Tea Time! (Herbal of Course)

In subsequent cake makings I've discovered that the "bacon" was supposed to be baking soda. What a good listener she is!

Happy Berfday!

Happy 28th Birthday to Ryan! We had a blast celebrating his birthday this weekend. On Friday our good friends the Berretts came down from Stamford, Connecticut to celebrate with us - and let's be honest they made the party! After their arrival, we went out to dinner and played games all night.

Saturday morning we had a yummy breakfast, and then we made the 3 1/2 mile drive to Marsh Creek State park and rented paddle boats. It was a blast! The weather was just GORGEOUS too.



Mia and Jack were really cute all weekend. They had fun playing together.







Here it is: the Berretts and the Paces a nice recipe for trouble.




For his birthday present I surprised Ryan with tickets to the Phillies game. It was an exciting game with the Phillies up in the 3rd inning and then the Braves scoring NINE RUNS in the 4th. Somehow the Phillies managed to slowly make their way back to win the game! Very exciting.

The hour wait to get out of the parking lot, however, was not as exciting. On the drive home I saw the Philadelphia skyline for the first time. Ryan was embarrassed that I was hanging out the window taking a picture while we drove through town. He thought for sure that we'd get shot with our Utah plates and all. I have to admit that I've watched the local news, and I was anxious to get out of the city before dark....!



Not bad for a self photo.




Happy Birthday Ryan! We Love You!!

My favorite Mia-isms

(Mia showing off some art work. It's actually a belated birthday card for her Cousin Makayla. Happy First Birthday!)

Lately I've been thinking about all of my favorite funny Mia-isms. So I thought I would share a few:

1. Mia loves to point out school buses. For some reason, though, her phrase "yellow school bus" sounds just like "yellow goose bus".

2. While we waited for the movers to deliver our home, we lived in a furnished apartment. The place had two bedrooms each with a king sized bed (nice huh?). So our sweet Mia got a king sized bed all to herself. Naturally, I started calling it her princess bed. Mia picked right up on that and started calling it her princess bed and the apartment her princess house. The only catch was that her "princess" sounded like "pissing". So it was her "pissing bed" and her "pissing house". heeheehee


3. She used to call her pink blanket her "bice". It has since been shortened to "bi." She tries to sneak her "bi" with her where ever she goes. I try to contain it within a 10 feet radius of her bedroom.

4. Here's a good one. She has developed a collection of the Cars cars. Some how she has three Ramone cars. I don't really remember buying any Ramone cars, so I'm pretty sure she swiped at least one or two of them from Ethan. But if you ask her about it, she'll tell you "I have it three moans."

5. I bought her one of those foamy pool toys at the dollar store. She calls it her "yellow pool noonel". (noodle)

6. I've heard of other kids doing this one - when she wants me to hold her she says "mommy holdjew mia". I'm pretty sure that comes from me asking "do you want me to hold you?"

7. Last but not least, we have a bath time tradition in our house that Mia adores. After her bath, I usually wrap Mia up in a towel and I call her my Mia burrito. After she's wrapped up we usually go find Dad and I say too loudly, "Dad, look what I've got. I've got a Mia burrito." That's Ryan's cue to chase us around the house and try to steal my burrito. Mia loves this, and as soon as she's done playing in the tub she says, "Mia beeto. Mommy holdjew Mia, Daddy chase-a Mia?" :)

First Day of Work

I made Ryan let me take his picture for his first day of work. He tried to play it off, but I knew he was excited.

Lancaster & the Strasburg Rail Road

Last weekend we went out to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and rode the Strasburg Railroad. It was a fun little excursion and probably the farthest we've ventured outside of our immediate area in the last two weeks. The Lancaster area is unbelievably beautiful - there are green rolling hills in every direction and picturesque farms with tall silos and rows and rows of green corn stalks.







The railroad was pretty exciting too. Mia loved seeing the train and loves to sing, "All aboard the choo choo train."





It was neat to see the guy shoveling coal into the furnace. I thought it was hot from where I was standing on the pltaform, I can't imagine that guy standing next to a fiery furnace all summer long...