Crackin' Up

I'm determined to learn how to use the "Voice Notes" function on my blueberry so that I can record all the priceless things the girls say throughout the day. I'm so sleep deprived (but oh well, its short lived, right?) that by the end of the day, I can't remember the things I swore I would never forget.

We went on our favorite shopping excursion to VC and following my new "Vegetarian Food Pyramid" as my guide, I spent less money, buying no meat and fewer processed foods (tofu is gross so why bother.) In the checkout line, Julian was in the sling, nursing himself to sleep, while Francesca helped unload her cart and Cecilia was (unbeknownst to me) adding items to the belt from the sugary snack shelf. This lady stopped and looked at us and said something like, "You look really busy," and I'm like, yep! "But its fun for us! We're out in the world, getting yummy food!" It is so weird, but we love going grocery shopping together. And the girls love it, too. They each push their own cart and I push my own cart with Julian in the sling. Good, good times. But unloading the stuff is another story. It takes an hour for us to make it through the store and back to the car, thirty minutes to drive home, and another hour for me to unload all the stuff. I found a box of Gluten Free, Dairy free "snack bars" that looked like chocolate bars in the bag and said when I asked the girls about them, Cecilia said she picked them out. "How did you know they were Gluten Free and Dairy Free?" I asked her. She throws her hip out and flips her hands out and squeals, "I just know!" (this kid is a serious sugar hound.) Meanwhile, since Julian wants to be held, I have him on my hip, diaper-less because I didn't have time to finish the diaper change and he's peeing all over me. Greeeeeat.

Pictures from the Honeybee Festival

Happy Birthday Cecilia! I can't believe you're three . . . again?

Wednesday night we decided that we would make a cake on Thursday. Somehow, the cake plan evolved into a birthday cake plan and that evolved into a birthday party for Cecilia. Francesca was awake after Cecilia fell asleep and schemed to wrap a bunch of presents (toys wrapped in fabric and silk scarves.)

When Cecilia awoke, she sauntered out of her bedroom, turned around and went back in, re-emerging moments later donning her heart bracelet and necklace exclaiming, "Say good morning to the Birthday Girl!" We spent the morning walking to the grocery store for last minute ingredients, telling Cecilia how glad she was born and Happy Birthday! We ran into Layne Brown getting a haircut at Gordy's Barber Shoppe on the way to the store and invited him and Marion over anytime that day for cake. We called our neighbors Grace, Avery and Jessica to come over for a 'Pretend Birthday Party,' called Auntie Patty and cousins Jodi, Brevon and Ava, too. Grace, Francesca and Cecilia iced the cake themselves and we sang Cecilia Happy Birthday on the patio and ate cake. About the time Grace, Avery and Jessica went home, Patty, Jodi, Brevon and Ava came over. It was a fun-filled day. After nap time, Cecilia wanted to go to Dos Hombres for crunchy tacos for her birthday dinner, but we convinced her to go to Granny's instead, we ran into Layne and Marion on our way up and the girls reminded them to come over for cake. As we began to pull away, Francesca yelled out, "And bring presents!" Turns out, Layne and Marion happened to have "Mr. Rude," ready to go (a stuffed toy that says stuff like, "Toooooooooooot, Excuse You!" in a french accent. Greeeaat!

Who doesn't love a birthday?! Cecilia felt so special and Francesca loved it too. Julian just smiles at everything, even when

I eat too

much cake. Celebrations are what make the ordinary into the extraordinary, right? I have a feeling there will be many, many birthdays for Cecilia in the coming years . . . what better way to celebrate my little middle child.

Accessories

We HAD to make a trip to V.C. today (goodbye $400, hello food! But didn't I just say that same goodbye last week? I swear, I thought being vegetarian was going to be cheaper, and I think its actually been more expensive so far, but I digress.) Francesca wore a princess dress yesterday, all day, along with a fancy tiara and fairy wings and a wand. She declared that she was Morgana, Queen of the Fairies. Today, she dressed up too. I didn't get a picture of her get-up (and of course I'm kicking myself) but she wore one of my old thrift store dresses which is a pink, silk Japanese print dress, with inside out pleats on the back. She wore it backwards and it comes to the floor on her. She wore her green sneakers, her sparkly necklace and then a colorful 'National Geographic' head scarf with a red headband over the scarf. Then a hot pink poncho to tie it all together. My contacts are toast, so I'm wearing my old glasses, which I don't see so well in, so if people were giving us odd looks (which is highly likely, considering what my Cecilia looked like) then I didn't notice. Glasses are a good thing?

Tonight, she didn't want to take a bath, so when I went to retrieve her from her room, she had piled on the accessories and said, "You'll never get me into the bath now!" Okay, fine. You can skip your bath, Madonna in her jim jams.

May Camping

I don't know if you can really call what we do camping anymore . . . with our pop-up camper, life seems just too easy and comfortable. Andrew swears that the rock hard camper beds are more comfortable than our home beds. And I am so glad to be away from laundry and picking up the house/toys that it is like serious vacation for me.

We went camping in Ridgeway State Park at Pa-Co-Cha-Pec (I think) with Granny, Grandpa, cousins Casey and Ashley and their four-year-old Brevon, and Auntie Patty and Uncle Charlie. It was totally fun and so nice to get away and be outside. Andrew caught up with us Saturday morning (we left Friday) and so it was full-time work for me (but I'm used to it) so it wasn't any sweat. The only hard part for me was getting myself up and breakfast made on Saturday morning, because that's usually Andrew's gig. So, no complaints here. And Andrew was in a great mood because he left Palisade at 5:30 am and rode to Montrose, where Mom picked him up (Thanks Mom!) We usually don't do the campground thing (it seems a lot like camping in a parking lot to me) but plugging into their electricity and having heat sure was nice!

Julian was a pill all night Friday night and kept waking up unhappy, which is out of character for him . . . I couldn't figure it out, until I took his hat off and realized that he was pouring with sweat. Oops. So he had a nice sweat-lodge all night Friday night. Poor little guy. We hit the hot springs in Ouray on Saturday and the girls swam and swam. I was a little apprehensive, since they're not stellar swimmers yet, but Grandpa brought the sweet life jackets so they had a blast and weren't hanging off my neck the whole time. Francesca has caught the fishing bug and is addicted to fishing. At first, they were catch and releasing them, but it was bumming her out, so we let her keep three decent sized trout and they cooked them up for dinner on Saturday. She LOOOVED it. We brought another one home and she ate 1/2 of it or more. She said, "Mom, it is just something that you're going to have to get used to. Whenever we are camping and there's a lake, I just have to go fishing. That's just the way it is now, mom." Okay Bosslady! And she calls it, "Fresh Fish," as in, "I just love Fresh Fish," or "I just have to eat some Fresh Fish." She was really cute Sunday night, making sure that we really thanked her for catching our dinner for us. The pond was obviously freshly stocked because they would catch a fish about one in three casts (on her Barbie pole - sweet.)

Cecilia and Brevon played family most of the time, playing in any camper/playhouse (since there were four of them.) Sometimes they were dad and kid and sometimes they were the dog and cat. Cecilia would come bursting out of the camper and run up to someone and rub up against them, meowing like a cat. They had so much fun. At one point, they all came out and announced they were going on their evening run and jogged off a ways. Cecilia rode with Granny and Grandpa on the way home and Francesca rode with us and she sang to herself all the way home. Mom said Cecilia sang songs about Brevon all the way home. When they talked about it today, they would say, "Remember on that wonderful camping trip . . . or you know when we were on that great camping trip . . . " I think they were less involved with where we were than on the last one, where Daddy had prepped them for months in advance about being on the Kokopelli.

Grandpa thinks he tore his ACL on Friday while getting ready, so he was all gimped up, which was kind of fun. He just sat still and bossed us around, which isn't really out of character for a Construction Supervisor, but it did get on our nerves sometimes. (I'm like, man, when people hurt themselves they are such a pain in my *ss!) Cecilia took a huge digger on Friday, on her way up Granny's stairs (did she have her hands in her pockets?) so she has a huge lump in the middle of her forehead, right in between her eyes. She looked like a great horned owl the first day, but now she just looks abused, with two black eyes and a lump. Argh. I'll try and get a picture tomorrow. Arnica is totally making it heal quickly, thank you Arnica! (I also give her Blarnica, which is chocolate-y and works wonders.) Grandpa was walking on his doomed leg on Sunday night, thanks to the Essential Oil Pan Away . . . he's a believer.

So we're scheming the next trip! Ridgeway was a wee bit chilly (but dry!) so maybe desert next time.

April Camping

We went on a planned four of five day but actual three day camping trip the last week of April with my cousin, Liv and her lovely family and my pal Jackie and her lovely family. The girls had an ABSOLUTE blast (obviously.) In this picture, they were taking turns holding Julian so they were all lined up. Arlo said he was heavy! When I was ready to snap the picture I said, Okay on the count of three, say . . . and then I paused and they all said, "BABYYY!" Unprompted and in unison. It was totally cute.

Although the weather was sunny, it was far from hot, but that didn't stop the children from having a

heyday in Onion Creek. After coating a rock with mud together, Cecilia coated her legs with mud. Sweet!

I want to blow this picture up life size for my wall. Pretty much sums up the trip, despite Andrew's bike/face drama. We had a great time, Andrew had a great ride and said that the Kokopelli trail was epic, desolate beauty and an accidental nine hour day ending in stitches didn't totally rain on our parade (although we did have some crazy heavy rains the first night.)

I felt so totally relaxed that I can't wait to go camping again (we're going again tomorrow. I love, love, love, LOVE camping.) Maybe its the housewife in me that is like, Hello World! But I've always loved it, so its just good to be doing it with my children. It was awesome to see the girls have so much uninterrupted outside fun in the dirt and water and desert. They were exhausted by day three (although they would NEVER admit as much.)

So, Andrew, Ryan and Brian rode from Rabbit Valley to Fish Ford the first day without a hitch. But day two, they totally underestimated the terrain and were out until after dark. Whilst Liv and Jackie were worried sick, my dad went out looking for the guys on his dirt bike twice only to come back shaking his head. At about 9:00, Jackie, Liv, Dad and I were standing around the campfire and I was giving my best, "They're grown-ass men and if they have to spend the night outside tonight then they'll be okay. They'll be hungry, they'll be tired, but they won't die," speech, low and behold a truck pulls up with a bloody Andrew on board. He was decending Onion Creek road, only a few miles from our camp when his front fork broke off. Needless to say, when I was giving my, "I'm Not Worried," speech I was worried about the other dudes, but I honestly wasn't worried about Andrew. I knew his bike was in top shape, he was in top shape and the trail was marked and they had GPS, so what could happen? Then he shows up all dingy and bloody with a broken bike and didn't even know what happened. Thankfully Dad was there so he was able to take him to the Moab Emergency room. So - dispite my protests, we cut the trip short and went home around noon the next day. The kids were beat anyway. What can a guy do when his front fork completely snaps in two? Crazy luck, I guess. We'll have to finish the camping trip sometime later this spring or fall, I guess!

Weather: The first night, we were eating dinner, watching this GIGANTIC black cloud make its way towards us . . . all was calm . . . all was quiet and then WHAMMO! It was like a movie storm . . . sideways hail and gale force winds . . . we all scattered to the campers in seconds and waited it out. Our camper door is flakey so Jackie was outside trying to get in like a paniced animal, waiting for me to open the door. (Laughing with you, not at you. ha ha) and then we had probably our only peaceful moment while the kids were in the other camper, trapped with Brian and Andrew. It rain/hailed all night then calmed down for the rest of the trip.

Can't wait to go again!

The Chicken Whisperer

Cecilia isn't pinching the chicken. No. She never pinches the chickens. It may look like she is, especially when her teeth are gritting and she starts humming wildly, but no, she isn't pinching the chicken.

I would have to say that she is in love with the chickens the most right now. But alas, they're getting faster and harder to catch. When she does catch one, she holds it and sings to it until they fall asleep in her arms. Here is our little chicken whisperer with Chocolate Cake. There is also Rootbeer and Brownie.

We moved 9 of the flock of 13 up to mom's last weekend. They seem really happy to be there. There is lots of grass to munch on and more room to roam. We probably dumped at least two roosters with her, so we'll see how that pans out.