lately

Making bridal shower invites for darling Alicia (my brother's fiance.)  My mom and I have been planning, planning, creating, shopping, working on all this wedding stuff.  

I just love weddings.  Such "happy stress."  

Kinda makes me wish Kent and I could relive our wedding day.  It's just so much fun!

Going out.  My kids play outside all the time.  Ellie has finally learned the concept of "our yard" and she generally stays close by really well.  I send them out to play while I get some chores done and watch them out the windows.

Her surprised face.  It includes a sweet little gasp and ends with those perfect hands on her squishable cheeks. 

We adore this face.

We went to a teacher supply store and bought letter and number learning books for Nicholas.  I told him we were going to have a "discovery time" each day.  

He suggested we call it "happymacksock time" instead.

Ellie found the entire task very exhausting.

We attempted to work with these books.  Nicholas has zero interest in learning these things.  He just does not care at all to learn the alphabet or numbers.  He gets silly and rolls around, pulling faces or wiggling his fingers in my face.

We've signed him up for a pretty academically-focused preschool for the coming year.  I'm really hoping the classroom setting helps him.  I figure it's either going to be really good for him or a really big waste of money.  If he's just not ready to learn, how much can a teacher do?

At my parents' house they have a big fan to help bring the cool air inside at night.  
Ellie loved this fan.  She'd turn it on and off, race around the kitchen island, and squeal when the air blew her crazy hair around.

This is the only picture I have of Kent's birthday. His pound cake with homemade caramel "cajeta" sauce that I cooked in a crockpot for 24 hours. (Turned out lumpy.  No idea what I did wrong.)
I told Kent I was sorry we didn't get any pictures of him on his birthday.
He said that meant it was a perfect birthday.  Andersen boys don't like taking pictures.

My born-on-the-4th of July husband does fireworks.
It's his birthday thing. He buys the great big crazy ones and then I don't have to buy him lots of presents.
Ellie was already in bed and slept through the show.  
Nicholas started out well this year, just plugging his ears and watching.
After the first firework Nicholas actually yelled "That was AMAZING, Daddy!"  
But then it started getting loud.
And Nicholas got hysterical-screaming and shaking and inconsolable- I took him inside where he curled into a ball on his bed and shivered and cried. 
Poor poor little guy.  Maybe next year will be better?  I just keep hoping.

 We came home from our holiday week to find this happened while we were gone.
Our view has a drawback after all.
Golf course=golf balls.  
To me, the risk is worth it, though.  Even if my mountains are all hazy this week from wildfire smoke that has blown up here from Nevada.  

Yesterday afternoon, this happened.

Ellie started it, running back and forth from the pantry wearing nothing but her poor sagging diaper, bringing handfuls and armfuls of noodles.

Nicholas wasn't slow to join in, exclaiming, "We're making SOUP!"  

Spaghetti noodles make an incredibly fun-to-crunch mess. We all three of us had a grand time with those raw noodles on the tile floor.  

I seriously love being a mom.  What do people without children do for entertainment?