My Life And Good Times

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Cousins

In June we had to say good-bye to our cousins. Lucky for us they had a gap in selling their house here and purchasing their new home in St. Louis, so they came to stay for a week before the big move. We still weren't ready for them to go, but at least we had some good times.

On their last day we had a backyard swim party and BBQ.

Kitty got her hands on a root beer and was oh, so happy.

Heather, Isabelle and Kitty all had June birthdays, so I made a strawberry cake and we celebrated all three at once.

And to top it all off, we headed to the park for a few fireworks.

Skippy Jon Jones Birthday Party

Kitty turned four in June. The books of the moment were the Skippy Jon Jones series, so a Skippy Jon Jones party it was.

My little skippitoes.

Kitty's all time favorite book is The Wolf's Chicken Stew, in which Mr. Wolf makes "a scrumptious cake weighing 100 pounds." Kitty had been asking for that exact cake for a year. While it definitely did not weigh 100 pounds, I did my best to recreate the drawing. And added a Skippy Jon Jones to the top.

Strawberry fields forever

June brought us the best Indiana strawberry crop in 20 years. We spent a number of lovely mornings out picking strawberries with good friends.

Happy, happy days.

End of kindergarten

The end of May brought the end of Boo's kindergarten year. Her kindergarten teacher was a young, fresh out of college, first year teacher, who subsequently ruined us for all other teachers. We may have teachers who are as good as Miss Weck, but I'm sure we will never have one better.

Easter 2013

Coloring eggs...

Hunting for eggs...

Two little girls have a super cool aunt that hides full size candy bars in Easter eggs...

March 2013

March was busy.

Kitty wore jammies and warm hats from Switzerland most of the month.

Boo took a hip-hop class...

...and learned to bake chocolate souffles.

There was more snow (and lost teeth)...

...and cute dresses.

The house across the street burned down in dramatic fashion.

And we said goodbye to our 1998 Saturn. I bought it in 2002 when I graduated from college and started my first job. I commuted to Lehi from Provo for a year, drove it to California a few times, then packed it to the gills and moved us to Indiana. More work commutes for the next three years to Linton, Mitchell, Bedford and Indianapolis. It then took J to work for another 6 years before we finally traded it in for a car with a third row. It was a good little car, but I think we got out just in time.

V-Day 2013

And then there was Valentine's Day 2013...

We celebrated before school with our traditional chocolate pancakes.

Temporary tattoos come in Valentine's cards...and my girls are fantastic self-tattoo-ers. I'm so proud.

Also on Valentine's Day, we introduced them to the world of Kindle books. Boo got Ivy and Bean #1 (fantastic early chapter books) and Kitty got Biscuit'sSnowy Day. Win-win.