Blood denaturingly hot

Today was really, really hot. Not like Arizona hot, but hot nonetheless. The problem is, being in Washington, we don't have air conditioning in our home, nor do we have it in our fuel efficient car. So we had to take the guzzler today to church because it got up to 93 (according to the news) today. Our house was so hot after dinner that we just went into the coolest room in our house (our bedroom), ate ice cream, and watched "Matilda." Lacy got scared in a lot of places, but she enjoyed it. Then Dave, being the great daddy he is, let her stay up for the next movie, "Nanny McPhee," before she had to get in her own bed. He did that mostly because it is so darned hot, and her bed isn't directly above the fan like ours is. On a positive note, the girls' bedroom, which they never sleep in, cooled down quickly, so when they're in there next yearish, it will be a little more comfortable for them. Perhaps we should just move them now. Or at least Lacy. She's been baaad about bed time lately! Gotta redo the routine charts or something, I think.

Later this week we're going on vacation. I'm so looking forward to it, despite a not so good weather forecast! We need some time together as a family. Dave has had one three day weekend since he's started working this job, and one other Saturday off. Other than that and the couple days he took off for the girls' surgeries and sick days, he's worked 6 days a week, 10 hours a day for 3 months. It's time for a break! The company started off with 180 employees, but has whittled it down to just four remaining employees-- Dave, his partner, and two other members of a different union. How flattering that Dave is literally going to be in the very final, small group to be let go. He must have impressed the right people! Heck, his supervisor got laid off before Dave did! He has two work days to go before he is officially (we think-- they keep changing it) laid off.

What's the point?

If you wake your children up fairly early, keep them active all day long, and put them to bed (complete with regular bedtime ritual) at 8, and they don't go to sleep until 10:30 at the earliest, what's the point of keeping them super busy all day?

We walked to the park. We swam for an hour and a half. The girls played outside. Lacy watched minimal TV. Yet, Lacy fought bedtime and wouldn't sleep until 10:30. Rose was even worse, not sleeping until 11:30. Then they both woke up before 9 today-- Lacy before 8! She is such a grouch today, too.

Here's hoping they go to sleep early tonight!

Keeping Busy!

Today was a super busy day for us! I like to consolidate tasks with gas being $4.30/gallon and a truck that gets 12 mgp. We're working on ways to improve the mpg, but in the meantime, I don't go many places at all because of the sheer cost of driving and the lack of alternatives to driving in my area (biking is not safe on the roads leading to town, and there are no buses).

First was gymnastics. Rose was a little overwhelmed because it is gym camp this week, and there were lots of big girls and boys using all the equipment in the gym. They looked so awesome! Lacy and Rose's classes combined, and Lacy was the only big kid in her class today. She did so great! So did Rose-- walking on the balance beam without any help! It was a little tough to keep her under control at times, but we managed.

Next stop was feeding the truck. I managed to find it for $4.23, filled up, and then saw another gas station for $4.09. D'oh!

Then we went to Fred Meyer to talk to them about a pair of sandals that I had purchased earlier this year. One of them had totally come apart at the seams. It was no longer wearable. I think it was defective, because the other shoe was just fine. Because of the defect, I was able to exchange them across for another pair of exactly the same sandals. I was glad they had them, because I really love the way they look and feel. I am extremely picky about my sandals, so it is always a great day when I actually find a pair that meet my criteria and fit me well!

After that, we went to the free school lunch program at one of the elementary schools. We went to one in Lacey, because that's where we were today. It was fun for the girls to eat there, and it was nice to not have to worry about food. Lacy ate her entire sandwich. I was surprised and impressed. Rose ate all the cheese off hers and ate most of the meat, but that was about it, other than the apple juice! She doesn't get juice much at home, so it was quite a treat for her. Afterward, we played for a few minutes and I saw some of my old friends from Lacey and talked for a couple minutes with them (when I wasn't chasing kids, that is!).

Finally, we went to Spooner's to pick strawberries. Rose got quite dirty with juice and dirt all over her. I was certainly glad they wore pink shirts today! We managed to get out of there with about 9 pounds of berries, and probably another pound in Rose's belly. Lacy didn't eat many at all while she was picking. She was so helpful, and was very good at picking berries.

On the way home, Rose fell asleep. Lacy is now watching PBS, eating strawberries, and drinking water. She was thirsty and tired when we got home, and I didn't want to fight with her, so the TV went on today. She hasn't watched any TV at all until now, so I think it's a pretty good day. We'll probably turn it off soon so she doesn't get overloaded. Rose is still sleeping soundly, and I'm trying to come up with dinner for us. I was going to take the girls swimming again today (we went yesterday and they had a blast!) but it's already 3:30, so I don't think that's happening, unfortunately. There's always tomorrow, and that's one thing we can do that is totally 100% free-- other than the dues that we would have to pay whether or not we used the pool. It is really close so we can actually walk there.

TV-free Day

I decided Lacy has been watching too much TV lately, so today I announced we were having a TV-free day. Lacy cheerfully said, "OK!" She hasn't even asked to watch TV all day long. At lunch, I asked Lacy what she wanted to do during Rose's nap time, and she chose her Princess coloring book and markers. She is a little louder than usual, and interrupted me with an almost sleeping Rose twice, but Rose eventually went down and Lacy has been finding things to do all afternoon. Monday is my heavy-duty chore day, so it's been impressive that she hasn't even asked, or even hinted at wishing she could turn the TV on!

I also started a chore chart for Lacy today. She has four daily chores: make her bed, put away books, put away toys, and another chore I assign her. On Sundays, she gets a "free" day, but all others she will get a simple chore, such as dusting or cleaning the dining room window. When she completes her chore, she can put a sticker on the spot for that day and that chore.

Keep homebirth safe and legal for all Americans!

The AMA has recently adopted a resolution which seeks legislation to ban homebirth. Please sign this petition, even if you are not a homebirther yourself. All Americans should have access to quality health care options. Homebirth has been shown to be as safe as hospital birth, resulting in fewer complications, cesareans, episiotomies, and other interventions than comparative hospital births. I am proof that the midwifery model of care works-- one successful homebirth, and one transfer to the hospital when the midwife's training and instincts were telling her we needed to go, due to complications that presented themselves. That is how things should work-- midwives for uncomplicated labors, and obstetricians for more complicated cases. These two professions should work together, not against each other.

The AMA adopted this resolution in part because of a recent documentary critical of the way hospital births are currently conducted-- "The Business of Being Born," by Ricki Lake. They are afraid homebirth is becoming trendy and people will do it now just because of her documentary. They actually specifically named her in a draft of the resolution, though they (wisely) left it out of the final document.

The AMA's efforts would be better spent focusing on a new, larger problem of low birthweight babies. We have had the highest rate of low birthweight babies in 40 years, which is probably the result of convenience cesareans and inductions, which have risen sharply in the last decade or so. Christina Aguilera had a convenience cesarean at 37 weeks-- why doesn't the AMA adopt a resolution specifically targeting her? That is a much more dangerous birth choice.

Woot! 59 cent chicken!

Thanks to Leslie for the heads up on the 12 hour sale at Top Foods, featuring whole chicken for $.59/lb. Many of you recall my love affair with using whole chickens rather than buying them in pieces. Today's sale had a limit of four chickens. So after our initial purchase, I ran out to the truck, loaded everything in the back, and went back in to buy four more chickens. NICE! I just finished butchering them all and they're now nicely packed away in the freezer, ready to use. I do want to rethink my current storage method. I use too much plastic. I like everything cut up and ready to go, since I'm sort of a lazy cook and often don't have dinner planned at 4 pm. That way, I can just take out a baggie of chicken thighs and defrost in the microwave (or a pound of ground beef, which I package similarly) and voila, there's my protein! Next time I do this, I think I will butcher fewer chickens at a time so I can lay out the pieces on a cookie sheet to individually freeze pieces. Less plastic use is always a good thing. Hopefully in a couple year's time I'll be using chickens from my own little farm rather than the grocery store! Heck, maybe we'll have a commune going by then and someone else can help me butcher chickens!

To think, just 8 years ago I was still a vegetarian. Sometimes I wish I still was, but I think I actually eat a lot more healthfully now than I did pre-meat. That is, if you don't count the ice cream and Sweets and Beets.

Today we had gymnastics, but starting next month we will be going on Wednesday at 11 am. That's going to be good, since Leslie lives sort of close by, and her kids will be going to violin on Thursdays 10-12. This way, we can meet up or hang out at Leslie's, though I'm hoping we can arrange park or library trips occasionally.

I actually wasn't so sure we could go to gymnastics this morning. Lacy has been coughing since Tuesday, and Rose has been a little as well (I think she's finally getting those top 2-year molars, though, so it may be unrelated to Lacy's cough). She woke up with a nasty cough this morning. I decided to wait it out to see if she would get better. I gave her a Ricola cough drop, which helped a little bit. Probably because she crunched it right up, rather than sucked it down. Just like her mama-- impatient. I decided to see if a hot shower would help clear her lungs. So I gathered two naked girls into the shower and we had a little party. I plugged the drain up, let the hot water vapor pool around us, and added a few drops of peppermint essential oil for good measure. That did the trick! No more coughing pretty much the rest of the day.

During this time, Dave has been sleeping on the couch to avoid getting sick. Unfortunately, he still ended up getting some sort of flu today. I have him taking some homeopatics that have helped him with the flu before, and I'm hoping that spending pretty much all evening on the couch today has helped him relax and rejuvinate his body. I hate to sound greedy and/or insensitive, but, Friday is an overtime day, and it is really helpful when he works Fridays, especially since he likely only has one more week after this with this company.

Some good news came today. In the midst of these medical bills from hades, we have a little glimmer of happiness. The insurance is covering more of Rose's dental expenses than I previously thought! I saw how much they were billing the insurance for most of the procedures, compared it to my "maximum benefit" chart, and realized that the crowns were going to cost a bit more than the insurance covered, by about $75 a pop. Plus there were additional things that weren't covered fully, so I was expecting to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 for that lovely smile Rose now possesses. Plus facility fees ($300) and anesthesiologist fees (we have yet to be billed for that, but I'm expecting around $75). In addition, Lacy had surgery the same day, as you may recall, which will cost us around $475 for facility fees, unless we get a network discount that I don't know about (we still owe about half of that), anesthesiologist fees (about $75) and physician's fees, which will probably be in the neighborhood of $150-200. That is one expensive day! Not that I'm complaining-- Dave's been working extra hours, which has prevented the medical bills from becoming a hardship, and Lacy gets better sleep now. In fact, a friend of ours the other day commented on how beautiful Lacy is now that she doesn't have rings around her eyes all the time! She doesn't snore, and she never has trouble breathing at night anymore. That's been huge for us. It's just so nice when you get little gifts like that.

Father's Day

We all slept in really, really late for Father's Day this year. Like, until almost 11 o'clock. That meant waffles for brunch, showers or baths for everyone, and rush out the door for 1 o'clock church. Dave did Lacy's hair and she got lots of compliments about it.



Before we left, Lacy gave her dad the gifts we bought for him-- a sun shield for his car winshield (he has no a/c, so it gets HOT in there!), a kite, and a new box of drill bits. Eventually, if they will ever restock it, we will be getting a tool chest for him as well. It has 11 drawers and is perfect. I have a coupon to buy it for a huge discount, but unfortunately Harbor Freight hasn't had it in stock for a looooong time, and I can't afford to drive up to Tacoma to pick one up!

At church, I played piano for the children. They were doing a musical number, so I played while they stood up at the front of the church looking cute. That's pretty much all they did, because I ended up playing a piano solo. Oh well, at least they were cute. The thing that bugs me about this is that LACY KNOWS ALL THE SONGS! She was singing it in the car after church! Why didn't she sing IN the church?

After church, we met Dave's family at Burfoot Park. We had lots of fun playing with cousins and running around the park. Dave flew the kite with the girls, who loved that. Kelly had to laugh at Rose, who has perfected the art of getting her picture taken. At the top of the slide she would wait and smile, giving me time to take a picture. At the bottom, she would stop at the end, look up and smile. Kelly got a really cute picture of her at the bottom of the slide. Unfortunately, I forgot a memory card, so I only had room for a few pictures on my internal memory card.

Posing at the top of the slide
Rose is quite the little monkey. This is her favorite thing to do at gymnastics, too!

Posing again... I was hoping Allison would look at the camera, too, but this is the best we could do!
Lacy enjoyed playing on the playground, too. She was busy, and usually with Brenda or someone else other than me, so I didn't get many pictures of Lacy.

Fat lip

Today, to get out of the house, we decided to take a little trip to Bed Bath & Beyond, to use a gift card I received for my birthday to buy a waffle iron. We haven't had a waffle iron since we moved here almost 4 years ago-- somehow it got lost in the shuffle. That happens when you share a home with another couple. Anyway, BB&B was right by the mall, so I decided to take the kids to the play area inside the mall, since it has been raining buckets here lately.

We had only been in there playing about 5 minutes when I saw Rose do a face plant off one of the structures. I ran to her right away, and started cuddling her. I noticed that her mouth was bleeding a little, but I wasn't concerned. Another adult told me, "Mom, she's bleeding!" I said, "I know." A little more cuddling, and I took another look. Her mouth and hand were all bloody, and so were both our shirts. I took both kids, in their stocking feet, to the family bathroom, which seemed an eternity away. I washed Rose up really well, and saw that she was just fine, with just a little fat lip. I washed the blood off her shirt and dried it under the hand dryer. I decided that we came there for playing and that was what we were going to do, darn it! I didn't want to gross anybody out with her bloody clothes, though.

We went back and played for another 10 minutes or so. The girls had an okay time. They get really stir crazy if we don't go out and do things occasionally, which is the main reason we stayed there.

On another note, I got really annoyed with other parents at the play area. It clearly states in the posted rules (you can't miss them-- they're right by the only entrance!) that shoes are NOT to be worn in the play area. There were several children wearing shoes, two of whom looked to be 3 or 4. I'm not going to get mad at a 1 year old wearing shoes, because frankly, usually they're pretty soft, their feet are small, and the children don't weigh a lot and aren't as active as older children, so the shoes won't cause much damage to other children. But older children? This is a play area primarily designed for really young kids, so the older children can really hurt the younger kids wearing shoes. Especially when they're jumping off the toys or wearing pointy, hard cowboy boots. Ugh.

I'm not even going to get into the inappropriate discipline that I witnessed at the play area today, other than to say, spanking is not the most appropriate discipline tactic for a 1 year old. Positive reinforcement or redirection works soooo much better, and witnessing a very young toddler being spanked, even lightly, was really shocking to me. That is all.

Here is Rose's fat lip. Poor sweet girl! It doesn't look too bad, but there was a LOT of blood!

First talk!

Lacy gave her first talk in Primary (our church's children's organization) today. It was very cute. Her topic was temples. We prepared throughout the week by talking about temples, and gathering pictures for her to use. This morning, we tried practicing with her, but she refused, because she was giving her talk in Primary later, not at home. She also insisted that she would give the talk by herself when she went to Primary.

We got to Primary, and she got to sit up front to wait for her turn to give the talk. Dave discreetly snapped a quick picture of her waiting for her turn.

When it came time to give her talk, she went right up, and said, "Dad, can you help me?" So of course he helped her. She wanted him to tell her exactly what to say, which is what we were trying to avoid with practicing beforehand. Oh well. She held up a family photo, a picture of the Seattle Temple, and a picture of Jesus. She spoke well and clearly into the microphone, and didn't hesitate at all. She's really blossoming, and is becoming less and less shy. I'm so proud of her! I stuck around until after singing time, because I'm subbing on the piano next week, including playing one song in Sacrament meeting for Father's Day, so I practiced it once through with the kids. I also played piano in Relief Society today.

Rewind just a second here... at the beginning of church, there were some investigators with the missionaries that we had met last week. Lacy really took a liking to the woman, Nancy, and held her hand up until church started. She led her to our pew and insisted she sit with us. Of course, she didn't want to sit next to her once church started and sat, briefly, next to an older woman in our ward. Then, both girls were excessively loud and disruptive during Sacrament meeting. Lovely. And then, it went over about 15 minutes, so we got to tame the crabbiness even longer. Lucky us.

After church today we were supposed to have some people over for dinner, but the wife got sick and they couldn't make it. Just as well-- Dave was able to take a friend out fishing before he undergoes a painful surgery tomorrow. He had a good time, caught some fish, and is now trying to get a little sleep before the week starts all over again tomorrow! While he was gone, a friend, Grant, brought over some steelhead that he caught over the weekend. Yummy! We're having that for dinner tomorrow.

Yesterday I attended a funeral for a friend of mine from high school. Very sad. She left behind two little girls, age 5 and 3, and a husband. It was the first Catholic funeral mass I have attended, and I appreciated the experience. I got to see several of my girlfriends that I haven't seen in a long time, and it was nice to see them, of course I would have rather seen them under different circumstances. While I was gone, my sister watched my kids. Afterward, we had a "covered" wagon picnic in the park as a reward for Regan. She blogged about it and included some cute pictures from yesterday.

After our pioneer picnic, I loaded up the girls and went to Dairy Queen for some time with my girlfriends. I met Jenny, Erin, Chanda and Angela there. I was glad I wasn't the only one with kids! Lacy and Jenny had an instant bond and were BFFs, at least for the duration of our trip, and she fell in love with Angela's newborn baby Aurora. I got the little kids cones, and got myself a small chocolate sundae. I'm trying not to go overboard, since I'm trying to lose a little weight, but I'm not depriving myself either. Anyway, we had a nice time, and chatted for about an hour and a half before my kids said, through their actions, "IT'S TIME TO GO!" We had fun, and hopefully we'll get to see Jenny again soon. She hadn't been to Washington in 5 years! Don't wait that long for your next trip, Jenny! Everyone else was local, so hopefully we can all get together soon. I see Chanda a lot, since she lives across the street from my sister. Fun!

The water main

A little late, but this is certainly noteworthy! Last Tuesday, after I miraculously put Rose down to bed just before 8, I washed my hands and noticed we have very little water pressure. Curious, I went into the kitchen and checked-- no water pressure there, either. I told Dave, who prepared to go next door to see if they had water pressure. He opened the door, and saw what the problem was. We had water shooting up 6 feet in the air! OK, I didn't actually see it, and the number keeps getting bigger, but for little while we had a water feature going there in our front yard. By the time I got out there to take a look, it was just a little fountain, reaching up maybe 2 inches, but the amount of water that was coming out of it was amazing. Dave ran around trying to find the right tools to turn off our water main, and had to borrow a tool from the neighbor. Before he got it turned off, we saw the water gauge quickly turning in circles.

Immediately, we started looking for tools, shovels, and everything else we might need. Dave started digging as soon as we borrowed a shovel from our neighbor. One of our shoves is missing and the other was run over by the people who resurfaced our lawn. Lacy couldn't sleep with us out there working, so I told her she could watch us IF she would sit quietly in a chair and not get up. I thought this would take very little time to find where the pipe was. I misjudged. Dave's friend Chris had work lights, so he said he'd come over and help us out. At that point, it was close to 10, so I made Lacy go to bed.

Dave and Chris kept working until after 11, when they finally found the pipe. It was too late and they didn't have all the tools and parts to fix the pipe, so they decided to call it a night. The next morning, was at the Home Depot as soon as it opened. He worked hard and fast, and got the repair done early. He was able to still make it down to work before the first break was over, and got an 8 hour day still. He kept the hole open to see if there are any leaks. There are a couple, but unfortunately Dave hasn't had the time with his crazy schedule to fix it, so I have a giant hole in my front yard still! Oh, well-- at least I have running water! I keep reminding myself how much worse it could have been-- it could have happened while we were asleep, or while we were out of town even. We had a much higher than normal water bill last month, which I attributed to watering my garden more often, but perhaps the leaky pipe also contributed!

While we were working, I gave Lacy the camera, and she took a few pictures of the action. This one's a pretty accurate depiction of what we were doing. Dave doing all the work, me scratching my head wondering what the heck I could do to help. Really, the only thing I was doing was watching, fetching tools, and telling Dave where the water was coming from when he turned the main on and off so he would know where to dig (I would have just dug straight down from where the water was coming up, but it was actually at quite a bit of an angle. Glad Dave's smart about this type of thing).

At last! The broken pipe. If you click on it for a larger image, you can see the 6 inch crack across the top of the pipe.

Dave's repair work.


We are going to replace the whole pipe when we relandscape our front yard. Apparently there is another spot on the pipe where a repair has been done, and according to our neighbor it didn't look as sturdy as Dave's repair. The pipe is only rated at 75 pounds pressure and should be 150 pounds (or something like that... that's jargon I'm not really familiar with) so it really should be fixed anyway. He's planning on trenching it out and buffering it with a layer of sand before covering it back up with dirt. The problem here was that big rocks were close to the pipe, bumped up against it with the normal shifting we have here in the Pacific Northwest, which weakened the pipe eventually leading to its failure.

But before that happens, I just want my front yard back. Pretty please?

Memorial Day

We had a really nice Memorial Day. Dave had to work, but it was worth it since he was getting paid double time. They decided to let the guys off after 5 hours, so he got paid for a full day's work working only half the day. Soon after he returned home, we prepared to visit with Dave's family in Shelton.

The big thing for my girls was the hammock. They loved swinging on it! They were on it quite a bit. It was fun to swing on alone...


Just the babies...


The girl cousins...


The oldest cousins...

And, just for a second, all four girls were on the hammock. Allison decided it was too crowded!

We (meaning everyone but me) swung the ball around the front yard for a while

Took pictures of the cute little girls (Rose, Madison, Lacy and Allison)

And took time to smell the flowers.


It was a fun time for all. In the end, we were very glad that Dave got off work so early, as everyone left for Jared's baseball game. I didn't get any pictures there since Rose immediately made a bee-line for the playground. It was a FUN playground, but playground pebbles were stuck in it all over the place. I'm a bit OCD and had to try to get as many rocks off that structure as possible. I'm weird, I know. Dave was excited that the only game he was able to attend, he was able to watch Jared hit a home run! Way to go, Jared!

We changed the kids into their jammies at the car and headed home. What a fun day!

As for today, I need to be getting to bed. It's late, but I worked out late tonight because Rose was having some issues falling asleep (as was Lacy... not sure what happened tonight!). I needed to have some downtime after working so hard. I only ate two cookies today! Go me! I ate one as a snack with the girls mid-morning, and one as a reward for doing so well all day long. If I completely deprive myself, I know I'll just gorge myself later on, so I'm not even going there. My diet is all but unchanged, just adding a few extra portions of vegetables a day, and limiting unhealthy snacks. Hopefully that, with the exercise that I've been doing, will get me back down where I want to be by the time we go on vacation in July!

Before I go to bed...

I wanted to update that I am actively trying to lose weight. I got back down to my pre-baby weight, and then I gained back a bunch of weight. So this month I am actively trying to loose that weight, and then a few extra pounds for good measure! I've started working out and walking around the neighborhood, and I'm going to watch what I eat and reach for fruit instead of cookies!

And what was my motivation? A little girl in Lacy's gymnastics class came up to me, patted my tummy, and asked me if there was a baby in my tummy. It's time to loose some weight.

Rose's birthday

Rose has been two for more than a week now, so it's about time I updated you with birthday photos! Rose had a very nice birthday, despite her mom being out of it with allergies. It was a beautiful day, and we decided to enjoy the good weather and have the small family party (just us four) outside.


Rose didn't really "get it" that it was her birthday, and didn't understand how to open presents (I'm sure she'll learn before her 3rd birthday!). Dave had to help her with everything.

First thing she opened was the chair. Previously we had only one chair, which the girls fought over (and made compromises on) in the past. Lacy enjoyed helping Rose by getting her the presents she thought Rose should open next. Everything was a surprise for Lacy, too, which was half the fun!

OK, I lied. There was one gift that wasn't a surprise for Lacy. But she picked it out for Rose. It was a Barbie Mariposa coloring book with a box of 8 washable crayons. We should have picked Rose Art brand, but we went with Crayola. Darn! Didn't think of it until we were out of the store.

One of Rose's favorite gifts was the doll with the stroller I got her. She loves pushing a baby around in a stroller! We have several strollers that she likes to use, and it never hurts to have more!


She also loved the bubbles. I got her a no-spill bubble container, which is good since she recently dumped out two bottles of bubbles during an FHE activity of bubble blowing.

Since Rose's favorite color is yellow, and since she loves playing dress-ups, I couldn't pass up this cute Belle dress up dress.

Lacy thought that she should have been able to try it on first. She was shocked that we wouldn't let her wear it until Rose got to put it on and wear it for a while.

Eventually, the girls put on Rose's new pajamas (she got two coordinating pairs), and we went inside to have cake and ice cream. Lacy picked out the cake from the store. I usually make cakes from scratch, but I have been feeling poorly with allergies lately so a lot of things have gone by the wayside. Rose didn't understand the concept of blowing out birthday candles, so she just sat there, staring blankly at the cake wondering what the heck those little pointy things were on fire. Dave "helped" her blow out the candles. Eventually.


We had a really fun, laid back day. We did the laid back thing with Lacy's second birthday as well, and I highly recommend it. Lacy wants a big birthday bash this year, and I'm not sure if I'm up for it! These low key family events are just so... easy!

Rose didn't get many presents, either, which was nice. My parents sent some money for Rose, so the gifts were from both them and from us. She ended up getting the coloring book and crayons, a shape sorting cube, the Belle dress, bubbles and a bubble bucket, two pairs of pajamas, a fold-up chair, and the doll with stroller. She didn't really need a lot, being the second girl, but I tried to get her a couple nice things that I knew she would love. And you know what? She plays with every single toy I got her, so it was successful!

An interesting tidbit: completely on accident, Rose wore the same dress Lacy wore on her 2nd birthday.