august 2013

august was a slow month. kinda nice. 

finn took an animals acting class & loved it. the last day they put on a play for the families. 

our dear friend sarah, who's living in new zealand, was in town!!!! 

a beautiful day at the zoo... maya prefers to wear her sunglasses like this. 

we spent a good 30 minutes watching the new baby cub. ADORABLE. 

the baby kept trying to climb these tiny bamboo trees & the mama would get up, all annoyed like & swat the tree so the baby would fall. then the baby would run over to it's little pool & the mom would follow behind. that poor mama. i feel for her!!! 

the kids "ate" breakfast on their porch. i love this photo. it might be in my top 5 of them ever. 

lovely evening for a bike ride. 

finn is getting mighty proud on the bike! 

oh monsoons how you make each of us very happy! 

august 2013 : cuban themed birthday party!

we started the morning with pancakes!

i spent the entire morning hanging pictures & canvases & decorating. bryan took the kids shopping & to a playground, perfect! i felt pretty good about being ready on time!  i mean melissa & matt didn't have to dress my children this time :) we requested no gifts, but often our friends don't listen to us :)~ and finn loved the lego's! and domino's.  we're requesting lego everything for christmas this year! 

we made the party a potluck. we asked if they knew a cuban dish to bring it. we got some yummy stuff!
but the flan that tim made riveled the mojito's. SOOOOO YUMMY!

so much good food. tina & rob brought amazing beans, we had do it yourself cuban sandwiches 

(used a rock covered in tin foil to press down on the back side of our griddle -worked perfectly!) 

how i arranged the picture boards & canvases. 

this use to be where the picture boards lived, but i really liked the wood & plants together here. 

i printed a couple pictures from my trip to cuba. 

my friend sam & his beautiful girlfriend came & played some spanish music 

& sang happy birthday to finn & maya. 

i stretched the cool canvas i'd bought at an indoor market in cuba. 

finn loved it! 

& then we brought out the shoebox guitars i'd made! 

thanks to melissa & marnie who kept their paper towel rolls & kids shoeboxes for me.

tom's shoes boxes are the perfect size! 

just figuring out the cool features on my phone-

didn't do such a good job on this one, look at finn's face. doh! 

finn picked out a diego pinata! we practiced with the blindfold! 

i love heather & sam's expressions here! 

matt protecting the ladies from micah's powerful swings! 

no one broke it so we got to pull the strings which is the true cuban way! 

our last guests (marnie & kace) left around 9:45... this is what our house looked like as i cleaned up.

the kids were still going & bryan... well...

was doing this! 

thanks to all of our friends who helped celebrate our babes! we love you!