olive oyl

afton discovered this little gift from mother nature all on her own:

she was all, "mom, look! it's as if they were made to go on my fingers!"

i mean, not in so many words; hers were more like, "mom! fingers!"

but, you know, it's what she meant.

a cherry on top

i finally figured out how to win over those picky kids at the potluck:

 (bryan made me this cool little honey nut cheerios 

cone holder for cupcake transportation. he's handy like that.)

weerez

i am not a spontaneous person. i panic under any kind of last-minute pressure and need a good long stewing process to feel confident in any plans. so pretty much, whenever a waiter comes to take my order, it's like a deer in the headlights. every. time.

but, as the girls and i were on our way to the lake thursday morning, and somewhere between summer's soliloquy on all the many varied activities she wanted to do that day and afton telling me the colors of all the cars that passed by, i overheard a disc jockey on el radio mention that weezer was in town. playing the blue album.

i called bryan right then and asked, "how did we not know about this? is it too late to get tickets? to get *gulp* a babysitter?" and bryan was all, "no way, let's do this."

and so, in a rare moment of emily-sanctioned spontaneity, we did.

weezer's debut album hit the airwaves seventeen years ago and is one of the few albums that both bryan and i know in its entirety. (and c'mon, who was a teenager in the 90s and doesn't?)

all in all, it was a good concert.  nothing like this, but certainly entertaining. as is our custom, we found some comfortable seats with all the other old fogies and lazy folks in the back and watched the young punks crowd surf and climb up on stage and throw things at one another whilst weezer regaled them with songs from our youth (certainly not songs from their youth).

however, with good ol' rivers at the helm, there were definitely some concert quirks.

first off, the band interacted ZERO with the crowd. nothing. nada. no "hi how are you" or profanity-laced song intros. not a word. rivers cuomo sang every lyric on the blue album and pinkerton and gave us not a peep more. and then, the encore was absolutely the worst i'd ever seen. after their quite energetic, hero-worshiping fans begged and pleaded and screamed for them to come back on stage, they played a lame song nobody knew, and we all went home like, "seriously, weezer? that's how you're going to leave us hanging?" i guess so.

fortunately, before that, there was this:



(http://youtu.be/9BZGoKd0iZU)

love birds

hooray for wedding season!

if you're in to the handmade gift-giving scene, here's a lovely one to try:

a printed tea towel set.

learn how here.

zooscapes

three moms, nine kids, great weather, 

(a melt down or two), and dozens of wild animals.

welcome to summer in seattle.

the last birthday post

i know what you're thinking: "no! not the last birthday post?! emily, can you please go 

on and on and on (and on) about yourself and your special day(s)?"

of course i can! 

but i'm just not gonna.

the final festivity of birthday weekend 2011 was strawberry shortcakes 

and games in our backyard with one of our favorite families.

a happy birthday, indeed.

cheers

also in keeping with tradition, i kicked off my birthday with a mighty fine 

carton of i'm-twenty-eight-and-by-golly-i-can-do-what-i-want-to ice cream.

(big shocker, i know.)

thanks, christina.

life's a beach

this year, in keeping with our time-honored tradition of birthday beaches, we were grateful for the good weather and headed down with our buckets and shovels, water bottles, picnic lunch, and pop-up sun shade to lake wilderness in maple valley. 

the wheeler girls love a good day at the beach.

 hey there, afton, like to get dirty much?

summer girl: baywatch babe. 

taking a delicious red vine break. 

if you haven't had the chance to take a wagon to the beach, put it on your list.

your kids will have the time of their lives.