It went off with a BANG! 4th of July/Birthday Party Rodarte Style

So I can enjoy my 20's for one more year! Bring on the thriving thirties. All I can figure is that even though we may get a bit more wrinkles and we may sag in a few places we would rather not sag, doesn't getting older mean we can have more of a right say what we want and be a little more relaxed about who we are and all that stuff that we worry about when we are young ;). I look at my 9o somthing Grandma and she can say and do pretty much whatever she wants and people just say, "Oh, you know Grandma, that's just how she is." I can't wait to be that old crazy woman who can just say it how it is and get away with it 'cause I'm old. So even though we get to saggin', there are some perks to getting a little bit older.

Celebrating the 4th is THE best! We eat, blow things up, eat, hang out in the sun (this summer is sweet with all of the sunshine, I'm soaking it up. . .literally!) and then eat a little bit more. You get to dress your girls (cause there's no "dressing up" my boys) in red, white and blue and be all matchy. It's always fun to have an excuse to get coordinating outfits for us three amigas.

JP (Peyton) got to ride his quad for the first time this summer and I didn't hardly see him all Friday and Saturday, he was a riding fool. Imagine being all dressed in long sleeve, thick riding pants all black on a 85-90 degree day? He managed it just fine, now if I could just get him to be as dedicated to helping out and cleaning and school as he is with riding.

Food Storage on a Roll!

Happy Birthday to me! Jared just bought me my first food rotations system and I am loving the very organized and efficiency of it all. It's a smaller pantry sized, no #10 cans in this one, maybe next year if I'm a good little house wife I can get the really big super dooper one. Gotta stock up on my food storage and make sure it's good and rotated :) Let the good times roll (sorry, I just couldn't hep myself)

Jared and I went head to head in the birthday cake bake off! No, actually, I wanted both babies to get a special cake. Peyton (Jared, he is wanting to be called by his first name now) had been talking about what kind of cake he wanted for a few months now. We found a picture of a sweet sculped cake that looked like sand dunes, but after the cakes were baked Jared had the vision. there is a sculped bike track with a loop-d-loop, trick ramp and Chips Ahoy dirt track. I put J P on it to be kind of a symbol of the change of name. I am so impressed with Jared, he is so amazing. I guess that working in construction helps with architecture!

Lily got an inch worm/caterpillar. Man, this cake is huge! We had four different cakes at this party and about 1/5th of each one was eaten. But it's all about the love! Lily and Peytong loved them so that's all that matters :)

P.S. the antenna are the candles, kinda fun!

Tiger Lily

Little Ms. Lily in a small photo shoot with the lilies Grandpa and Grandma brought for her birthday along with the beautiful bracelet sent to her from Jen. With her hair in the piggies that she can now sport, she is a living doll :) I cannot say how much this year has flown by for me. Is she really a whole year old? Didn't I just get home from the hospital with her? Wasn't I just holding this little pea pod scrunched up on my chest? Now she is cruising around, trying to keep up with brother and sister, tearing things out of cupboards, sleeping from 7:30pm to 8:00am in her own crib, eating big people food. . . she is growing up. At times it really gets to me but really I am loving every minute I have with this beautiful spirit I have for a daughter.

So beautiful! The day after the fair (Sunday) we drove to Jared's parent's house for our weekly visit and we got a big surprise! It was a little philly that was just born that morning. Frank (Jared's dad) had two other horses bred last year and neither one took. What a shock when one of his mare's gave birth that was never bred. Those sneeky horses horseing around :). I got into the pen and got to give the new baby some nose pats and the mommy was just beaming with pride (or that's what I think anyway). Baby's are just such a miracle.

The after fair party commenced at our house for pork spare ribs, broccoli salad, rice and strawberry cake for my little shortcake. She was diggin' the whipped cream (actually it was dream whip and I have to say it WAS dreamy!

Puyallup Spring Fair! What do you do to celebrate a 1st birthday? Go and have a family day at the local fair. Not the cotton candy, ride riding kind though. We took our baby to see all the little baby animals. Lana was probably the most excited. We got to see pygmy goats, llamas, calves, and lots of other cute fuzzy little creatures. Lily pointed at them and in her cute little lilt say "ehhh?"

So our family got our first experience at the Spring Fair! Love the good family fun!