daughter to watch and see how easy it was.

But before all that we had breakfast together as a family. Tess is one to never really know how to handle the attention of a birthday so we had to ease her into the lime light.



Of course she seemed to handle it pretty well once we got to the party. Even though the weather didn't cooperate like I had hope, the rain was off and on enough that she was still able to ride her new bike.



Speaking of her bike, Adam and I got her pretty good. When we got out of the car at the park to unload everything she noticed we did not bring her "old" bike just Megan's. She was devastated and began to cry. I assured her I would ask Grandma and Grandpa to stop home and bring it, but when they showed they didn't have it either--all part of my plan. She was super bummed which made me more excited to give her the "new" bike. Instead of making her wait after dinner and waste all the good riding time I grabbed it out of the car and started riding around the park. I yelled at her to get her attention that I had her bike and come get it. She seemed sort of confused at first, but once she got it she chased me down. She was and still is excited about her new ride.



It was a great day from start to finish and I'm glad she thought so. Later that night she gave me a big hug and thanked me for a fun day. Bless her heart--I would happily do it again and again.



I still look at her and am amazed that she is already nine. Everyday I am grateful I get to learn from her and watch her grow. She is a little bit goofy and a lot sweet and all mine. love you tessinni--never change.

saturday goodness

When I woke up Saturday morning I had no idea what was in store us. I figured it would be a day full of shuttling kids back and forth from violin practice to soccer games, when in fact it was the moments in between those two events that shaped the rest of our day.


It started with bagels, of course, like all things start for Adam and the girls on Saturday. It was enjoyable to sit back and watch them, they're pros at it now, each of them ordering for themselves with confidence. This is a new side to bagel day I hadn't seen before. They are growing up.









After dropping Bella off for her violin rehearsal at the Conference Center we decided to stay downtown until Bella was done and after I realized Megan's game wasn't until 1pm it seemed like the perfect plan. We took Tess and Megan to Memory park to walk around, but what I didn't realize is how busy it would be on a Saturday morning. There was family after family and engagement couples running around every where getting their photos taken. In fact there were even people waiting in line for certain spot. It was craziness, but fun to see so many cameras milling around the park.










I enjoyed getting another round of fallness...hope it stays for a little while longer.

Afterward we still had about 40 minutes so we decided to take the girls to one of our old haunts when we were downtown dwellers...Sam Weller's bookstore. It's a quaint little store with a great selection of new, used, and rares books. It smells like what I imagine the forgotten books from the book The Shadow Of The Wind smelt like. Delightful. I was happy to hear both Megan and Tess complaining when it was time to leave.







This part of the day seemed brief, but it's exactly what we needed to make an okay Saturday into a great one. I need to remember it doesn't take much...and to think, I almost didn't go.

xoxo,
amy

good times

Why do good times like these...









always end like this?


[this is when she fell]


[this is when it was time to leave...saturday eve]

This week got a way from me.

I hate it when that happens, when you feel like life is controlling you instead of the other way around. Hopefully I will be better about that next week and be more in charge of my time.



* Monday we spent the night as a family at the park. The weather has been beautiful all week and so we wanted to take advantage of it while it lasted. I keep telling myself one of these days it will stay nice and warm.


[click here to enlarge]

* Tuesday night at 8 pm (can you believe that crazy time?) Megan had a school singing performance. I was actually amazed by how long it went (an hour) and how many songs the kids had learned. I think it was something like 16 songs. Megan is a natural performer and I never understand when she pulls out the shy face because she is nothing but shy. At the end when they sang "I'm Proud to Be an American" I couldn't help but get teary...that song get's me every time.

* On the road coming home from one of our many after school kid activities (I think it was violin) I looked over and saw Adam driving next to me on the freeway. Immediately the car erupted into cheers, even I was excited about the encounter...and then he was gone.

* My long run this week was the worst one yet. I failed to leave myself water along the way and the whole time all I could think about was how thirsty I was. Let's just say I will never make that mistake again. I was bummed that I didn't end on a high like last week, but they can't all be life changing experiences.



* Wednesday night when I went to say my final good nights to my girls I found Megan like this with her lights on. I think it had only been about 10 minutes from the time she went to her room. I love to see them so wasted even 10 minutes is too much.

*Thursday night Adam and I spent the evening talking. I'm not sure how it happened, but the conversation that started as we cleaned up the kitchen made it's way onto the couch and we just kept going until Tess came in from the outdoors complaining and we realized it was past 8pm. This is not an uncommon thing for Adam and I, but it does seem like lately we have been so busy we are usually talking in bed and falling asleep at the same time.



* Last night we left the park and opted to come to my house to celebrate Robyn & Olivia's birthday because the weather was cold and the rain looked eminent. It was a mellow evening, but as usual it was full of good food and good company. Robyn, who I feel so grateful to have as a sister-in-law, is responsible for keeping me in shape and helping me achieve my running goal. If it wasn't for her I don't know if I would have ever done it. I'm so glad we have this in common and am so looking forward to having her with me on my first big race. She also has some serious skills in the kitchen and I'm always impressed by the new recipes she tries.

So there you have it, a few highlights from this week I hope not to forget. Now I'm off to violin thing with Bella and lunch with my friend. Good times.

an evening together

Wednesday night I was beginning to feel like we just weren't enjoying the summer evenings like we should so we packed the kids up and headed to the park. On the way we all enjoyed a little brain freeze from "Bob's brain freeze". He has one mean snow cone with a touch of cream to make it that much more special. Seriously you never thought a snow cone could be so good.