“There’s a secret door in my room. I use it for getting away from the bad guys, and from ninjas.”
Jun 28 00:58:00 2010

“The good news about having a baby brother or sister is that I will get to give it hugs and kisses!”
Jun 24 18:27:23 2010

“Peace out, yo!…What does that even MEAN, anyway?”
Jun 23 15:31:07 2010

“Dog paw? Fascinating!”
Jun 22 09:22:44 2010

“Oh, today is Father’s Day? Happy Father’s Day, Daddy!”
Jun 20 18:20:08 2010

“I want a Scooby-Doo party on my next birthday. Then I can give out little dolls of monsters, zombies, ghosts, and aliens as party prizes!”
Jun 18 15:13:23 2010

“Miss Brenda’s stir-fry pork, I LOVE YOU!!!”
Jun 15 19:37:36 2010

“Men, I’m Annalie of the USS Gourmet. I’m here to tell you, this whole ship is one big security camera!”
Jun 14 14:56:53 2010

“I’m pretending to be an Earthbender!”
Jun 13 12:57:05 2010

“I stand corrected. I’d better stick to martial arts.”
Jun 9 16:41:05 2010

“Mom, tell Miss Brenda and all your friends that have kids that it’s kinda easy to suck yogurt through a straw. They need to know that.”
Jun 7 03:45:58 2010

@OutofmyMind It is! Did you know you can also eat applesauce with a straw? It’s true, I do it all the time.
Jun 9 16:40:27 2010 in reply to OutofmyMind

“You’re my darrrrrlin’, you’re my darrrrlin’, you’re my DARRRR-ling Clementine…”
Jun 5 14:52:16 2010

“I’m going to put this picture from @babybug in the place of honor…right next to the best picture I drew.”
6:27 PM Jun 4th

“Yeah, yeah. I’m SIX now, you know.”
9:46 AM May 10th

“It’s lunchtime already? Huh, the day goes by.”
1:24 PM May 30th

“Wow, it looks SO three-dimensional!”
2:30 PM May 26th

“This is so sweet and sour, I can’t get enough of it!”
4:50 PM May 24th

“No, I’m sorry. I can’t sing that song for you again. It’s a one-hit wonder.”
12:20 AM May 22nd

“Kiki’s Delivery Service is a little movie pronounced by the same company that made Totoro.”
11:13 PM May 7th

(talking on her cousin’s phone rattle) “Hello? Talk to me. Oh, BILLY! How are ya? I haven’t talked to you since kindergarten. SO crazy…”
8:04 PM Apr 28th

“Can I have some more cram bangoons?”
4:21 PM Apr 21st

“I’ll do it, but first you have to threaten me with candy.”
12:53 PM Apr 21st

“Aliens never surprise me, because you can ALWAYS expect aliens on Doctor Who.”
1:46 PM Apr 18th

“I think I have allergicness to pussy willow pollen.”
5:22 PM Apr 15th

“This is @babybug. I drew her mouth open because you know how she just talks, talks, talks all the time.”
2:03 AM Apr 11th

“You know how people just LOVE apples, and I’m one of them.”
3:07 PM Apr 8th

(trying on Easter dresses) “This one passes the jump test, and it’s SO zero minutes ago!”
4:48 PM Apr 1st

July 1: Our early-morning flight to Omaha allowed us to see a lovely sunrise at Dulles.

July 2: Aurora approved of the plate I painted for her; cousins chilling together.

Photo taken by Joe Sands

July 3: Painting pottery (and drinking Starbucks, and talking nonstop) with Kassie and Katrina has become a tradition when we’re all in Omaha at the same time, long may it continue.

July 4: Happy Independence Day! Grandma Carol & Annalie; sparklers galore.

July 5: Annalie and Grandma Val laughing; Old Man Annalie; Aurora making a face at the water we were giving her from the end of a straw, even though she apparently liked it.

July 7: Annalie monkeying around, Aurora watching and wondering how much longer till she can monkey around with her.

July 8: We took Angie out to lunch and introduced her to pottery-painting as an early birthday present, and did some handprints with Aurora and Annalie.

July 9: Lunch with Rachel; an impromptu visit with T and her kids.

July 10: A triple-the-fun birthday party for Zach, Josh and Alex; playing at the sprayground.

July 11: Lunch at Godfather’s with the Kay family (including Mike, who took the group photo); Krista cleverly disguised with a gumball-machine mustache.

July 12: Annalie hanging out with the mariachi band at the Mexican restaurant where we met Nancy and Ben, Angie & Aurora for lunch; shooting off some leftover fireworks at Ed & Leslie’s farm.

July 13: Katrina and I got pedicures and then went to dinner at an unexpectly busy Olive Garden all by ourselves and it was awesome. I think a new tradition has been born.

July 14: Starbucks for the moms, Slip’N'Slide for the kids—perfect on a day when the high temperature was near 100F and humidity was 91%.

July 15: We’re heading home.

I hope to write more detailed posts about our time in Omaha eventually, but for now you can enjoy many photos in my Flickr photoset Omaha July 2010.

The last weekend of June, we packed a lot of fun into a few short days. In addition to teaching the dottery class, we attended two birthday parties in one day and then drove four hours to the beach to hang out with Anna and her family, before driving three hours back home the next night. Whew! It was crazy but totally worth it.

First, we went to Karalyn’s 6th birthday party. It was a puppies-and-kittens party! The kids did puppy- and kitten-themed crafts and played games. The parents who hung out either helped as they were needed, pretended they were paparazzi, or hung out chatting, eating snacks, and passing around baby Kate.

Jill decorated Karalyn’s cake with an assortment of Littlest Pet Shop toys and candy bones, and there were also cupcakes with puppy and kitten toppers.

The weather was HOT that day, so the classic fill-the-buckets water relay game was especially welcome.

The party officially ended after a couple of hours, but we stuck around, eating Jill and Andy’s food and visiting with friends. It was particularly nice to see Angela and her girls, who had come from Indiana for a long visit just in time for the party. It was so nice to see them, in fact, that Angela and I lost track of time as we blathered away and we were late leaving for the next birthday party…

…for Jack! It’s hard to believe our adorable godson is already four years old, but it’s true.

We celebrated by climbing all over the PlayPlace and eating Happy Meals and Ronald McDonald cake and sundaes, because that’s the kind of birthday party smart parents plan when they have a tiny newborn daughter to take care of!

Did I mention the sundaes? They came with mini M&M’s and Oreo bits for topping. Those sundaes were a big hit.

Can you tell these two goofballs are related? They both posed like that, without prompting, when I pointed my camera at them.

Basically, a great time was had by all—what kid doesn’t love a McD’s PlayPlace?—and no one had to clean up their house or clean up after the party. Win! And with that, we said our good-byes and headed out to our minivan to make the long drive to the beach.

I was gonna write about the beach too, but this post is long enough and our trip to the beach deserves its own post. Standby…