dads are great for this....

...all thirty minutes of screaming with joy!

the house

here's our new house - still under construction. we'll be moving in in about 3 weeks and we are ALL so excited about it. we drove by today (as is custom) and noticed that they are working on the sprinklers and sod. yee haw?
here is cristian's private bathroom. he is pretty jazzed about it. i've tried to make it extra special for him since he is entering tweendom. he specifically asked to have his own bedroom which surprised me. it shouldn't though. he is gaining more independece and automy which is good but personally devastating for his mommie. we picked out his bath decor and he's getting a large bed with new bedding to boot.

this is the girls' room. we picked this over the others because of the lovely bay windows. i thought cora would want her own room but she still loves the security of having perry with her at night. hey, i'll take that as long as it lasts.

in case the dishwasher doesn't arrive i've got my spare ready to go. no electricity or batteries required. he looks happy about it now - just wait! the granite isn't something i would have picked out but i can definitely live with it. we actually didn't pick out anything in the house. it was an existing unfinished home. i got to "pick out" the tile from the three choices they gave me. not what i would have chosen either, but it'll do.

ridiculous amounts of cupboard space with i am totally down with. i am excited about having a built in micro and oven next to each other. as usual, these large homes have tiny pantries. i just don't get it. i'll forever love my pantry on john tee. it was ginormous!

love the curving stairway. the youngsters have already been caught climbing the outside of the railings. REALLY?!! (sigh) my favorite feature of this home is the very grand and open foyer and staircase as you enter the front doors. large foyers make me feel like the house tells a story when you enter.

the lovely foyer. i keep myself awake at night thinking about how to decorate this space. silly isn't it?

covered porch is lovely but i'll never use it. i don't BBQ on my porch nor drink beer. someday we want to build it into another room. the small three windows above it will be a fifth bedroom hopefully within the next year.

melt

here is my beautiful boy. he has been fun this summer. he has had a lot of changes in the past few months. he is really enjoying reading with us these days instead of getting so frustrated by sounding out words. he still loves to rhyme. dr.seuss is his idol. he is experiencing growing pains. his legs ache and he is eating lots of food as of late. he has become such a strong swimmer. he is loving building with several block kits he owns. he loves to manage the car. about every 2 minutes he reports the time to me that he sees on the dash. he is always telling me how much gas the car has and calls out the color of the lights so i can text at the reds. he is still a volatile little personality. he has done well though telling us now that he has been "made angry". it's a step in the right direction. he is obsessed with "technology" and gets very bent when he is denied access. he loves to climb into our bed every morning for a few minutes. he is still our best sleeper and earliest riser. we are working on his volume control. he talks way too loud for each setting. he secretly loves my tickles but fight them everyday.

even though he is such a pickle, there is something that i just can't get enough of about him. i love him so much. he is such an independent, unique personality. he is so strong and overwhelming, but sensitive at the same time. he tries me the hardest sometimes, but i love him to pieces. he is just priceless to me. i cannot imagine him not being in our family. we all need and love who he is.

my genius gene strikes again

point a) i hate the junk linoleum in our craptastic rental. i decided to use the sqares to our advantage. cristian had a good time taping off the hopscotch board per my instructions.
point b) look how freak'n black our little pear-bear is this summer. our daily swims are really paying off, eh?

drew names

sometimes the kiddies fight over who gets to bake with me on sunday afternoons...
that was the case last sunday and cora and cristian got their names drawn for pineapple upside-down cake. we've never made it before.

they did a great job lining up the fruit "just so"

it looked beautiful and was a hit with most of the family

portraits

we had some pics taken of the kiddies a couple months back. my intent was to have one blown up for carlos' office at work for father's day. it'll happen eventually. i love the colors the kids wore and the photographer had some fun poses & props. my babies just aren't babies anymore. sigh.

as usual, i don't make this stuff up. cora & lena asleep with their masks on. we are in so much trouble.

this has been the summer of stir fry. all the kids will eat it...

it's healthy....

it's pretty...

it's quick....

it's been eaten every week for a past two months. yumm-o!

here's what our summer looks like. how i love these little faces!

the Brown Bag in the Brown Home

our annual camping trip began with a visit to our friends, the brown's. they introduced us to a crazy game called the brown bag.

its simple. take a paper grocery bag. cut it down by half from the top. the challenge is to pick up the bag with your mouth. only the bottom of your feet may touch the ground.

after every round you trim off the top of the bag. (we pause here for some comic relief from mace and girl friendship from cora and haley)

it's hilarious to watch the kids contort their bodies to pick up the bag with their mouth.

poor tucker got a little over zealous and ended up with an ice pack on his wallabies after the game!

thank you brown's for the introduction to this fun game! it's been a hit with every crowd we've played it with.