Brooklynn Visit + Our Visit

We have had an exciting few weeks, first with the visit of our #1 female 7-year-old-cousin Brooklynn!

 Poor Angela had to work hard to keep up with the big girls.

Happy Hour slurpies after returning from roller skating on a hot Saturday afternoon

Natalie got to go to her first 2 days of preschool before we headed up to Raleigh for my brother Paco's wedding

Mmm, Naked Juice moustache

Brooklynn, always ready to keep the young-uns in line. Here, she leads them around on leash.

The kids were the life of the party at the reception!

And the benevolent bride and groom, hearing that Natalie wanted to see them open presents (a la 5-year-old birthday party), swung by the following evening and let us oogle their spoils.

How many kids can you fit in a bath? Well....

Movie time!

Unwrapping presents from the grocery fairy!

The awesome science museum in Durham that I wish I lived near!

Nudity!

Homemade pinatas!!

The girls' first time bowling!

We had so much fun! Now, all of us are sorta like...

Hot and Scared

Florida in July is officially HOT. Our poor a/c is working so hard, the last electric bill we received nearly brought me to tears. It was more than a car payment. More than 3 months' student loan payments. We're now approaching the point of spending as much money on home climate control as we spend on food in a month.

We've been dealing as best we can.

Thinking cold thoughts as evoked by the movie Frozen 

Spinning in circles for greater air circulation around the underarm region

And, running up our water bill by playing with the hose.

Slip and slide for the truly daring involves complete nudity, eliminating as much friction as possible.

We had a fun (read:frightening) adventure last night. A man came and knocked on our door at 3:30am. It woke Micah, who woke me up in great alarm and made me take the kids up to the attic to call 911. I only caught a glimpse of the guys legs through a window by the door as I was crossing the stair to the kids' room. Micah, nearly blind without his contacts in, could only see that a guy was there, he thought he saw him looking in through the window. I naively supposed it was just a neighbor needing help; Micah was sure it was an armed criminal. At any rate, we didn't answer the door and the police came within a few minutes and the guy was gone. They searched our whole yard and looked around the neighborhood. Nothing unusual was found. If it was just one of the neighbors needing help, we shall now hold the reputation of being being great alarmists, but the 911 lady I spoke with reassured me that we shouldn't feel embarrassed and that, from the crazy things she's seen, you really can't be too careful. Anyway, now Micah is going to be rooting stronger than ever for a stupid security system and lasik eye durgery and my dreams of saving up enough money to replace our windows shall slip farther and farther away.

Mug cake?!

Ok- how have I survived this long without knowing that you can make an individual-sized cake in the microwave? This is a total game changer.

Natalie and I ran this test on a "cowboy" cake with chocolate chips, m&m's, and coconut. It was so good, we made more for FHE treat.

Angela is very cute and smart and feisty. She loves puzzles, throwing tantrums, laying in her crib with her pacifier and bear and drinking milk.

This hawk was staring me down through the window as I ate my lunch this morning.

And, in other news, Natalie had to have 6 cavities filled today. I blame the potty training jelly beans. Probably wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't spent the better part of 2 years potty training, but alas, what's done is done. Micah stayed home this morning with Angela and when I returned, there were a bunch of photos of this lego creation on my camera. 

Natalie was pretty wiped out by the sedatives- she completely fell asleep in the waiting room before they took her back. But I guess once they started prodding at her she tried hard to fight them off. I wasn't allowed to go back with her during the procedure (which is really messed up and has me thinking of searching for a new dentist) but occasionally heard an angry wail from the waiting room. This afternoon she is slowly, very slowly, perking back up.

Sheesh, dental work is expensive. I don't think I have spent as much money on my overall health, including even the cost of otc medicine and hygeine products, in the past year as it cost for her fillings. Ah, well. We didn't really need that money. It's not like we just spent more than double what we had expected to stain and seal our fence and have our air conditioner repaired again. .:sigh:. 

Little Cows and Beach Bums

Very busy lately. Natalie has started a month of swim lessons. She was terrified when I first told her I had signed her up, but she warmed up to it quickly once I took her. She's in the most basic group that doesn't involve a parent needing to be in the water with the kid- so she's learning about putting her face in the water, and very, very basic propulsion, like bouncing up and down and doing "ice cream scoop arms". I don't think she'll be doggie paddling in 4 weeks, but it's good progress for a girl who one month ago would cry if she got water in her eye.

A 16 year old from church who we've had over to babysit invited the girls over to decorate cupcakes. It was very sweet and the girls loved it. Strangely, though, the cupcakes we brought home only ever got partially eaten...

I forgot to photograph this yummy pie before we broke into it. I made it to take to someone's place on Sunday, but they ended up cancelling, so we had an overly fancy FHE treat on Monday night.

We also decorated cow shirts for FHE so we could score free Chicfila the next day on Cow Appreciation Day.
Unfortunately, Angela was having a tantrum all evening. Which was a shame, because she probably would have really enjoyed painting her shirt. She loves arts and crafts. 

My little Calves:

Angela was really into the cow, though she may not seem thrilled in this picture.
And, of course, the best part of all:

A few pictures of the girls while we were at the beach a few weeks ago.

I take the girls to the beach during the day once a week and we go with Micah on the weekends sometimes. They are learning to enjoy it more and more.