j'ai perdu ma deuxième dent!

Ok, so here's the before shot:

This is when I was frightened she would swallow her tooth, which would cause huge hysteria--not because there would be any alarm on Veruca's part of digesting a tooth, but solely because she wouldn't have a gem to leave under her pillow for the tooth fairy.  It was so stinking loose that she could lay it flat in her mouth. Fortunately, school pictures were the next day, and Spence and I were betting on whether she'd have her tooth in for pics or not. I lost. It was still there. But I made her swear to suck that tooth in upright for her pictures.

She didn't like it when I called her Snaggletooth.

So the morning after pictures, she turned to me, as we were getting her beautiful for the day, and said, "Mom, will you just pull it out?" I smiled queasily and said, "Really? Uh, ok." I got a little piece of TP (it was moist!) and yanked that little sucker out (ok, not yanked, since all I had to do was pretty much take a hold of it and it came right out). Why couldn't we have done this on picture day?

Our Zucchini Summer

"Plant a garden!" the prophets say.......so we try to be diligent in our efforts to do what we should.  We hoed and raked and planted many seeds, and weeded and watered. Luckily for us, that packet of seeds marked 'Squash' really turned out to be Zucchini! So, along with the other packet of seeds marked as zucchini, we ended up with 6 Z plants this summer.

This is the product of one foray out into the garden. We have super extra hugundous, super large, large, medium, NORMAL, and itty bitty. This is what we'd get in one week's time. Somehow we would always end up with these megaton Z's. They liked to hide.

After filling my freezer full of oh, about 80 cups, of shredded zucchini, and after pawning it off on my neighbors until they said 'please no more!', we had to get creative. (And yes, we should have taken some to the local food bank....I know. The guilt still consumes me.) Here's a few samplings of our zucchini fun:

Weeze helping me make zucchini brownies. These actually are super yummy-when you coat them with a nice tall layer of frosting.

This is when she said, "Will you help me get this junk off the spoon?"

Aislyn would also help herself to a raw zucchini or two, y'know, when apples weren't readily available to snack on.

Even Spencie joined in the fun. Sure beats those peanut butter jars, eh, hon?

Next year we are only planting ONE zucchini plant. That is, if my freezer supply has run out by then.

Sept. 14--The first visit from the Tooth Fairy

Veruca lost her first tooth on Sept. 14th.  She lost it at school, and when she came home, she burst through the door, holding her prize in a ziploc baggie, and was bubbling over with delight. "MOOOOOM!!! I LOST IT AT SCHOOL TODAY!". I was on the phone, with Auntie T., and we were giggling at her exuberance. Violet was playing at a friends, and Veruca was DYING of anticipation. "MOOOOOOM, we have to go tell her NOW!" We went and got the Weeze and called Dad and took pictures, and all that business. She's so proud of her gapped smile. My baby lost her first tooth!

The Saddest Girl in the whole world

Aislyn is a very easy going and sweet child. She entertains herself easily and we have a lot of fun together while big Sis is at school.  But....there are those moments when the fun stops and I have to be a mommy, and I have to tell her no. It usually involves her wanting some sort of snack, and it's usually right after we've eaten a meal.

This happened today. She came to me holding an apple, and said in her oh-so-sweet-and-soft voice, "Momma, can I have an apple?". (We had just eaten lunch, of course). I said, "Weeze, we just had lunch! AND, the last time you had an apple, you only ate half of it. So no, not right now".

 Then she hits me with this:

And then this:

And finally this: (see the apple?)

She did not appreciate my taking pictures of her sad sad sad times. I love her 'sad face'. She sticks that lip out, and I'm jelly. So, I caved and let her eat it. And she ate the whole darn thing. MUAH!
And see? Her hair is not done. I didn't lie on my hair blog. I really don't do their hair fancy like that most of the time. :)

My big 1st grader

This year we got the 'I want to kill myself when the alarm clock goes off' schedule for school. I'm not sure who's grumpier, me or V in the morning. But we are coping, and it's actually been a good thing for us. Spence and I have needed a reason to go to bed at a decent hour for a long time.

Here's Miss Salt, looking sassy and spiffy at 7:25 a.m., ready for 1st grade. Did I mention that the first day of school was the day after her 6th birthday?

She lucked out this year with the bus. Since she's the only kid on our street who goes at that insane hour, and has the nicest bus driver in the world, he picks her up and drops her off right in front of the house. Her favorite things about first grade are:

1. Eating lunch in the cafeteria

2. Having TWO recesses

3. Going to school all day long.

She pretty much loves everything about school, and thinks her teacher is the coolest. I love her enthusiasm for everything and how independent she is. She's not scared of anything!

Veruca's big 6th birthday!

Veruca, or "Tera", as her lil sis likes to call her, is now 6. She made it. There were many days this past year I wasn't sure she would. But we both made it there, intact, and somewhat sane. She's now officially 6 going on 16.

To celebrate the occasion, we let V pick her celebratory venue. She chose bowling. Spence gave me that smirky smirk and I just had to suck it up and agree to go. I LUV bowling. But V was excited and delighted, and it was her big day!

The happy bowlers. Their teeny feet were just so darn cute in those shoes.

Scoping out the lane and trying to figure out how to lay down the bumpers. I especially needed it.

This was Violet's 1st time bowling. She got the second highest score.

Veruca got 3rd place.  Dad of course was the winner, and we'll leave it at that.

We went home and had some partying. There were some presents.

And there was some cake.  (Aunt Karlyn and Andrew came to admire the cake as well.)

It's supposed to be a castle. I spent a good deal of time making her cake, and yes, I did enjoy doing it! It's not the greatest, but we all thought it was fun. We had to split her name in half to get it on the cake, as I'm not so skilled at the licorice writing. She had a super duper birthday (her words). This year instead of her usual large bash, we did a 'family' party, and we appreciate all y'all who came. She felt loved and special (and grown up!). Happy Bday C!

HAPPY 60TH POPS!!

Well, the Big Cheese, The Master, The Old Man turns into an official senior citizen today! Today I called him to wish him a happy birthday, and I said, "What are you doing?". He replied, "Well, we are in the car driving to California (they had been in Reno all week) to go do some skydiving."  I could hear mom harrumph-ing in the background. I wish you luck--and I hope you make it down in one piece. Nothing like the present.....right!?

At Thanksgiving Point. I liked going with the old peoples. We got a golf cart.

Still cute after 37 years together. Love you guys!

Biking this summer

We spent a lot of time biking this summer. This was the only time I remembered to bring my camera to take pictures to document our adventures. This was one such adventure down the Provo River trail. It was dreadfully hot and muggy. I don't know what we were thinking. But we still had fun. Cuz we like each other.

It takes us a long time to get ready to go. Thus all the pictures at this stage.

Weeze fell asleep. She must have run out of snacks.

Shade is a good thing. We'd stop and enjoy it often.

Yet another picture of me sans makeup or hair fixing. Veruca is gorgeous as usual.