Cole and his Peeps

Rainy 4th of July

This year's 4th of July HOA Parade didn't disappoint. The fire engine made a showing and started the downpour a little early.


Cole loved playing in the puddles and rain caused by the fire engine.


It was Cole's turn to be the smallest one in line.


"Of course I'll take care of him. Can't you tell he's scared!"


"Cole, if you put your arms out to the side, it makes it scarier!"


"Close your eyes!"


"This is the life."


Lauren made it further this year in the hula hoop contest but didn't win. Maybe next year. She did manage to enjoy herself and the weather as we were leaving.

Nothing you can say....

will change my mind. I want to wear my sweater in July.

New Toy

We recently upgraded our camera to the Nikon D5100 (body only). Our D40 has served us well but has started to show signs of trouble. We and many others were getting a shutter release error where you can't use the camera. Although people claim the WD40 trick works, we figured it was time. Usually a good whack does the trick but not always.


The new camera takes video and has a live monitor so you don't always have to look through the eye piece. It also has 11 auto focus areas which means it should focus a lot better than the D40's 3 areas. The megapixel's also increases from 6MP to 16MP. The high ISO performance works really well making it a lot easier to catch Lauren's and Cole's indoor soccer matches.

Cutting the cable

We recently cancelled our cable TV service since we mostly just watch network TV. In order to get good over the air (OTA) reception, I installed this HDTV antenna in the attic. The antenna has received a lot of good reviews but if you don't believe me, you can read another review here.

Penne with mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, and zuchinni

Flying friend

Our owl friend is back although this time on our chimney.

Soccer

The kids start indoor soccer this weekend and you can see them trying on their new shin guards. And yes both of them are wearing Princess dress up shoes.

Pool light therapy

We recently upgraded the pool light to a multicolored LED light from Pentair. The pool now is just like our old bath tub.

Swollen cheeks

Dad gave me the wrong milk and here I am at urgent care. Look at my
cheeks! They are so swollen. Okay just kidding. I'm puffing them for
effect.

Goodbye training wheels, hello freedom

Now that I'm 5 yrs old, I figure I can't really be seen with training wheels anymore. Here you can see my bike without the training wheels. I'm also taking my first ride without them in a big field so in case I fall, I won't get hurt.


And I'm off....


and 10 seconds later I'm down.


I look pretty cool huh?

Better late than never

I made this sun shade for the pool equipment over a year ago. It works great until there's any wind in which case it becomes a sail and flies away (slight exaggeration). My previous attempts to combat this were to taking fishing string and tie it on or use zip ties to prevent it from flying away. None of those solutions worked very well. However, I think I have finally found the solution.


Here I drilled a hole and then put in a long screw so the pole can't fly away. However, there's still room in the back to lift it out if I need to remove it.


I did the same thing on the other side except this one you can't remove. You can also see my previous solution of the fishing string.

I'm 5 years old today!

I'm so happy because I get to celebrate my birthday at Pump It Up! And I get to invite my closest 20 friends (future facebook material). A lot of things have happened this past year. I learned how to swim and I can swim across the pool all by myself now. I'm a regular at the rock wall. I've started taking ballet and tap dancing classes. I took vacations to the East Coast (here, here, and here) and to San Diego. I'm also the reigning 1st Grade and under hula hoop champion for the Mountain Park Ranch HOA.

Ready for takeoff

Everyone is watching the remote controlled helicopter on its maiden flight. The helicopter had a few brief flights before crashing into the ground and damaging the rotor.


Here the kids have converted to good old fashion paper airplanes.


Cole getting ready to launch his...


and Lauren recovering hers.

Ipod touch versus iXL

Not to be outdone, Lauren pulls out her iXL.

Phoenix safari

After the weather cooled down a bit, the kids checked out the Phoenix Zoo.


Lauren is excited to be taking a picture of the parents.


Cole is getting a little more hands on help from Justin.


"Mickey mouse"


Another group shot of the kids.

Look who's in town

Justine and Caroline and the whole family came to visit back in the beginning of April. Only got around to blogging it until just now. The cousins had a great time at the Children's Museum of Phoenix.

 
 Lauren and Caroline are doing some extreme couponing.

 
 Cole really should eat more.

 
 "I really need to eat more."

Allegiant Air

Not bad for $60 round trip.

Bread fail

Tried a new recipe that didn't use dry milk for Cole and unfortunately it didn't work. I'm not quite sure what went wrong but maybe the ratio of dry to liquid wasn't quite right. I also had to use his "butter" which maybe also doesn't work.

I'm 3 years old today!

I'm 3 years old today and I had my first real birthday party where I got to send out invites and request RSVPs (I think that means Really Super Very Party). This year has been huge for me. I moved up to the Children's house class with 3-6 year old's. I stopped wearing diapers and now only wear underwear although at night I still have pull ups. My parents try and trick me by calling them underwear but I know better. They hold the same amount as diapers. :)