Party

 We've gotten into a fairly decent summertime routine around here, and now the weeks seem to be flying by.  Not fair.

I'm trying to train these kids to make me yummy food:

They were making cookies.  That certainly classifies as "yummy food."  I dream of the day when I can lay on the couch, Netflix bingeing and say, "Hey kids, who wants to make me cookies?" And then they suddenly appear 10 minutes later.  Of course the house has already been spotlessly cleaned by those same amazingly trained monkeys, I mean kids.  We're getting there.  Hey, we all have our dreams, right?

Anyway.  Last Saturday we spent some quality family time together on a hike:

 It was beautiful.  We live in one amazing place.  However, remind me that Saturdays are best left to doing yard work.  It was so busy I felt like I was more at Disneyland then off a dirt road in the middle of the mountains.  At least other tourists were around to take our family photo:

Everett thought he was at Disneyland too, what with all that walking and all.

 That photo was taken seconds before Maren lost her shoe in the stream and it went floating away and Nick had to execute his mad diving skills to retrieve it.  People were cheering (remember the crowds?).  No joke.

One of summer's pleasures:

 Shucking the corn.  A chore that the kids beg for.

And then, it was Daisy's birthday.  She had one request:  cupcakes.  I can do that.  The kids pulled up front row seats for the exciting event:

They turned out pretty:

 Of course my bro-in-law said they looked like food from the movie Hook, but ya know, whatever.  He also ate three of them, so there.

After all that cupcake baking-watching, Lu was plain tired:  

 Looks, uh, comfy?

And, finally, the birthday girl:

How in the world has it been two years already?

We no longer have a baby in the house.  Just in the last few days, she has very much become "two".  In fact, on her very birthday, she threw her first grocery store tantrum.  It was awesome (as in, NOT).  I always love being the center of attention (as in I hate it, you're catching on, right?), and especially when it's my mothering skills on stage.

But golly, she's adorable.

She was feeling a bit shy when she was the one in the middle being sung to:

But she warmed up to the idea:

 Those eyes.  Suck.  Me.  In.

Watching two year olds opening presents is awesome.  And I'm not being sarcastic this time.  You all must be so confused reading my blog.

 Thanks cousins, for the baby!  She loves her!

New princess dresses:

She is one spoiled girl.  My kids know that "baby gets what baby wants".  That will come back to bite me some day in the near future, won't it?