Scenes from Isabel's 5th Birthday

Last night as a 4 year old!

Brian's Bday, July 4th weekend

I swear I already wrote this post, but I can't find it.  Ah well.  Let's start with Brian's birthday.  It was on a Tuesday.  Fun day of the week, no?  So Isabel and Logan decided that he needed to have a soccer birthday party. So I bought a Wilton soccer cake pan and went to work.  It was by far the easiest Wilton cake ever.  It took about 30 minutes from start to finish.  Black and white icing?  Yes please!  Easy peasy.  I made sea scallops with an avacado/wasabi sauce and roasted asparagus to start.  It was amazing.  SO  good.  Took bad diver scallops are so expensive or I would have bought 10 lbs!  But they are expensive, so we had 4 scallops each.  I also made shrimp/tomato risotto.  It was a new recipe.  Not as great as I've had, but still pretty good.  The recipe didn't call for shallots, only a white onion.  So strange.  Shallots are definitely essential to risotto.

The kids had to add sprinkles.

Happy Birthday Brian!

Wednesday Brian's office closed early, so we headed to Houston around 3pm.  We got to Houston and Tank immediately decided he needed to get sick.  He was peeing out of his butt every 20 minutes pretty much the entire 4 days we were there.  I think everyone really thought we were going to have to say goodbye to Tank (he is very very very old), but I took him to the vet on Monday and she gave us an antibiotic and sent us on our way.  The antibiotic is like a miracle pill.  Tank was better the next day.  I've gotten in the habit of letting him out multiple times an hour and yesterday he refused to go out.  He's like "please don't make me go out in 19394 degree weather AGAIN.  I'm fine people."  Yay!

So Thursday we got up and went to the 4th of July parade.  A ton of people and a surprisingly long parade.  It was about an hour and a half long!  I think we all had fun.  Lots of candy thrown out and fans passed around.  After some swimming Lila and crew and another family friend couple came over for some delicious brisket Grandma cooked and other good food.  Yum!  Lila, Jennifer and Greg went swimming with us.  She's practicing for the ProAm surfing competition.  (Is that real?  It sounds legit, right?)

Making pancakes.

Parade fun.

Lunch al fresco

We stayed up late and saw the top half of fireworks.  Pesky new construction got in the way of the view.  The kids didn't seem to care or notice, so it was all good.

Back rub from Grandpa.

Waiting for fireworks.

Friday my Mom and I went to a few stores.  There is a kid's resale shop right by there house that is amazing.  I love going there and finding bargains.  We have the same store in Austin, but it's about a 30 minute drive for me.  The kids tried on their wedding attire that Grandma made.  SO SO cute!  They are all going to look great!

Fargo had a long weekend.  It's tough being so pretty.

Saturday we went to the Dynamos soccer game.  It was a lot of fun and we got a bonus fireworks display after the game!

Sunday we headed back after a little swimming.  It rained on us a little.  Such a nice downpour.  We don't get many of those in Austin.  We had to stop for Tank, but still managed to make it back in 3 hours.  Not bad!

We had a great weekend!

My princesses!

Keeping Tank busy at the Vet's office.

Bye Aunt Jenn!

We said goodbye to Jenn this afternoon. :(. She has been such a big help these past couple of months! I know I'll miss running to the store to get a couple of things while the kids are napping! That was sure nice. She watched the kids, fed them, bathed them, and put them to bed while Brian and I saw 'Zero Dark Thirty.' Excellent movie. It was pretty awesome just walking out the door without giving someone detailed instructions and not having anxiety while I was gone. She keeps better tabs on my kids than I do! They don't go out of her sight! She will be missed.

This morning we had a birthday party for a classmate of Isabel's that was really low key and awesome. It started at 9:30am and we were greeted with the smells of bacon, coffee, sausage, muffins and the sounds of fun music and kids laughing when we walked in the door to this super modern, hip home. After being offered mimosas, coffee, tea, and/or Mexican hot chocolate I wanted to move in! It was supposed to rain, but be fairly warm. It didn't rain, but we had lovely cloud cover and warm temps for the awesome bounce house with gigantic slide in the backyard! I was taking down ideas for Isabel and Logan's birthday parties! Too bad our yard is not nearly flat enough for a bounce house, because that thing was amazing. I also loved this party because it didn't look like Pinterest threw up all over it. I mean, I love Pinterest, but sometimes enough is enough. No cheesy goodie bags and the 'cake' was Shirley's donuts. That was too bad because Isabel can't have donuts from a donut shop due to her nut allergies. She was upset until I promised her that we could go get Oreos after the party. I should have made her a special cupcake and brought it, but I didn't. Next time.

After the party ( we stayed until noon!) I went out for fufu with Jenn and another RPCV. I took the first bite and almost threw up. The fufu was fine, good even, but the "spinach in sauce" was NOT up my alley. I will typically eat anything, but this almost got spit out. It was unlike anything I've ever tasted. There was a very strange fish sauce taste that I couldn't put my finger on but I just didn't like it. At all. There was another plate with rice and spinach that was very tasty. I tried to stick with that. We ate Togo style. With our fingers. It was a good time and I enjoyed hearing some stories and listening to French.

Brian took Logan on a special mission to get a solder sucker(?) to try and fix the tv in our bedroom. And 'maybe get a milkshake.' I'm embarrassed to admit how much I miss the tv in our bedroom.

I also decided today that I really want to tackle refinishing the cabinets in the kitchen. It's a huge multi weekend project, but I know the end result will be worth it. I'm so thrilled with our bathroom kitchen cabinets! I think we'll start with the island and see how we like the color for awhile before doing the rest. Anyone want to come volunteer to work on our crew?! Watch the kids?!

Here's a picture of fufu and aunt Jenn after we did DIY avocado masks.