broken camera

my camera is broken. my favorite (only) camera. broken. i am so sad. let's take a look at the last photos that were taken and see if we can't figure out what happened.





uh huh. just as i suspected. my little photographer mason. miles tried to fix the camera. he took it apart and put it back together but it is a goner. oh well. don't worry. i have ordered a new camera because i can not live without a camera. it should be here soon and i will be back to taking photos of my monsters. the new camera will be off limits to the little photographer until he learns how to take care of mommy's toys.

fondue party

we went to my friend mark and carla's house for a fondue party last night. this was so much fun. i have never been to a fondue party before. what a feast. we started with the traditional cheese fondue with bread and veggies. is there anything better than melted cheese and bread? we then moved on to the main course where you take cubes of raw meat, fish, or veggies and cook them in a broth. this part was so funny. we all had our sticks in the pot waiting for our dinner cubes to cook. the whole process took a long time, but it was perfect for chatting and hanging out. there were so many choices of things to eat. we had beef, chicken, salmon, shrimp, broccoli, cauliflower and mushrooms.

of course we had to have chocolate fondue for dessert. again there were so many things to dip. there were strawberries, cherries, apples, pretzels, marshmallows, rice crispy treats, and pound cake. there was even a chocolate cake in case you didn't get enough sweets. it was dessert heaven. mmm. i wish i had some of that chocolate cake right now.

we got home super late for the kids and poor mason was crazy tired. it was so fun though. boy, now i am going to have to think up something good for the next dinner party at my house.

18 months

dahlia turned 18 months old today. she has a cold. poor baby. she has been talking so much. some new words include: oh boy, yeah, spider, juice, dog, woof, bath, shoe, boo boo, and many more. of course her favorite words are no and dahlia. she is 32 inches tall and 23 pounds. growing so fast. she is still crazy attached to me, following me all around the house and crying when i walk into another room. i am hoping she grows out of that one soon. she loves to play outside with mason. they are getting better at playing together. mason has been very cute about pulling dahlia around the yard in the wagon. he calls her "my dahlia." she just started calling him "mayme." she loves watching the little bunnies that run around our yard. she gets so excited when they are out there. she will stand by the window staring saying buhyee.

she is a pretty good eater. she still is using a bottle. she does this funny thing where she has to put her finger in her belly button when she is drinking her bottle. she used to get really upset if i had her in a onesie and she couldn't lift her shirt up. i think we would like to transition her to a sippy cup for milk soon. she is also way way easier to put to bed than mason. thank goodness.

day with bodhi

jen, ray and bodhi came over yesterday and stayed the night. we had a great evening. we enjoyed a yummy dinner outside and then were shocked by all the kids going to bed at a decent hour letting us watch a movie! i loved it.

this morning jen left to go see the ellen degeneres show with her girlfriends. ray and bodhi stayed and spent the day with us. it was a beautiful day. so sunny and warm. we were feeling very lazy of course so we just hung out at the house. the kids played in the pool and we sat in beach chairs sipping iced tea. it was perfect. bodhi loved the pool. he was swimming way more than my kids were. dahlia seemed to prefer lounging by the pool rather than getting in. such a girl. ray and i were talking about a summer trip. so far we don't have any plans. i don't think there will be a river trip this year. it would be so nice to get away for a little while. maybe the vacation fairy will plan and pay for something for us.

everything is a shoe

now where did i put my oven mitts?

mothers day

we had a nice mothers day. it was pretty relaxing. my sister christina and her daughter stayed the night on saturday. we all woke up early and the kids ate pancakes outside for breakfast. christina and i had a coconut cream pie for breakfast because it is mothers day after all.

later in the day we drove to orange county to have dinner with the rest of my family. we went to a restaurant and our party was so big we ended up at two tables. it was a bit of a drag. i didn't get to talk to anyone. i was sitting next to the kids for most of the meal. we usually go back to my mom's house for dessert but she didn't want to have people over so we all just went home. how sad. luckily i had my dessert for breakfast or i would be really bummed.

feels like summer

we decided to give the blow up pool another try today. i filled it with buckets of warm water from the bathroom so the kids would actually swim in it. they definitely seemed to like it better that way. no mud box today! the water was so nice i was tempted to jump in with them. we had such a great day. they played and i got to read my book.

an artist

dahlia decided to express her artistic freedom this morning. who needs paper when you can just paint your face and legs?

are they growing?

mason has been wanting to plant flowers so yesterday we took the kids to pick out some seeds at the local nursery. we also got some basil and thyme. we would love to start a garden with the kids, but we have deer. they eat everything. every time we plant stuff it is gone in a couple of days. mason loved planting the flower seeds. as soon as he was done watering them his poked his head over the rim of the pot and asked "are they growing?"

he then helped us put the herbs in little pots to keep inside by the kitchen window. he was very careful not to crush them while filling in the soil and watering. dahlia was so excited by the whole process. we will just have to watch her to make sure she doesn't dig up the flower seeds before they sprout.

diaper box races

on your marks. get set. go. this morning we had diaper box races. mason and miles won the first race. the second race was a tie, and dahlia and i won the third. we are thinking tonight we might have to have a rematch.

school carnival

christina and i took the kids to zena's school fair today. they had lots of fun. i was so glad the weather was nice. last year it was so hot we were miserable. this year it was perfect. dahlia is too young to play any of the games so she hung out with me and watched. mason and zena played together the whole time. there were lots of game booths including catapult the frog and tic tac toe bean bag toss. the kids play for stamps on a card and then turn the cards in for prizes at the end. we skipped the line to cash in our prizes and bought mason and zena each a book at the bookstore instead. the line was soooo long and we were exhausted. they also had a large blow up obstacle course that they loved. it was cute to see mason join in. he is usually afraid of the large blow up bounce houses and obstacle courses.

after the fair we went to chili's for dinner. it was so good. we were starving. i had a huge salad and we all shared some onion rings. mmmm. poor mason was so tired. he was trying to sleep in his chair at the restaurant. of course they both fell asleep on the car ride home.