these are a few of my favorite things...

i love reading about other's favorites. so i thought i'd share a few of mine. the list goes on for miles, but i'll spare you...this time.
alexander mccall smith. he's the no 1 ladies detective agency author. i love that series, as well as the other series he writes. they are wonderful! how does he write so well from a woman's perspective? i love cookies. it's becoming an illness, an addiction. i love the above pictured cookies because they are a slice of chocolate heaven on a slightly sweet biscuit. besides the little french school boy embossed on the chocolate, they are so lovely. i also enjoy the mini mint milanos from pepperidge farm. also any good chocolate chip cookie. also i loved the oatmeal, craisin, chocolate lovers from atlanta bread company, but they closed up shop here so i'm out of luck.
i love clothes. i love the art of haute couture. i don't think it's at all silly, like ryan does. i especially loves clothes that are different, not different ugh, just different from what everyone else has.
i love the method products. i haven't come across one i haven't loved. i feel comfortable letting my children use them and they always leave a fresh scent. besides the fact that i am helping to make our earth a little better by supporting this great company.

i love paris, france. i love every single thing about it. well, except for the incredible expensiveness of living there. because if it was more affordable i would somehow convince my husband to move us there. i know i could talk him into it. i'm still trying. everyday.

these are just a very few of my favorites. hope you enjoyed!

it's all true

everything aftie wrote is absolutely true! my ankle is healing, but my road burned knee is still a little sore. poor me. but we ran tonite and all was well. it felt good to try to detox after a weekend of many cookies and brownies and ice cream. oh, my!

i had a fun time with eliza at the elmwood arts festival on saturday. we left all 5 children with her lovely and wonderfully kind husband for hours and hours. we didn't even realize how many hours we were gone until it was 5pm. (my husband was golfing) let's just say...apparently we needed some free time. we had a delicious lunch at the globe market. it reminded me of eating lunch with my sisters in ketchum, idaho at perry's. remember that place, girls? we used to eat there everytime we spent time in sun valley. anyway, we had a great time and saw lots of good art and some interesting art.

well, the girls are asleep in my bed (ryan is traveling) and ella has just rolled over and has her sweet little arm draped over my arm and chest. it's getting a little difficult to type, nevermind the breathing has become labored. afton has her pink leopard print sleeping mask on. she is a diva just waiting to happen. ella is sleeping on a travel pillow...you know the kind you put around your neck during a long, overseas flight? a wise mother knows...it's better to pick your fights.

also, a funny headline from jay leno...Lost: a man's wedding ring. lost in the hooter's parking lot.

Poor Mom

Me,Mom,Dad and Ella went runing. We went a little ways until Mom tripped. Two nice people said are you ok? Mom said yes. The people said are you sure? Mom said it is starting to swell. So she jumped in thir car. Me,Dad and Ella went home. The two people took Mom back to our house. Me and Ella helped Mommy. We found out that Dad could carry Mom! We were helping Mom as much Me and Ella could! Me and Ella set up a rock store I gave Mom a rock from the rock store. By:Afton

olcott beach

this is beautiful lake ontario, as seen from olcott beach. i felt like i was at the oregon coast. it was really beautiful. we went for playgroup today and had a great time. they had some old fashioned carnival rides for the kids. they were 25 cents a ride. the girls loved being in charge of their tickets.

here's our little sweetie on the boat ride. and our other sweetie on the cars. this fire truck had a bell you could ring! what could be better?
after, we got ice cream and then went to another beach to let the kids play in the water and sandy rocks. not a sandy, california style beach, but still fun.

the girls collected a pile of beautiful rocks and were deeply, deeply saddened when i put the kabosh on bringing the rocks home. somehow, after agreeing to 2 special rocks, afton managed to fill her pockets. so, tonite she and ella washed the rocks from today and the remainder of her rock collection (in the bathroom sink, no less), and are planning to open a store in afton's bedroom to sell the rocks. they are making designs on them and setting up a display with signs. i was privileged to see the "rock of the day", which will be given free of charge tomorrow. the other rocks may cost upwards of $7.00. these are pieces of art, let me remind you. i'm sure afton will be taking orders via phone, internet, and at the "store". so, don't miss out on this special and rare collection. but, that's not all...you'll also receive a set of ginsu knives.

fun filled saturday

today was ryan's annual summer work party. this year it was held at darien lake, the local six flags amusement park. the girls had a great time in the children's area. i think the weather balloon ride was the favorite. (they rode it 5 times) we spent most of our time in that area and the rest of the day waiting in line for the old fashioned-drive the car by yourself-but it won't really go off the track, attraction. afton just loves to drive. we also went to the waterpark where ryan and the girls had a great time in the wave pool, apparently. i took a break and stayed on the chaise soaking up sun. they closed the splash pool early due to "water clarity" issues...someone had poopies in the pool. it was a fun day.

yesterday we spent the day in east aurora, a cute little "village" where the fisher-price headquarters are located. we went to a small children's museum, lunch at a mexican restaurant (we were hopeful it would be a great place for mexican, but were disappointed, once again), then to vidlers 5 & 10. vidler's is a crazy store that was opened during the depression. apparently they still have some of the original merchandise, at least that's what it looked like to me. it was fun and the kids had a great time looking at everything. then we went to pack the kids in the cars and my poor eliza had a dead battery. an hour and $50 later we had her car running and she had new jumper cables. we also made a new friend from florida. he was just home visiting and helping his mom with some new software for her business. i could tell you a lot more, because we spent a lot of time together under the hood of the car! he helped us out and then we were off to fisher-price to browse through their store. after that, we packed up the kids and poor eliza had a dead battery. wait, didn't i already say that? yes, i did...and i'll say it again. this time, we felt quite confident in our battery jumping abilities. we hooked 'em up and were completely amazed that nothing happened. after 20 minutes, a nice man and his wife helped us out. apparently we didn't have the cables connected correctly. who knew? so we were off, again. but poor eliza had more problems down the road. long story, long...she and the children made some new friends in east aurora and got to jump on this nice lady's trampoline while they waited for the dad to arrive and save them.
in case you are still reading...ryan and i celebrated our anniversary with a nice dinner at kyoto (benihana knockoff) and a quick trip to to cold stone. mmm, mm.

afton's creations

here we have the webkinz sleeping bags...
afton and her lil'kinz in the sleeping bag
this is one of her webkinz on his cotton ball bed
and this is the webkinz mobile...a horse trailer of sorts?
and this is brownie on the bottom bunk. even a little pillow.

our creating girl

so, something is going on with my camera, as in...it's not working! if it was working, i would post the cutest picture of our little aftie working away at my sewing machine. picture this...a very intense little blondie with head bent over my desk, feet a few inches off the floor, brightly colored fabric all over, etc...

grandma showed her how to sew with a machine while we were in houston. she has been working away on some little sleeping bags for her webkinz. she saw the idea at our friend's garage sale last saturday.

she and ella have been working all week on different projects for their webkinz. they've made bunk beds out of shoeboxes, a bed out of a cake mix box with cotton balls glued all over it, and now sleeping bags. really, they are super cute. i was planning on photographing their creations...i'll have to get ryan on the case.

today was the last day of swimming lessons. ella advanced to level 2 for next year. level 1 includes splashing in the 2 ft pool. afton was in level 3 this summer and did amazingly well. she could almost swim across the narrow end of the pool, but not quite, so she will do level 3 again next summer. when she realized that she is not advancing to level 4, there were some awfully big tears streaming down her little cheeks. i felt so bad and tried to reassure her that she had done so well and had learned so much and wowie wow wow, we think you're great, etc, etc. but she wasn't really convinced.

one more thing about aftie...she has my creativity and ryan's willpower and know-how to actually get it done. she is quite incredible. i used to dream of making flip-flops out of cardboard(i'll bet you never thought of that), or a doll house out of a shoe box, but i had no idea how to go about starting the project. then when i decided to be a famous designer and make millions of dollars designing haute couture, i ran into a problem...i couldn't sew. or draw. or pass my textiles class. of course it's probably my parent's fault, since they wouldn't send me to parson's in nyc. thanks a lot mom and dad. how am i supposed to be an amazing designer if i have to study at rick's college? come on. anyway, i think my aftie is going to be able to do anything she puts her mind to.

p.s. i got the camera fixed. something to do with the batteries. just call me sherlock.

happy anniversary to us!

today ryan and i celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. it seems like yesterday...

we've had a lot of fun together. we've done some traveling (hawaii, paris, nebraska). we've had two baby girls. we've (ryan) finished a ph.d. we've bought a house, a lawn mower, a ladder and all ther other fun house things. we've done a lot of painting. we've run some races together. we've been sad together, but mostly happy together. we've laughed a lot. we've watched a lot of movies. we've eaten at some pretty fancy restaurants (my favorite idea). but the most important thing is that we've loved each other.

ryan is the love of my life. he is so caring and kind. he is hysterically funny and so much fun to be with. he works so hard for his girls. we all love him, but i get to love him the most!

i love you ry!

the olympics

i have loved the olympics since the 4th grade. that is the first time i remember learning about them and being excited for them. my teacher was Mr. Long and i think he was from california. that was the year they were held in los angeles. he had gotten programs/schedules for our class and we were able to look through them and find our favorite competitions and learn about different competitions we had never even heard of. it was so fun. i remember thinking california wasn't that far away, and how would i convince my parents to go to l.a. for the olympics. i don't think i even tried. but ever since, i have loved the olympics and now this year i am finding a whole new olympic spirit.

i had aftie and ella watch the opening ceremonies with me. afton was very excited about it and would run in and out of the kitchen to tell me what was happening (while i made cookies). the artistic program was incredible! but i think the part i liked the best...was the little boy who walked in with the chinese athletes. apparently this little boy (i think he was 9) rescued two of his classmates from the earthquake rubble (in may). when asked why he did this, he explained that he was a hall monitor and it was his responsibility because he was a class leader. i loved how yao ming lifted him up and held him during the end of the ceremony. i thought it was great to see a famous athlete be so sweet with this little boy.

while watching the swimming competitions last night, i was so impressed with the competing athletes hugging each other after the race. it was great to see that there are really good people still in this world and that my daughters can see these amazing athletes be so kind with their biggest competitors.

i feel like there's a good spirit at these games and it makes me feel so happy to see people from all over the world cheering for one another.

back in the swing...

this week has been filled with tennis lessons for aftie and swimming lessons for both girls. they've been enjoying their lessons and that makes me happy. ryan had monday off, so he was able to see the girls in all their swimming splendor and aftie's tennis as well. it's so fun to have him home. he also built a workbench for the garage and has been busy organizing the tools and etc. it looks great!
yesterday the girls and i went to the kit kittredge: american girl movie. it was fantastic. the girls both liked it a lot and i thought it was great. the bonus was that it only cost $4.50 for the three of us. apparently it's only $1.50 on wednesdays. lucky us!
we are still waiting to hear who afton's 2nd grade teacher will be. the letter should be arriving in the mail anyday. the girls are getting excited for school. afton told me, she is actually missing school a tiny bit. that's a good sign.

houston...we have pictures

here are our swimming ladies...cousin janette, aftie and cousin sabrina









this was taken on sunday when they were banned from the pool. poor, sad children.
then we have the happy couple, megan and travis

and this is how ella spent most of her time as a flower girl.
would you believe afton is actually excited to be holding the bridal bouquet? she's tricky.