Some Summer Favorites

Favorite new game:

Mexican Train Dominoes.  We learned it while in California last week and it is the perfect game for our whole family.  I ordered it on Amazon yesterday.  Come over and play it with us!

 

Favorite summer salad (I had it last night.  Wish I’d taken pictures because while the leftovers taste good, wilted lettuce leaves don’t photograph so well):

Mexi-Lime Salad topped with Spicy Honey Chicken

(This is actually my favorite salad for the past year or more.  My cousin-in-law Brooke featured it on her blog a while ago and I added the chicken recipe from Our Best Bites to make it a dinner salad.  It’s my go-to recipe when we have dinner guests because everyone LOVES it.)

 

Favorite new movie:

Temple Grandin.  It is fabulous on every level:  great acting, great cinematography, well-told true story, MANY lessons to learn about love and difference and hard work and achievement.  Totally ter

Favorite new book:

Not exactly a summer read, but it’s kind of like Freakanomics for parenting and children.  I like it because it’s interesting and gives me things to think about in a different way and apply without a ton of stress. 

Favorite summer snack:

I know, I know.  Every other area in the country has had these for a looong time.  Spokane lags in the food department.  We just got one 25 minutes away and we go every weekend.  I love it because you can indulge with chocolate and treats or go fruity and sugar free and feel virtuous.

Favorite new children’s pictures:

Randi from M Photo again.  Because she’s the best.  We did just the kids, on the day of Jane’s baptism, and I snuck in a few.  Have to show them off.

Favorite Summer Dream:

That I actually can take a half hour every few days to post all of the the fun and funny stuff that goes on around here.  We’ll see!

There’s a reason it’s so cheap

I love where I live because:

1.  It is beautiful:  Mountains, hills, trees, flowers, green everywhere.

2.  My little town is perfect:  well-planned neighborhoods, walking trails, parks, good schools, community events.

3.  It is close to a town big enough to have some shopping, restaurants, events, colleges.

4.  The cost of living is low:  cheap preschool, haircuts, housing, food.

5.  My husband drives 4 minutes to get to work.

6.  I love the people that live here…down to earth, educated, faithful, fun.

 

I don’t love where I live because:

This is what Field Day at the elementary school looks like EVERY FREAKING YEAR:

on June 15. Pouring rain and 55 degrees.

 On June 15.

May Summary

Holy Cow.  I just went through all of the May pictures in preparation for this post and there is a lot of stuff.  Fun stuff.  I’m sure it wasn’t all fun in May, but who takes pictures of the days you yell at your kids, or they come home with sad report cards or they start pounding on their brother?  No one.  Rest assured those days happen often AND we have a lot of unproductive, disorganized, frustrating days…but what follows are the happy, productive, silly, bonding days.  It’s what’s on my camera. 

 

Jane had a birthday:

(I’ve realized our birthdays involve a lot of food.  Is that just us?  Am I dooming my kids to a life of food=fun/love issues?)

Jane picked orange rolls and bacon for her birthday breakfast:

She also devised this special hair-do for her special day (3 little braids, braided into one big side braid):

We picked her up from school and went to Wendy’s with Dad:

And picked up donuts for her class right after:

For dinner/party, she wanted a ham and cheese sandwich picnic in the park with the Daines.  She got it:

Here’s my cute fruit pizza birthday “cakes”:

And some fun presents:

Jane is a joy and just LOVES anything you do for her.  She skipped around in 7th Heaven all day and it was so fun to watch her feel super happy and special all day long.

Wicked!

About 15 months ago, I heard Wicked was touring in Spokane.  It was a million dollars, but I knew this was something that wouldn’t happen again for a long time, so we splurged and bought early tickets, with good seats.  We bought with a group so that we could order early and I have been guarding those tickets for a year.  We couldn’t believe it had finally come.

Ryan and Faith stayed home for a little milkshake-park date and they couldn’t have been happier.

You know what’s SO fun?  It was EXACTLY as fabulous as I was hoping it would be.  The kids were thoroughly into it and appreciative, the set and actors were just as incredible as when I went in New York, our seats were great and we lucked out and got to sit right in front of some of our very best friends.  TOTALLY worth the money.  Truly.

Emma has “Theme days” at school.  For posterity, I give you:

60s:

and 90s:

(Yeah.  That’s basically EXACTLY what I looked like in 9th grade.  Minus huge pinned-in shoulder pads and zits.)

 

Jeanelle comes to visit from Seattle:

It’s so fun to meet a blog friend in real life.  Even when your kids are crazy.  And your table is embarrassingly scratched and ugly.  And your BBQ stops working and you have to grill on your indoor grill WHEN YOU KNOW JEANELLE HATES FOOD SMELLS ON HER CLOTHES.   I credit Jeanelle for acting gracious and interested and at-east.  And for bringing yummy Chex Mix for my kids to snarf.

 

Faiths acts hilarious all the time:

In Emma’s bra (do you think my 6th grader will be embarrassed that I’m displaying her bra on the world wide web?)

With stickers on her head:

You give her a sticker, she puts it on her head and wears it there until she goes to bed.  It’s awesome.

 

Evidence that it WASN’T actually winter during the entire month of May:

See?  We actually wore shorts and ate popsicles

and planted our garden

during the 2.5 days that it wasn’t 49 and rainy.

 

I actually attended a field trip with my kid:

(Gabe came in a month ago and said “Here’s a note to see if parents want to come on our field trip, but you never do that, so I’ll throw it away.”  Cue huge guilt.  Ugh.  It’s just hard to be gone all day when I have a 5 and 2 year to disperse!  So I figured it out in time to go with Jane.)

We got to attend a play downtown and walk around Manito Gardens.  It was so fun to have alone time with her.  She’s incredibly good company.

Jane’s cast went on and off.

In 2.6 weeks.  It seems fine.  That’s all.

 

I made homemade tamales for Cinco de Mayo.

With these huge banana leaves.  It took FOREVER.  I never wanted to look at tamales again when I was done.

A lovely Mother’s day:

which included a walk

and almost sugar free dessert

as well as a lovely church service, permission to just sit around whenever I wanted and a gift certificate to a local spa.  Ryan ALWAYS does a great job on days like this.

The Piano Recital:

My kids love their teacher and have really grown this year in their ability.

My Half Marathon

It was fabulous because I trained with all of my FUN, FUN friends:

And the weather was perfect (a slight wind at our backs and sunshine):

And I KILLED my personal best. 

I ran that baby in 1:49:40.  Which is 7 minutes faster than I was hoping for AND averages to 8:19/minute miles.  Not that I’m bragging or anything.  Maybe just a little.

The End.  (And FYI:  that took my 63 minutes to find, download, save and transfer all the pictures, organize and write the text, adjust pictures and bold the print and proofread—which I probably didn’t do very well. This is why posts are few and far between these days.)