Playing Dr. Tan...

...in our twirly dresses from Jen. Grammy's AbLounge apparently makes an awesome examination table.

She's hungry! And she's here to help...

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time with Pioneer Woman and her "man-pleasin'" recipes. She's fond of salted butter and salted butter and oh...more salted butter. As a result, there's a lot more Sally hanging over the waist of my pants lately. Not good! Cue: Hungy Girl! I'm a Lifetime member of Weight Watchers, and stumbled across Hungry Girl's site a couple of years ago. She has some great recipes, tips, and the scoop on the latest waistline-friendly goodies out there. Now she has a book! I just picked mine up at Target. Good stuff.

Bounce house down!

Many of you asked what happened when it was time to send the fabulous birthday bounce house home. Well...

Here's the nice man from A lot a Bounce deflating it.


Here's Charlotte asking, "Is it going to sleep?"



Here they are after realizing that, no indeed it was NOT going to sleep, but was getting rolled up, put in a trailer, and driven away. They ran in to share the news. They were so upset they came out all blurry! Yes, that's it.


They were fine about 5 minutes later.

Our little salamander...

Many of you recall the Dreaded Finger Mishap of '06, in which Rachel lost the tippy tip of her finger, along with her fingernail. Well, you'd never know to look at her. Her finger is well...a finger. It looks completely normal, fingernail and all. We used to joke that Rachel had regenerative abilities, like a salamander. Well, Adrian was reading his Scientific American tonight, and it turns out that all humans may have this ability-when it comes to our fingertips.

from the article:

One of the most encouraging signs that human limb regeneration is a feasible goal is the fact that our fingertips already have an intrinsic ability to regenerate. This observation was made first in young children more than 30 years ago, but since then similar findings have been reported in teenagers and even adults. Fostering regeneration in a fingertip amputation injury is apparently as simple as cleaning the wound and covering it with a simple dressing. If allowed to heal naturally, the fingertip restores its contour, fingerprint and sensation and undergoes a varying degree of lengthening. The success of this conservative treatment of fingertip amputation injuries has been documented in medical journals thousands of times. Interestingly, the alternative protocol for such injuries typically included operating to suture a skin flap over the amputation wound, a “treatment” that we now know will inhibit regeneration even in the salamander because it interferes with formation of the wound epidermis. The profound message in these reports is that human beings have inherent regenerative capabilities that, sadly, have been suppressed by some of our own traditional medical practices.


When we took Rachel to the ER, they cleaned and dressed the wound, prescribed antibiotics, and grimly informed us that she probably wouldn't have a fingernail and it might not look the same. During our follow-up with our pediatrician, she said the same thing. When we visited later for a regular checkup, she was stunned to see the finger and fingernail intact, gasping, "But it was GONE!" Turns out, the hospital did just the right thing to let her finger do it's thing. Score one for salamander fingers!

I tried to take a picture of the finger in question, but my camera battery died. All I have to offer is a photo of the bandaged baby. I didn't take any gory wound photos...ew!

By the way, this does not mean that I'm giving you carte blanche to go out and be careless with your digits. DO be careful!

Hopscotch and drawing with chalk...

...they make Mommy do a lot of the drawing.

Thanks Jen!

Jen made a flickr set of her pictures from the party. Good times.

Brithday highlights...

It's Saturday

Someone's going to have a bit of fun this morning.

Becca's right...

Eating dinner outside IS fun.

Getting ready

For some serious 3 year-old partying this weekend.

The world would be a much nicer place...

...if everyone had someone play guitar for them while they're in the tub.*

How does one manage to play electric guitar in a wee little guest bathroom such as ours?

Why, you put your mini-amp in the sink of course!

*I know it looks as if she's holding her ears, but she's really 'washing' her hair. Really.

Some Easter Pictures

We had a great time at our Aunt Judy's house on Easter Sunday. We got to hunt eggs and play with all of our cousins. Cousin Eva even came down from Redding to join in the fun!

Egg? What egg? ...where?

The old "obvious egg in the grass under the chair" trick

Eva and Jessica sorting their haul.

Charlotte soon discovered that eating the chocolate in your basket is far superior to hunting eggs. That's my girl.

Look at the cute felt barrettes Grammy Sandy made for us!