happy memorial day!

we had a lovely memorial day today--rich was off, the kids were home, and i think we actually took full advantage of the holiday. we gardened, we bike rode, we picnicked, we swum, we didn't barbeque but we had breakfast for dinner and we were so full from it that we had to take a rain check on the traditional dairy queen run.

today we even added a new configuration to our bike riding matrix: we've already got two tandems that can hold rich/missy, rich/gus and missy/gus, plus a trailer bike for sophie that can be attached to either a tandem or a regular bike (hence rich/missy/sophie, rich/gus/sophie and missy/gus/sophie possibilities plus rich or missy or gus slash sophie options)...but now there's yet another component...

happy girl...but what is rich attaching to sophie's trailer bike?

could it be...?

it's a trailer for paco!

happy rich, sophie and paco

a bunny turns 4...twice!

birthday bunny!

sophie is FOUR!!! we have celebrated her birthday for a week and a half here in the triangle, and i think it is fair to say that she is fully partied out now. first, we had her party at school--her teacher is fantastic about making the birthday kid feel tremendously special, so much so that sophie opted to stay for nap time. she got to be line leader, do show-n-tell (she brought her stuffed coyote and us--including gus), did snack (green cupcakes with chocolate icing and rainbow sprinkles), then all her friends colored birthday cards for her. she also got to lead the class in a sing-a-long song about the earth moving around the sun four times, representing her four years on earth:

she even carried a little papier-mache globe around a felt sun

and blew out candles on a little cake in the end

birthday girl with her birthday loot from school

that evening (and a couple of others), sophie opened presents and made some fabulous art with gus:

sophie loves books...

...and beads...

...and painting with gus


and then, finally, this weekend, the main thing that she'd been waiting oh-so-patiently for, the coup de grace, the PARTAY of PARTAYS: her birthday party at the iowa gym nest!!!

sophie takes a flying leap into the foam pit of destiny

gus, in a blur of flowing blonde hair, takes his own flying leap...

...and can only watch in awe of the spider-monkeyesque 4-year olds

rich managed to take full advantage of the gym nest's facilities--i need to sign him up for an adult class

(i jumped a little, too)

rich actually climbed this massively high/long rope to the ceiling

then gus' friend, gabe, developed the perfect game which basically involved him throwing whatever item he could find--foam blocks, balls, water bottles, small children--at rich while he was bouncing on the trampoline. amazingly, the gym nest people didn't seem to mind.

sophie wonders if she, too, will be this exhausted by the foam pit when she's 10

like father...

...like daughter--sophie absolutely flung herself into a flip, with NO hesitation, the first time she ran down this trampoline thing (and after she saw rich do it)

singing "happy birthday" to a girl, one last time

cake for sweaty kiddos

sophie, finally satisfied with her birthday celebrations, is clearly thinking of next year's festivities already

back from a quick trip to ABQ

this is the only picture i shot in albuquerque. it's kinda the only one needed, though.

i took a very quick trip to albuquerque last weekend to say goodbye to my dear friend, cindy, who is leaving for phoenix in just a handful of days. she is part of the reason my time in new mexico was so wonderful; i will miss knowing she is there (even though i can't be), and she's moving on for the same reason i did--her husband left medicine in new mexico for a much better practice in arizona. it's a shame that neither of our families could make it work there, as there was no lack of love for new mexico on any of our parts. but so it goes--we for IA, they for AZ. it'll be a new place to visit them.

the other reason for my trip was to check on our house, which is fully in the hands of our very capable and generous tenants now. it's not my house anymore--it's their house (for now)--and it no longer feels like my home. that was a sad realization. but the most surprising part of the trip was the return to iowa city...and i realized i wasn't sad to be here. and while not being sad isn't the same as being happy, i know it's at the very least a step in the right direction. however, that step certainly took its bloody time in coming...

dr. k and the kiddos

aaaahhhh! rabid gus!

gus and sophie have a fabulous pediatric dentist, dr. mike kanellis, who bravely tackled both of my children in one. grueling. appointment. slot.

i think it took like three techs to get us out the door.

sophie let the hygienist do her thing...

...but she decided dr. k needed to be more thoroughly watched

...please don't bite him...please don't bite him...please don't bite him....

gus is nothing if not a good sport at the dentist--sadly, he's had a lotta practice at it (he definitely got my teeth)

one week to sophie's 4th birthday

...and now you've been properly warned. she wants nothing but chocolate--chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing (and blue sprinkles), hot chocolate with pink marshmallows, and chocolate milk with extra chocolate syrup. if i could figure out how to make a chocolate salad with cocoa-encrusted chicken, she'd probably want that, too. maybe i should google it.

i see a very ADHD day in her/my future.

pretty, pretty ladies

lindsay and nancy at amy's wedding.

this shot makes me tremendously happy!