FOUR?! Yep, FOUR!

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY 

TO OUR BEAUTIFUL DEAR SWEET JOSEPHINE MARIE 

WHO IS FOUR TODAY!

(And boy oh boy there are LOTS of photos that will show up from her whole birthday week! Stay tuned.)

Our NY Family

I gotta say, we have always loved Carissa but the fact that she grabbed her boyfriend and drove eight hours to come to Josie's birthday party takes our love for her to a whole new level. We love you so meech Sisis! Thanks for being Josie's best friend (yea, and one of our best friends too). Xxxxoooo!

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Two Birthday Videos

While Josie's actual birthday isn't until Thursday, we had her pool party at the Mt. Adams Pool last weekend. It was our third year doing a pool party and this location was probably our favorite. Great pool, great playground, great picnic area, great time! I will post some photos soon (although I didn't take very many so if you were there and have any pics I would love it if you would email them to me) but here are a couple of videos.

Alms Park Picnic

11 years or so ago, Lou and I went to Alms Park to check it out as a potential place to have our wedding. For whatever reason, we hadn't been back there since. Until Sunday evening when we decided to pick up dinner and head there for an impromptu picnic with the girls to wrap up the big birthday party weekend. It is a great park, has a spectacular view, and is quite possibly the perfect picnic spot. We had a wonderful time - right up until a pair of gigantic and ominous storm clouds sent us packing.
And is it just me, or did Josie start looking four the moment she blew out those candles? She's still 3 until Thursday, but she looks so grown up now.

What?!

Five months is really close to six months and that is half way to a year. Cuh-razy!

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First sunflower...

...Not surprisingly it bloomed just in time for josie's birthday this week (and that would be cupcake frosting on her face).

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National Night Out

Tuesday was the "National Night Out" at Owl's Nest Park. It was really fun to see "our" park bursting at the seams with people. Josie had a great time getting her face painted, petting the police horses and trying to decide whether or not she should dance to the drum line. But, without a doubt, the highlight of the whole night was the totally spontaneous moment when Josie and I found ourselves in the middle of the massive spray from a firehose.

Lou had taken Bea to the car and planned to come and pick us up on Madison Road. That's when Josie and I saw kids running toward some invisible something and for whatever reason we both decided running towards whatever it was too. It was a little too late to change our minds when we looked up and saw a *wall of water* coming right down towards us like a big wet rainbow. We both instinctively turned to run away from it but it was too late. We got soaked and kept running but kept getting soaked. And we were laughing hysterically the entire time. Once we caught our breath, Josie said "hey mom, we should totally do that again" although she said it with a tone that indicated she had zero belief that I would say yes. I said, "okay, are you ready?" and we grabbed hands and ran toward it again. It was just as fun the second time. There were loads of kids and we were all cracking up. After a third time, Lou showed up and was a bit surprised to find us drenched. That's when we snapped the quick photos of the firetruck and our wet selves just before the firetruck shut off the water. Josie cried and cried and cried! Looking back, running through that firehose was easily one of my top five moments with Josie in her almost-four years.

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Office Decor

This is a sculpture that Josie put together and displayed in my office today. From left to right...that's the sun, a flower and rain. I think this will become a part of The Schneider Gallery's permanent collection.

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Little helper

This is one of the perks of working from home...little girls who do big favors like writing their mommy's name on top of their papers "just like at school." Aren't I lucky?

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Farmers Market Saturday

...where the bread is fresh, the lettuce tastes like the earth, peaches are ugly but delicious, smoothies are made with real fruit, music is playing from a family band, dogs of every shape & size sniff around, wildflowers are wrapped in wet newspaper, you run into friends, and feel like you have already accomplished something great for the day...all before 10am.

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"Bow-kay"

The other day Josie asked me if she could go outside by herself. The gate was locked and I stayed close to the door, curious about what she wanted to try to get away with. When she asked for scissors, I got little worried. Turns out, this is what she had in mind. I love all the different lengths. A lot of love went into this bouquet.

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