just another manicure monday

who wears short shorts?

uh, summer does, apparently...

this is what happens when i buy clothes a year in advance for a little girl who is all of a sudden not so little anymore.  

you should know, her father does *not* approve.

on second thought

unfortunately, june 22nd was cold and windy and not sunny at all.
so summer and i spent the afternoon lounging around and eating donettes.

ps - afton was napping and i'm not going to say who ate her share...but i will say they were delicious.

a perfect summer day

june 21st was a sunny, sunny day here in the pacific northwest.

the girls spent the morning eating popsicles and playing at the park, the afternoon sipping strawberry banana smoothies and splashing in a water fountain, and the evening cuddling baby birds and swinging in "the net."

a perfect summer day.

trendsetter

haven't you heard? the beaded upper-arm band is all the rage in toddler fashion.

in other news, take a look at this doozie:

afton had an unfortunate altercation with some concrete. but our little mickey, she's one tough cookie: you should see the other guy.

the colosseo

father's day feast 3.0 was a bit different than how the wheelers usually roll (see "steaks" in versions 1.0 and 2.0).  this year, bryan decided on a favorite sandwich of his, venetian paninos with gruyere cheese. and i added grilled garlic sweet potato fries and a spinach and prosciutto salad with orange citrus dressing to round out the meal.

as we sat down to enjoy the deliciousness, i was feeling pretty pleased with the results; however, not but one bite in, it all came crashing down. for the first time in our seven years wed, bryan would not eat something i had made. 

turns out, the sweet potatoes were a bust (generally speaking, they were delicious. for him specifically, not so much).  he would not eat them with a mouse. he would not eat them in a house. he would not eat them here or there. he would not eat them anywhere.

epic fail.

on the plus side, i now know (as does he) that my husband does not like sweet potatoes. would have been good info, say, a week ago, but anyway...i'm sure, in time, my self-esteem will recover.   

luckily, i bounced back pretty quickly because for dessert, i served up this lovely:

even though bryan requested my "world famous" angel food cake, i just made whatever i wanted anyway (like he knew i would). i decided to recreate a gem that we used to very much enjoy eating at vacarro's italian pastries in baltimore's little italy: the colosseo.

basically, a warm belgian waffled topped with four large scoops of chocolate hazelnut gelato, covered with wet nuts (an east coast speciality), drizzled with hot fudge sauce, and crowned with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. top to bottom from scratch -- the gelato being pretty much the best frozen concoction i've ever made.

and that was how she won the day.

happy father's day to bryan, who will forever be taken advantage of by his sweet baby girls who just bat their big beautiful eyes and melt his heart.

divine design

"By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families."
The Family: A Proclamation to the World

summer says, "dadda goes to work to make money to buy tickets (??) and protects us from bears."

a job well done, dad. a job well done.

papa bear

sidewalk chalk

not just for sidewalks.

sunday evening stroll

like mother, like daughter

intermission

so even though i have a backlog about ten feet deep of blog posts to write (i have not forgotten about those recital pics and vids), and no fewer than thirty things on my radar that are coming up in the next few weeks: nauvoo! camping! afton's birthday! pioneer trek! (oh yeah, have i mentioned that bryan and i are going to be ma and pa this year?) my birthday! high adventure! and so on and so forth and many more exclamation points!!!

...i'm just not going to get to any of it today.

there are still two very cute young ladies around here who are just rockin life and having fun (all while screaming at the top of their lungs and driving their mother crazy, of course).

and though she's gone back home, mere mere just couldn't stop spoiling my sweets, so she sent them two adorable sleeping bags that summer and afton have been lying/playing/laughing/sleeping/scheming in for most of the day.

the end is the beginning

before we begin the (you knew it was coming) play-by-play of all our random happenings of the past few weeks, we decided to start the way our parents and grandparents would have after returning home from abroad: with a slide show. please be aware that, excepting maybe those who gave birth to us, our audience members have never seen so many pictures of bryan and emily wheeler -- 'tis not for the faint of heart.

plus, as an added bonus, we have upped the ante on this little photo journey by adding a soundtrack. we first heard the title track on our way from cesky krumlov to the austrian alps. initially, bryan and i thought it was incredibly strange (an odd musical export from belgium), but after hearing the song for about the tenth time, we realized it was, indeed, the perfect anthem for our trip.

and if you're in to creepy fatal attraction type stuff (set to a super catchy beat) like we are, then you'll totally dig it, too.

enjoy.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fna1fHJiVIw

day zero

the best part about travelling 7,000 miles (and back)?

(1:00 pm, amsterdam)

the jet lag.

far and away

the week before we left for europe, my anxiety level about my sweet babes hit an all time high. i wrote page after page and note after note for my mom, instructing her on the finer points of caring for my children (never mind that she does have a few years of experience in this regard). here is just a small sampling of my wisdom:

"Car safety: When loading the girls at home, first load Afton while Summer waits by the door. Then load Summer. When unloading, unbuckle Summer and have her walk to Afton’s side (while still inside the car). Then unbuckle Afton, get Summer down (have her hold on to your leg) and then get Afton down. When loading the girls while out, put Afton in her car seat and have Summer also get in and walk to her seat while you buckle Afton. Then go around and buckle Summer."

i know, it's super stressful to be me.

anyway, underneath all that stress, i wanted to find a fun way to let the girls know we were thinking about them while we were gone, so i came up with little "love you" daily gifts. every day when the girls got up, there was a new toy or book or puzzle or game or dvd or treat with a little note from bryan or me waiting for them. my mom read them the note, and summer and afton spent the better part of the day playing with their new whatever.

really, it turned out to be one of my better ideas (baking fifteen different kinds of cookies in one week for christmas 2006, not so much) and was a huge hit with the girls. recommend.

coming home

we stayed up late, ate ice cream every day (twice a day?), visited beautiful places, talked with wonderful people, and for twelve days, every time a child screamed i could think to myself, "not it!"

it was fantastic to get away.

and fantastic to come back home.

pictures, videos, slide shows, and some of our favorite austrian radio tunes coming soon.