Stickers

Zara doing something she does a lot - call it an "art project", a "craft", "doing something productive", or maybe just... STICKERS!

(Actual) 5th Birthday

Here's Zara, on her actual 5th birthday, modeling the sunglasses (from Auntie Clare), monster hoodie (from Auntie Gabi), and rain boots (from her great-grandmother) she received as gifts. Happy birthday, sweet Zara!

Happy 5th Birthday (observed)

Here's Zara and her buddies celebrating her 5th birthday by painting some pottery and then eating cake. Nice cake, eh? Wes made it, of course. Zara chose the decoration, inspired by those crazy cupcakes around town with WAY TOO MUCH icing (in my opinion almost any icing is too much, your opinions may vary) and a piece of candy nestled on top. 'Cept this cake is totally awesome and the icing is some of the least offensive I've ever encountered. And as I said, I don't like icing. Or frosting. But Zara does. And so since it was her birthday, icing it was.

Project Playset

So, we've been thinking about getting a play set in the backyard for a while now. Thing is, we've got this gorgeous park (even more so now since they renovated it this past year) just up the block, another city park within walking distance, and then Zara's future school, Johnson, is about a 15 minute walk and has yet another awesome playground. Also, the MMs had several swingsets and such in their backyard, and Zara used to play there a lot. Also we really didn't have enough room in our backyard because we had a gigantic yet useless non-specified cedar-esque evergreen tree.

Well, several things happened. First, the tree was damaged back in the crazy December 2009 snowstorm. Then the MMs got the word they were moving to Montreal. Around the same time, Amity was born... and we realized that it would be really nice for Zara to still be able to play even while Amity was sleeping in a crib/bed (aka not in a carrier where we could just walk up to one of the lovely aforementioned parks with Z). So, this confluence of events caused us to start looking for play sets, and we found an excellent one (made in Canada, even!) at Costco. Only trouble was, how were we ever going to get it to C'ville?

Enter Chris (represented here as his fully loaded Jeep - that's 5 boxes + 1 10' slide weighing about 750lbs), a fantastic friend who is always up for a MacGyver-esque challenge and with a wonderfully flexible schedule (when he's in town :) that allows him to do wacky things like stuff an entire play set in his jeep and trek many miles at freeway speeds to deliver it to our house. So thanks to Chris!

Several other people helped in the assembly of the play set. The earliest (indoor) parts were done by just Wes and myself. Abuelo Phil was instrumental during the early outside phase, when we began to assemble the actual fort. Luke and Wes then did the majority of the rest of the set (including the roofs and swings). Thanks also go to Maryann, who took Amity for a walk every day so we could work unimpeded, and Charlotte, who loaned us Luke and also watched Zara during a particularly critical building stage. Finally, Zara and her buddies K and C generously agreed to beta-test the set before its official go live on her birthday (June 27).

On a side note, this is the 2nd play set Luke has assembled over a Father's day weekend. Also, for the record, while he did briefly lose his wedding ring, it was found in the brown couch. It never made it to our yard. Thanks anyway to Jane for the use of her metal detector.

Yogurt

Zara & Amity sharing a cream-top yogurt: Amity ate a few bites of the cream, Zara ate the rest.

Backyard

Entertaining

Zara & Amity entertaining each other while Jo & I make dinner.

Tasters Choice

Other stuff Amity tastes (and sometimes eats): Cheerios, black beans, rice, egg.

Gradatation

All done pre-school, Zara's officially a kindergartner! Thanks CBI for a wonderful three years!

UPO is back!

We were informed by our gym that Amity is ready for the exer-saucer -- they had her in it when we picked her up.

Turtle

This is the same turtle Zara used. Amity is able to hang on while munching it.

Spoon?

You want me to what with this "spoon"...?

Bed Time

Four Month Dr's Visit

A day after Amity's four month birthday: 16lbs 2oz, 25.5". Zara came along to get her last vaccine until she's 11. She was very brave, and not just because there were cupcakes after.