Annabelle received water balloons as her prize from her Math summer study program. 100 balloons and her and Gwyneth slowly started filling them after dinner. For some crazy reason, B and I decided to help them out. So we filled, and filled, and filled and they had bowls and bowls full of water balloons. Into their swim suits they went and they were ready for war….

 

….And then Annabelle threw her first balloon and it broke right on the back of B’s head. Oh jeez! They declared war on us. Kids against parents. They were in swim suits, we were in our clothes. They are ruthless and aimed for our faces. We tried to throw the balloons at the ground near their feet so they would get splashed, but they showed us no mercy.

 

Water Balloon Battle of 2014 – Meyer Girls: 1 Parents: 0

 

Don’t be fooled by this innocent little face

We’ve been really busy this summer and I haven’t been the best about keeping up with playdates for the girls. This afternoon we took a little time off from the hustle and bustle and the girls each had a friend over to hang out. As you can see they seem really disappointed about it…

 

 

They spent a bit riding bikes before dinner. Gwyneth is not quite sure about taking off her training wheels. She wants to after her birthday, but she is worried she won’t be able to go as fast without them. Naturally she just wants to be able to keep up with her big sister. Annabelle is getting far too fast on her bike and list to ride one-handed and do tricks and basically drive me nuts and make my heart work overtime. I’m not a biker, so I take my pictures and head back in the house — this is B’s area of expertise.

Annabelle has mail!

 

We arrived home today to find a letter from Annabelle’s pen pal. Miss Emma has arrived in California and sent a letter as soon as she crossed the state line. Annabelle was over the moon when she opened her letter. She was reading and laughing and nearly crying she was so, so happy. This friendship makes my heart happy and I love their need to keep in touch. With emails (excuse me Darron, gmails), text, facebook, all the media out there….there is still nothing better than receiving a handwritten letter!

 

Annabelle asked me what she would do with all her letters from Emma. I told her we would get her a special pen pal box like we gave to Emma and she could keep them there. She asked if she could save them forever and when she got married Emma could be in her wedding and they could read them together. Then they could have daughters and read them to their daughters and then their daughters could be pen pals too. I told her that sounded like a lovely idea (and I was thinking “holy crap, that’s super sweet. you’re killing me, smalls!).

 

Back to Crackpots for a morning of story time and painting. Annabelle is way too old for the stories and tells me so. She loves the painting though so she plays along. It’s a super cheap way to get in and paint every week and I highly recommend it.

 

Today they had the choice to paint either fish or sharks.

 

Gwyneth chose the fish:

Annabelle chose the sharks and is obsessed with painting polka dots.

I am truly spoiled by this family of mine and all my dear friends. I received so many kind messages today with fabulous birthday greetings.

 

B and the girls treated me for a delicious lunch today:

 

7 years ago, for my 30th birthday, I was very, very pregnant. All I wanted was a piece of pineapple upside down cheesecake. We want to the Cheesecake Factory, had lunch, ordered the piece of cheesecake and….they were out. They were out of pineapple upside down cheesecake! Annabelle was born 3 days later….I actually went into labor 2 days later….so I repeat, I was very, very pregnant and very, very large, and very, very uncomfortable and I just wanted that cheesecake. Yes, I may have cried when my order was rejected. Yes, that really happened. B begged our waiter to go check again and see if there was just one more piece left. He also asked if someone recently ordered a piece if he could please buy the piece from them at a premium. Yes, that really happened.

 

7 years later to the day, with our two little beautiful daughters with us, B bought me a piece of pineapple upside down cheesecake. That’s a pretty great gift and if you’re wondering why it took so long….I can hold a mad grudge.

 

As long as we’ve in Colorado we’ve never taken this tour. We had no idea how crowded it would be either! It was very cool and informative and even the girls enjoyed it. There were no photos allowed on the tour, but I got some pictures in the tasting room.

 

Annabelle photo bomb!

 

Enjoying a lemonade/tea mix : aka the Arnold Palmer

 

 

Annabelle likes the vanilla sleepytime tea

I don’t know why I plan these things because I’m really scared of heights. I am constantly screaming at the girls to stay by me when all they want to do is hike and have fun and enjoy the scenery. I get some great pictures from the day, but for the happiness of the family I should probably let these girls take these trips with their dad so everyone enjoy themselves without me hyperventilating.

On top of the world!

We have a lovely tradition of heading up to Glenwood Springs for the Strawberry Festival. This year we went on a Sunday, we usually go on a Saturday. The weather was nice and it was less crowded than normal. The girls got tattoos, we had lots of good festival food, and they danced and we all listened to the live music.

 

I love this festival and I love our tradition! 

 

This was our first year hitting the bacon festival in Keystone. It was a festival of Bacon. Bacon everything. Did you hear me??? BACON!

 

Keystone’s lodge town has really improved over the years and there are a lot of new shops and restaurants. The festival was just o.k. The food was interesting, but there just weren’t that many booths and the lines were really long. It also didn’t help that the weather got ugly pretty quickly and we got stuck in rain.

 

We did try some interesting foods and I’m sure we’ll give it a try again next year. Come on – it’s a Bacon Festival!!

 

Maple and Bacon ice cream? Yes, please!

 

 

Bacon sushi. Yep, that happened and it was DELICIOUS!

 

Chocolate covered pretzel with bacon sprinkles

Watermelon with….well, it was just plain watermelon.

Bacon and beer cupcakes. Oh, I’ll be finding a recipe to make these.

American Girl dolls made it up with us on our journey. Matching pajamas were packed and the girls had a blast matching their dolls. American Doll PJ night was a theme for the entire weekend.