Tinkerdad

O is kind of hard on her toys. Well, let's just say, she plays with them quite vigorously. LT has fixed so many things; the cars, hinges on doors, chairs, appliances, toys. O really isn't all that bothered when things break anymore. She just says, "Dad will fix it." She also thinks it's pretty cool that dad is a tinker, just like Tinkerbell.

What is the coolest thing about having a dad that is a tinker?

He can fix Tinkerbells shoe

I also think it is very cool to have a husband that is a tinker. I can't tell you how many hundreds or thousands of dollars we have saved over the years simply because he can do a lot of things on his own. Install a garage door opener?? No big deal. Assemble a shed, replace spark plugs and distributor on a car, install a bedroom fan, add crown moulding, set up a grey water system, rewire a portion of a house, secure our network and set up a server on a virtual machine? (Just to name a few) Got it covered.

On another note,

it turns out our caterpillar is currently unavailable.

It's chrysalis - ing.

(I'm just glad it's not dead. That would have been tragic.)

A lotta Pinata

I just love parties and I love parties with pinatas. This is the first party I recall O attending with a pinata. W celebrated her 6th birthday in style.

Here's the girl giving me some sass.

It looks like she's showing off the lip gloss in her pocket.

There we go, a nice big, melt your heart

and make me want to give her anything smile.

"The Balloon Lady" was there to create almost every request put forth. A crown, an octopus, a fishing rod with a fish, a person, a cobra, to name a few.

O wanted a bunny.

"Take a whack at Weezer"

What movie?

On our way home I saw this massive neon green thing crawling on the road. So, of course, I had to pull over and show O. And, of course, she wanted to bring it home. So, we did. I hope it survives the love and attention O shows it. (Actually, I checked it a few minutes ago and either it is preparing to make it's chrysalis or it's dead. I sure hope, for O's sake, it's only sleeping.)

The last time we drove on the very same road, we encountered a turtle crossing the road. We pulled over to see it. Fortunately, the "taking it home" conversation didn't come up. I think LT would start to worry about letting me out of the house for fear of us bringing home another "pet". In fact, tonight, before he came home, O told him we had a surprise for him. We had a pet. He hesitated before he offered an unenthusiastic answer. However, once he found out it was a caterpillar, he was totally cool with it.

And for something completely unrelated, here are some funny stories about O.

I think she doesn't quite understand what "question" means. Today, she interrupted someone and urgently said. "Hey, hey, I have a question". "Yes" my friend replied. "I had some chicks and I had to give them away". Silence.... "Oh".

I know I've mentioned before that O is planning her birthday party. She has quite a long list of people she wants to invite and she's wasting no time issuing her invitations. At preschool on Tuesday she invited everyone to her birthday party. She told them there is going to be a pool and they needed to be careful where they stepped because our house is a mess.

Now, to explain her messy house comment. You can see the evidence of our messy house. When I see what she's done, I say things like, "Oh my gosh, this is such a mess, we need to clean it up." and "This is so messy". I'm trying to make her aware of her environment and teach her to put things away. Perhaps I need to change my wording.

Just a few things that make me smile

Our tiger lilies are blooming. I'm so happy to have something beautiful in our front yard. O is dying to pick one and bring it inside. I think before long, we will make a pretty bouquet and give them to a friend. I just love fresh flowers.

The other week, I went to one of the best girls nights I've been to in a long time. The friend who hosted it had recently moved to MD from living in Spain. She fed us traditional spanish cuisine and decorated her home in the national colors of Spain. We were given a quiz about Spain and thanks to the Murphy in me, I won this gorgeous picture. My friend, just "painted it the night before". Wow, I love the colors and the shapes and the shadows. Art doesn't usually catch my eye, but when she showed us the prizes up for grabs, this is the one that called out to me. Doesn't it just make you smile too?

Gift cards make me smile.

I bought a new camera. It's refurbished. Although most refurbished things are just fine, I felt some reservation with purchasing this camera. Then again, I was nervous buying my bose sounddock for the same reason and so far, nothing is off with that. You just can't beat the price of a refurbished product though.

Speaking of my sound dock. I love the remote. It makes me smile to skip songs and blast the volume on my favorite ones, all without moving from my desk. I know, it's a remote, right? So simple. I just love it.

The thought of a mute button on my "remote" for O. I know that will never happen, but the thought of it makes me smile.

The cassette adapter for my ipod in the car. It's a whole new world. For years I've been using an FM transmitter and the sound is very poor quality. Wow, I feel like I'm living in a new century. I'm getting closer and closer to my music nirvana.

O in the swimming pool. She has a crush on her teacher. I like it when she acts shy in her extroverted fashion.

LT has been home and available a lot more in the evenings. It's been nice having him around.

Summer is officially here!!

Our pool opened this past weekend. I know Michael Jordan would say it isn't officially summer until you cook the ball park hot dogs, but I don't really care that he is a super star and the greatest basketball player of all time. I've decided, it's officially here, because our pool is open.

I'm so glad we've had O in swimming lessons because she was more than ready to explore the water this go around. Last year, she couldn't wait to get in the water and use her goggles. As soon as she put her head underwater to look around, she inhaled an entire gallon of water. Not such a good experience for the little gal, so our pool days were over.

Well, this year, with the aid of swimming lessons, she is far more confident in the water and I am a lot less nervous. I'm excited to have a comfortable way to wear her out during the hot summer days. This kid needs all of the running/swimming around she can get.

Daddy and daughter enjoying the pool. Just look at those grins.

These days, when I ask O to smile, she does this.

You can kind of see a smile curling around her lips.

Finally, a smile.

Showing us she can do it on her own!! What a big girl.