We need a vacation from our vacation

The week of the 4th of July, Tom was on mandatory shutdown. Rather than haul our brood up north, we decided to have a quiet week at home. Ha! We did have a really nice time, but it was far from quiet. And we didn't even go for any fireworks! Two tiny kids makes for an interesting "vacation." Here is a rundown of some of the main (or more exciting) events:

Our hip new ride. :-) Never thought I'd be so happy about a minivan. We turned in our leased 2006 Town and Country, got this red 2008 for even less than we paid for our 2006 lease. I guess there are some advantages to the economy being crummy. Nevertheless, I really love this van. Even though it is a base model with pretty much none of the expensive perks, it has a ton of extra little "luxeries" that make you feel like you're driving something a little more flashy.


Daphne's surprise baby shower. :-) Her husband, Dontun, put it together without her knowing. He's quite a guy. He invited ALL 4 of us. It was quite a challenge for Tom and I, keeping both girls happy and fed while maintaining a civilized atmosphere, but we pulled it off.

Riding Moolinda, the fiberglass cow at our local ice cream joint. The Silver Dairy is an institution in Farmington.

Instead of being spoon-fed some of Mommy's ice cream, Liesl now gets her very own ice cream cone. :-) She is so proud!

Liesl "helping" me fold the laundry. Yes, that is her father's underwear.
This is another photo to show to her prom date in 15 years.

Liesl then decided Ava needed to try the new look.

July 4, 2008--Ava's first solids! My sweet baby is growing up.
She had sweet potato puree, mixed with a little breastmilk. So far she is lukewarm on eating
solids. She'd rather nurse. Frankly, so would I, but we feed her a very small serving
of solids every day.

Nummy.

The girls at lunch

Yes, some of those sweet potatoes actually made it IN the baby.

My sweet baby on the 4th of July

I know. I'm mean. But she's so freakin' cute this way.

Patriotic girls

Going for a walk in our quiet neighborhood on the 4th. Everybody else was out of town for the holiday.

Our family room/battlezone after we battled a chipmunk impostor.

With Ava and Liesl safely jailed away (and screaming) from the chaos and the rodent in a playpen and a bedroom, respectively, and with both Tom and I wielding brooms and mops, we played a 20-minute game of "Where-is-he-there-he-is-do-you-have-a-visual-no-I-don't-but-he-ran-under-the-loveseat-now-do-you-see-him-yes-he's-running-your-way-oh-no-he's-in-Liesl's-dollhouse-and-oh-yuck-he-just-ran-over-my-bare-foot-well-I-told-you-to-put-shoes-on-oh-wait-he's-out-the-door-and-YES! He's OUT! We WIN!!!" This was immediately followed by a ridiculous victory dance with two (supposedly grown-up) people raising their "weapons" (brooms) triumphantly in the air and hugging each other before we went upstairs to rescue our screaming kids. I'm telling you, folks...there's nothing like a rodent in your living quarters to test the communication in your marraige. We passed. (Then we cracked open a couple of beers.)

This was Whinnie's 19th birthday. Happy Birthday, Whinnie. Your birthday gift is that we won't trade you in for a qualified mouser for leaving us high and dry with a rodent in our family room.

This was how she looked during the entire Battle of Chipmunk Eviction. Amused, content...and definitely not interested in helping out. (Hey, she's an old lady, we'll forgive her.)

Amalie's 1st birthday party. I can't believe it's been a year since Christine and I met in our midwife's office--me for a prenatal appointment, her for her 6-week postpartum follow-up, with sweet little Amalie.

Liesl "helping" Christine open our gift to Amalie. We gave Amalie a few of our favorite Sandra Boynton books. I had quite a time convincing Liesl that these were, in fact, not her copies of the books. She was quite upset with me for leaving "her" books at Amalie's house. We read all of those same stories that night, to convince Liesl that, indeed, we still had our copy of "What's Wrong, Little Pookie."

The Birthday Girl and Big Brother Jakob.