Not so sweet tooth

The other day at daycare one of the boys was leaving and brought cupcakes for his last day. I was there to share in the celebration. All the kids got little mini cupcakes. Some of the kids were so eager that they asked for two or even three (even though no on got three). Amelia sat there diligently licking the frosting, but never made it half way through. Then she jumped up and was ready to go- having never even taken a bite of the cake. It made me a proud mama. The cupcakes were store bought and had that processed cake/icing.

But it did remind me of this day. My birthday. Amelia and Luc made me this cake. It is my *favorite* cake of all time. I am sure you have seen it before. I just love it. And Luc loves me enough to make it for me. A 3 layer Black Forest cake. Amelia got a little piece, but barely ate that one either.
Instead she went to our cupboard- got out the raw oats and started eating them right out of the box. This picture cracks me up. Here we are eating this decadent cake and Amelia is eating oats!

The cook book that she is stacking her oats on is called Feeding for the Whole Family. I highly recommend it. Especially if you are looking at getting into cooking beans and other grains.

She is so strong...

...pulling her two friends, Sol and Leo, in the red wagon. We all had dinner together tonight and the kids were running around the yard playing. We looked down the side yard and saw Amelia pulling them in the wagon. Leo reading his new book. Sol resting his back against Leo. The two boys content to be getting a ride from their friend. Amelia seemed pretty proud to show off her new wagon.

At the end of the night, Bonnie commented that although Amelia seemed to have her clothes off for most of the night, she managed to have at least three different outfits on during the time they were there. Good times. It seems like to could be anytime now for Hannah. And Leo asked if he could have sleep over. So I think he is ready to come stay with us soon, too!

Amelia misses her daddy

Amelia is now requesting the Amelia song every night at bedtime. It used to be "Little Amelia has a bed" to the tune of Old MacDonald and lots of sleeping animals. But during Luc's last stay on land the Amelia song morphed into a song about Amelia featuring her day or something she likes as specified. Tonight it was the "purple boat song". We've been talking about he is out to sea on a boat. On Monday we were at the Locks looking at boats. Every big boat was pointed at and hinted that it could be a daddy boat. I had to tell her that none of them was large enough to be Luc's boat. And then she said she wanted to go on a boat. I had to tell her that I didn't even like boats. So I sang to her about her going on a purple boat with daddy looking for whales. She loved it. So here are some pictures to remind Amelia of daddy from our visit to the zoo. She rode the carousel with daddy and they feed the birds.


These three pictures crack me up. Luc held a little seed stick to feed the birds and they land on your hand. Amelia was a little hesitant but excited to hold it too. Her expression is just so funny, so surprised as the birds changed places. Can you tell which one she liked better?



And now that he finally has internet connectivity he can appreciate them too!

Purple toes!

While we were visiting my family, we had a little girl day getting our nails done. Grandma, Aunt Michelle, Melissa and Alex. Amelia and Bea stayed and played/napped at the house. Amelia was very jealous of all the purple toe nails. Alex offered to paint her nails, she was so excited. Her first pedicure!



Amelia had such a great visit and still asks for everyone. She was sad when her purple toes faded...

Walk down Memory Lane- aka West Lane

While we were visiting my family this summer, I confessed that my favorite Fourth of July parties were the ones in Loomis. We lived in Hidden Valley a community of a couple hundred houses built around a common area of a couple hundred acres that was divided into horse pastures, trails, lakes, and ponds. Right behind our house was a horse pasture with trails. We lived close to the big swimming lake complete with club house, water slide, dive platform, and submarine rock! There is even a little island in the middle of the lake. So we went over for a walk on the trails and swim in the lake. It was a blast.


Amelia wanted to hold hands with her cousin Bea. Pretty cute. Don't let these pictures fool you, the nice patches of shade make it seem nice and cool, but we were sweating! It was so hot that weekend. I couldn't wait to be in the lake! Max and Alex had a great time on the slide. It was pretty fast with a nice launch at the end!

We almost went to the Fourth of July party. What I liked best about them was the cake walk, three-legged race, and big communal BBQ feel of it. The ballpark was complete with games and everyone was having fun swimming in the lake. There weren't fireworks- everyone did those at their house (it was illegal after all). Instead we had a nice Fourth at the house, swimming, BBQ and fireworks were orchestrated masterfully by Max and Alex in the well-watered green grassy field.