Busy Summer

We have had an extremely busy summer so far, and while we have had tons of fun, I am glad to say that other than one toddler birthday party, we have no plans through Labor Day.  I hope to catch you all up with blog posts over the next few weeks.  These may be somewhat out of order from reality, really just depends on how many pictures I need to cull through and edit from each event. 

First up, Miranda's BFF Brianna is in town for a visit.  We hit the pool last week at my friend Crystal's with Crystal's daughter Madison and her BFF Cameron helping out with Miranda, Brianna and Abbey. 

Houston Visit

Last weekend we visited Houston and got to see many of our friends.  Unfortunately we didn't take a camera, but some of our friends did take pictures which you can see on their blogs:

Bill & Bob & Sam & Cate

A Little R and R

In addition to the adventures documented by our friends, we also had a lovely brunch hosted by the Hawes Family, but they have somehow avoided ever setting up a blog.

Atlanta fun

Our faithful blog readers probably recall that we were in Atlanta briefly last month.  Other than the, let's say, interesting accommodations, we had the opportunity to see the Cooeys and the Nichols, worked in a trip to the Aquarium, and as always, a visit with Noah and his family.

Miranda loves having the run of the house at Aunt Nancy's.

Mitzi and Sharon were teaching Miranda to play bridge with cards that had Miranda's picture on the back.  However, Miranda was really much more interested in trying on ALL of Aunt Sharon's jewelry.

We lost all of our pictures of Miranda and Noah from Christmas, so we tried to make it up on this trip.  For those of you familiar with Dora the Explorer, at the end of each episode she asks her viewers to share their favorite part of the adventure.  When we left Noah's house that night Miranda volunteered "My favorite part of the adventure was when Noah took off his pants!"  Yeah, wasn't really expecting that.

As always, our trips to Atlanta are too brief and we have so many family and friends in the area we don't get to see everyone, and even those we get to see, we wish we had more time.  

Fake Believe

While most 3.5 year olds engage in pretend play, Miranda's is interesting in that she likes to pretend to be real people/animals that we know.  Here are two moments we caught recently.

Miranda as Conrad the dog.  He does love bunnies.

Miranda as Rachel reading to her daughter Eleanor.



C is for Conifer

Over Labor Day weekend, Miranda and I traveled to the Pacific Northwest to visit our good friends Brianna and Naomi.  We visited the Pike Market in Seattle on our first day before driving up to Anacortes where our friends live.  We went on several nature walks to spot our favorite conifer trees and had a relaxing visit playing outside in the much cooler tempatures.  Highlights of the trip included throwing rocks into the water (Miranda could do this hour after hour, day after day), the playground, a very exciting boat ride to visit another island or two (this is where we got to tour a $5.7M yacht).  But of course, the highlight for Miranda was the non-stop companionship with Brianna.  Every morning Miranda would wake up and say "Meow" (see kitty post below) and then "Can I go downstairs and play with Brianna?"  Miranda now thinks that every airplane she sees in the sky is either going to or coming from Washington.  She is anxiously awaiting Brianna's next visit to San Antonio.

Playing with Brianna 

On the upper deck of a $5.7M yacht 

The master suit of a $5.7M yacht 

We actually needed a hoodie!  Yay for cool weather! 

 

Have bunny, will travel.

Toddler Party

In the middle of July we hosted 14 kids ages one to ten for Miranda's birthday party. It was loosely themed with Curious George and I declared my cake decorating a success when a six year old party-goer was able to successfully tell me what was depicted on the cake with no prompting. The three-year-olds still needed a little prompting.


We had multiple stations of fun set up in our backyard such as ...

... the slide (it is truly amazing how many times in a row one toddler can go down the slide without losing interest) ....

... a basketball court ...

... a bubble station ...

... a wading pool ...

... a tinker bell bouncy house (Miranda has now overcome her aversion to the bouncy house) ...

... a play-doh station ...

.... and a sand & water play table.

Whew, I'm exhausted just remembering all that fun. The kids all seemed to enjoy themselves and since the party was in the late morning, the temperature was only in the mid-ninety's when it wrapped. I was assured by almost all the parents that their children had really solid naps that day, which is the true sign of a successful party.

Birthday celebrations did come to a close the following weekend after a visit from Aunt Karen and Uncle John-John who delivered the last of the presents. Unfortunately now Miranda thinks it always has to be *someones* birthday. Ah, Christmas is just around the corner, right?

A December to Remember

We had a busy month in December. We attended three Christmas parties, two in one night, and celebrated my grandmother's 90th birthday.

Grandpa Dave came in for the party and Miranda enjoyed sharing breakfast tacos with him.

Us with my sisters, mom, and the birthday girl.

Miranda's school hosted a holiday open house where the kids "performed" several holiday songs then handed out gifts to the parents which turned out to be adorable hand made ornaments. It was short, but sweet, and the best part is at the end if you decide to click on the video below.

Then Miranda had four days of presents. We started by spending Christmas Eve with the McBurney's in Austin where Miranda wanted to sit on the stairs and look at the tree all night. Presents and a pancake dinner (with her favorite bacon) pulled her away for a few minutes.


We had a great brunch and a pile of presents with my family on Christmas morning before Ben's parents arrived Christmas night. We opened presents with them the day after Christmas, and opened presents from my extended family the day after that.

On the fifth day Miranda was a little disappointed that there weren't more presents, but she was quickly distracted by her activities with Gramma Paula and Grandpa Hey Dude.

We went to the playground.

We went to Sea World to see "Shampoo" and her favorite, the Beluga whales.

Miranda and Gramma made cookies.

Miranda made a pirate boat with Gramma and Grandpa.

And there was book reading, walk taking and lots and lots of eating. A good time was had by all, and I was so exhausted after such an exciting month that on New Years Eve, I fell asleep with Miranda around 8:30, waking only briefly to move to the couch and eat some cookies. Happy New Year!

Atlanta Visit

Last month we took a quick trip to Atlanta for Great-Grandma Mitzi's 90th birthday party. We had to get Miranda a pretty purple dress since that is Mitzi's favorite color.






While in Atlanta we also had the chance to catch up with Noah and his parents. After a few tense moments over a toy fire truck, Miranda and Noah settled in to having a great time together.

I was really surprised how much taller Noah is since he is only one month older than Miss M.

Chips and Hummus is apparently a fovorite food for both.


The toy du jour was an empty baby pool.

Yummy (messy) ice pops means ...

...fun in the bath.

And after a good, fun day, they were just not in the mood to do any more posing for pictures.

Houston Trip

Last weekend we went to Houston to visit some of our friends. Emma and Miranada are only two months apart in age and it was so cute to see them play around each other. We had a lovely brunch on Saturday followed by a nap and lunch in a downtown park. By then end of our trip Sunday afternoon, Miranda was content to read in the car, but was really glad to get home.

Emma & Miranda

Emma & Mama Cindy

Elizabeth with Aunt Bob

Pretty Colors

Are we there yet?

Random catching-up

The first weekend in December was very exciting. Bill and Robin came to visit and we took only three photos and none of them turned out very good. Robin, on the other hand took many cute photos that can be seen on their blog.

We also transitioned Miranda to a booster seat that weekend since she had become disenchanted with the highchair. I barely got the seat out of the box and she was sold.



The weather was quite chilly and we were promised snow that never came. Miranda was freakin' adorable all bundled up.

Pumpkins!

Thursday evening the three of us went to an event at Preferred Landscaping. Mark, my friend Crystal's husband is one of the owners. They had food, music, and lots and lots of pumpkins. They were also collecting Turkeys and/or money for the local food bank. Miranda really enjoyed running around with all the older kids, and was not too excited to sit in the middle of pumpkins and smile for pictures. We did get some cute shots.

OK, can I go play now?

Amy with Abbey, Me with Miranda, Naomi with Brianna


Mama, is there a pumpkin on my head?

Miranda LOVED the food bank truck.

See, I can balance on one foot (not really).