June 2017

This isn’t *quite* where I left off, but it’s close and there’s always a lot going on so here goes.

June 2017 was a typical for us – nutty. It’s always filled with camp, swim team, birthdays, our anniversary and prepping for vacation. It’s jam packed, flies by and is always a ton of (hot) fun.

This is pretty much where we were if we weren’t in someone else’s pool….Also, you’ve never seen anyone happier than PW when Sylvia the Swan finally flew away in a monsoon.

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Case in point:

Also it was clearly the year of enormous floats.

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This sweet little lady turned 8. EIGHT! This one really threw me for a loop. The slippery slope to 10. And then she’s driving. And off to college. I tell both of them at night, I squish their head and their feet so they stop growing so fast.

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And in true Wand style, you get two parties; one on your actual birthday with family with a cake of your choice; this year she went for my triple yellow cake with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. What it lacks in beauty, it makes up for in taste! (Also it was like 110 degrees and even in ac, butter melts so)….

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…and one insane party with all your friends.

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I don’t know why she’s mad, but those eyes kill me.

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Someone else celebrated 35 years (😲)

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And we had friends celebrate birthdays in June too – including Abby who turned 8 right after B. Her amazing mom channeled her love of Target into a theme. And Target happily hosted it!! It was so much fun.

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There was a lot of camp too. I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous following these two in every day. Not pictured; the stupid amount of crap from the snack bar that they ate and I allowed because they must have burned off thousands of calories each day. Or because I’m lazy. Either way, they had a ball.

*Do you see Auggie’s little ankle bracelet? And all 24 of Baylor’s? This was the summer that B really got into making bracelets – like the kind you do with the #4 knot over and over. Needless to say, the nostalgia was awesome and we tied bracelets until our eyes crossed and fingers bled.

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And for our annual trip to Montana, we decided that splitting up with me flying with the kids while Peter drove with Mac was really not all that much easier. It was expensive and took almost the same amount of time. So we decided to ALL drive to MT! I have to say, it actually went much better than anticipated. The kids were awesome and we made it in two days. No one puked, we didn’t kill each other or lose anything out of the back of the truck – overall, it was a success! The return trip however…well that’s a post for July.

There is also a 75 pound dog in this picture. He’s laying on the floor with about 2 feet total to his name. And he does it like the saint he is.

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Aaaahh. The payoff of 18 hours and 1,100 miles of driving:

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Happy Birthday Auggie!

I can’t believe that this guy is already TWO. The saying goes that the days are long and the years are short and that couldn’t be more true with this guy. It feels like yesterday that I was dropping B at school and heading to the hospital.

We celebrated the birthday boy with a fra-mly party with a construction theme and I have to say, it came out pretty awesome. I think the birthday boy wasn’t the only one who had fun!

Who knew blue prints made such cute and easy table cloths.

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Fun party favors

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Ready to par-tay!

IMG_7866CHEEEESSSEEEEE!

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His home made cake didn’t turn out too shabby

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It’s too bad they don’t look like us….

IMG_7895Happy birthday Auggie boy! You are such a crack up and bring so much happiness to our lives. Please stop growing so fast!

They Say It’s Your Birthday

And they’d be right. Well, if you’re talking to me anyway.

Thank you all for the birthday love! 60 some posts on Facebook. Calls. Emails. Texts. Cards. Every one of them makes my birthday a very happy one!

This is how I prefer to look at all my birthdays  – laughing, a little (or a lot) drunk and enjoying life.

Cheers to 32!

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Crap Pops

For Baylor’s birthday two weeks ago, I attempted to make cake pops to enjoy during the family party. Please note the word attempted.

I found a blog that documented how to make the little spheres of deliciousness and I also had a friend walk me through how she made them. How bad could it be?

I forgot I was supposed to be taking pictures so I started when I was mixing the Fun Chip cake with icing to make the cake balls:

And then I started fashioning the balls – I thought they looked a little big and I should have listened to myself:

Then I started coating them in pink candy coating. However, my cake mix was too warm and they kept falling off the sticks. I had to regroup and put the balls in the freezer for a bit so I could finish the job:

After I took this picture, I had a hard time deciding if my creations should be called Crap Pops or Cake Meatballs. I decided on Crap Pops. But after tasting one I realized they were most definitely delicious, you just couldn’t look too hard at them:

Good thing the kiddo didn’t care!

Peter pretended that they were pretty

But I did redeem myself for her big party on Saturday with a delicious M&M Cookie cake. Made from scratch and not too shabby!