Ice Day

As far as Texas winters go, this one has been abnormally cold. I've heard plenty of elderly Texas natives complain about how these cold snaps just keep coming. They can't remember the last time winter has lasted so long here.

I can hear my Illinois friends and family booing and hissing right now. :)

We even had an ice day here in January! Evan and Elisabeth got to miss school and work because it was in the 20s and there was ice on the roads.

Julia did not remember icicles, so seeing these on the grill made her day. (My kids are becoming more southern by the minute, you all.)

 Frozen dew!!!

 Our awesome neighbor asked if we wanted to ice sled down the "big hill" between our houses. Julia and Vivian were so pumped. (Elisabeth chose to keep lounging in her pajamas.)

 So, Vivian wanted to stand on the sled before sitting, which caused the sled to move, which caused Vivian to fall on her bottom. After the third attempt and all refusals of any kind of help, Vivian gave up in an angry gnashing and weeping way and asked to go inside and watch Peppa Pig. Peppa Pig heals all wounds.

 So, Julia kept sledding. She loved it!

 This is Julia sledding past Vivian as Vivian was storming to the house in disgust:

It's been beautiful outside lately, so my future pictures will all be in sunshine and shorts, with lots of outside playing. Sorry, northerners.  :)

Happy Fourth of July Weekend!!!

Happy 4th of July!!! We had a quiet-at-home celebration this year. We were supposed to be celebrating the marriage of our good friends Cole and Jessie, but due to a new position at Evan's job, we were unable to leave the state (or, really, a one hour radius of Colorado Springs). Elisabeth was really disappointed because both she and Julia were to be the flower girls and Elisabeth had big plans to wear her swim suit under her flower girl dress so that when the wedding was over, she could take off her dress and be ready to jump into the ocean! (The wedding took place in California on the beach, Elisabeth is not just a crazy). We're so sorry we missed the wedding, and we wish them both the best (especially because they are both starting law school in southern Illinois in the fall...they heart the adrenaline rush, apparently.) Love you guys!!!!!!!


Evan got his Father's Day/Birthday gift right before the 4th festivities...a grill! It's charcoal and a Weber. Julia really liked it...



Figaro enjoyed snacking on the materials it was shipped in.

Julia claimed this as her new home.
Here's Evan showing off his grill.
Check out the clouds! I love clouds.


For the actual holiday, our block had a block party. There was a bouncy house, grilling of food, and running around of children. The weather was super uncooperative, so it rained and stormed all day long. Grump!

Julia wore her Independence Day finest.
The bouncy house/firetruck.
Ebeth's artwork. It's supposed to say Earth+USA=People.
Evan is all bidness when it comes to hamburger makin'.
The flag cookies I slaved over for hours...

Julia sharing the green part of her watermelon with Evan.
Yes, Elisabeth is wearing her helmet to lunch (in the garage due to weather). But, the best part is, she'd already eaten a hamburger at one of the neighbors' houses while Evan was grilling ours, so she just stopped by for sides.




Julia finally got to try out her birthday present. Well, with water at least. It was sitting in our living room and she was crawling in and out of it. The water was freeeezing, but she didn't care at all.




We decided to chance going to the Air Force Academy for fireworks. The city of Colorado Springs decided to cut fireworks from their budget this year, so there were very few places to actually see a fireworks display. Look at the fog covering the mountains that the Academy sits at the bottom of!
There were bouncy houses galore for Ebeth to go on...if you had a ticket...which were $4.00 each!!!!!!! Evan complained and we got two tickets for four dollars. Ridiculous.




This was right before we decided to leave. It started raining again, Ebeth was soaked from the slides being all wet, it was 54 degrees and it was just not fun sitting there waiting.
Elisabeth was the most disappointed ever. It was her 6th fireworks, you know, and that's important (or so she continuously claimed on the car ride home. Thankfully, her Papa is a wonderful genius, and he videoed the fireworks from Pekin on his phone and sent us several videos to watch. It made Ebeth's night!


And here's some Julia showing some July 5th pride...



Hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend!!!!!