The Art of the Belly Flop

Sometimes it's hard to tell if Dillon is actually getting any better at swimming or not. I think she wouldn't sink if she fell in a pool, but I'm not sure she could find her way to the side. At any rate, she loves going to swim class, belly flops and all.

Kaboom!

You can judge her swimming skills for yourself. She swims with gusto, that's for sure. [The song is "Storms in Africa" by Enya. I timed the thunder perfectly with her big splash!]

Thanksgiving 2017

Aunt Julie came to visit over Thanksgiving! Most of us are really happy to see her, although Quinn has been brutally honest in her opinions on that subject. We mostly hung out at home, eating food, and doing jigsaw puzzles. Take a look...

We celebrated Zeus' 9th birthday at Lazy Dog.
(Not pictured: Zeus)

Sometimes you just watch the Macy's Day parade in a bucket. What?

Check it out: this puzzle only had 999 pieces.

Many princesses were invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the Starkeys'.

Thanksgiving group shot!

Goodbye picture with Aunt Julie. See you next time!

Up, Up and Away

This past fall we signed Dillon up for an after-school junior engineering program. She loves math and is super creative so we thought this might be fun for her. They made lots of cool contraptions, including this homemade catapult. This is probably the longest video I've ever posted, but Dillon does a great job of detailing all the materials and demonstrating how it works.

Birthday Party Round-up: Valeria and Jacquie

We always have lots of birthday parties to give and attend in the fall. Dillon's preschool BFF Valeria had a Little Mermaid-themed party this year with a visit from Ariel, who must have been a bit chilly in her mermaid costume!

A table of mermaids in training.

Kitty cat face paint.

Here is a also a quick clip of Val's birthday pinata. It was super exciting because it's the first time Dillon has been the one to bust the thing open!

And the looting...

Scavengers!

My former co-worker also had a birthday party for herself. We couldn't attend, but I did film the girls singing Jacquie an extra-cute "Happy Birthday."

Wordless Wednesdays (115)

Taken: 10/16/2017

Another Trip Around the Sun

It was a wild and wacky birthday for me this year! As always, I'm just grateful it happened.

We kicked things off with yummy In 'n' Out:

Well that's one way to wear it...

Burger babies.

Dillon also made a colorful smiley face popsicle:

Yum...?

Craig and I went out to dinner and had drinks at Polite Provisions. We had not been to a proper bar in a crazy long time!

Yup, his drink came in a bird glass.

No kids selfie.

We tried to go to the beach but SOMEONE was not behaving. I shant say who! I shant!

This was an early indications things would go south...

Kiddo Museum of Contemporary Art and Academics (23)

Dillon's burgeoning art skills continue to impress. Her drawings are looking closer and closer to reality and she has a great creative streak. Quinn is still an unknown quantity but she sure does love to eat markers.

Dillon's paper towel art.

Watercolor flowers.

Quinn's Chinese New Year dragon.

Scribble scrabbles.

Dillon wrote all about herself. Her favorite hobby is "iPad."

Writing about fire stations, including their dalmatians.

Quinn doing table art with Reece and Theia.

Pumpkin Patch Rescheduled Due to Heat Wave

Nothing like kicking off the fall with intolerable heat...Dillon's class field trip was rescheduled until AFTER Halloween because of a heat advisory. It was still pretty warm when we went, but no one got heat stroke!

This goat managed to escape the pen!

B-ball!

With all her classroom BFFs.

Ropin' steer.

Bus selfie.

And here's a super quick vid of Dillon's ropin' skills in action: