nine years old

my sweet elayna is nine years old! how did that happen? she is growing up too fast!

elayna is such a loving, caring, helpful big sister and daughter. she is like a second mommy to her sisters and baby brother. she helped me so much during the summer! i really miss her help now that she has gone back to school. i am so lucky to have her as my oldest! we love you so very much elayna. you are such a joy to our family.

*wearing one of her new headbands that she got for her birthday*

here are a few photos from her family party on saturday. i made these chocolate cupcakes with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream frosting topped with chocolate covered strawberries. they were yummy.

only uncle "tata" (my 17 year old brother) would think of such a cool present for his niece ;)

a very animated kyla

now i know what to get ava for her birthday. pink cowboy boots! she was in love with avery's boots and wore them the whole time.

the cousins relaxing after the pinata. (that's red candy hanging out of kyla's mouth.)

thanks to all the family that came!

first day of school...

today was kyla's first day of kindergarten. she had been anxiously awaiting this day for a long time. she was so excited to finally be going to school! i didn't get a chance to get any decent photos this morning since we were running a little late, so i took a few after school.

kyla spent like an hour telling me every single detail of her day. she had so much fun and told me that she can't wait to go back tomorrow!

and here's our big 4th grader who turned 9 on sunday! i will be posting lots of photos from her birthday celebration tomorrow. she wasn't quite as happy as kyla to be going back to school, but she was excited to see that her best friend is in her class again for the third year in a row.

it's that time of year again...

school starts in exactly 1 week! the summer has flown by and i am so sad it's almost over. we have been busy gathering school supplies, buying new clothes and shoes for the year. and i gave both of the girls a new haircut.

speaking of haircuts, the other day while i was nursing the baby, kyla decided to give avery a haircut with her school scissors. so avery now has all these random chunks cut out of her hair. and i'm not too sure what to do about it.

i thought about cutting it real short but then i found all these really really short pieces. so i guess i'll have to just pull her hair back until it grows out. needless to say, i was not very happy about this.

avery though didn't seem to mind too much. kyla in fact told me that avery asked her to cut her hair. ha! i don't know about that.

smiley

he is such a sweet, happy baby.

baking

i've been trying out a lot of new recipes. and the girls have been having fun helping me. baking is one of our favorite things to do together. this blueberry cake was delicious! i posted the recipe at the bottom of this post for those interested. (it tastes a lot better than it looks here.)

i got the recipe for these delicious s'more cookies from my cousin breeanna. click here for the recipe. they are divine! i was lucky to have a few left to photograph. they went fast.

blueberry cake

1/3 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup whole milk
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
2 cups blueberries
GLAZE, Step 1:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
GLAZE, Step 2:
2 cups confectioners sugar
3 1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice

Beat butter and sugar together until creamy. add egg. mix together flour, salt, baking powder, and spices. add dry ingredients alternately with 1 c. milk, beating well. coat dry blueberries in about 1/8 cup flour. add to batter and stir carefully. pour into greased and floured Bundt pan. bake at 375 degrees for 45minutes. cool 5 minutes then carefully invert.

combine the 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 cup lemon juice in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until dissolved. poke holes in cake and brush glaze over cake as it cools.

for final glaze, whisk the confectioner's sugar and 3 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice together. pour over the top just before serving.

evening at the beach...

i love being at the beach in the evening. it's not too hot and you don't have to worry about getting sunburned. grammy and grandpa joined us for the evening. we had dinner on the beach (kfc, potatoe salad, watermelon, chips, and homemade cookies) and the rest of the time was spent relaxing and playing in the water.

that is a crab peeking out of the shell.

weekend with the cousins...

it's always so much fun to get together with my sister's family. we spent the night at their house and the cousins of course stayed up ways too late and woke up way too early. the next day we took the kids to the free family arts day at the museum. the kids loved the painting! avery didn't want to leave.

we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and playing in the ochoa's beautiful backyard.

brian treated us to some delicious bbq burgers. and the kids loved snacking on the yellow watermelon. i had no idea there was such a thing!

i love ava's sweet smiling face looking up at "unca dan" and baby evan.

the cousins. thanks for having us over emily and brian. we need to do it more often!

toes

baby brother loves to grab his toes...

...and then shove them in his mouth to suck on them. yep, he's a toe sucker.

he is 5 months old today! i can hardly believe it.

i love summer evenings

eating popsicles in the backyard. watching the girls play on the swingset. my favorite time of the day.

red popsicle stained lips

fun with pipe cleaners

we have loads of pipe cleaners in the craft box and the girls are always making things out of them. elayna made these glasses and avery wore them half the day. of course we had to try them on baby brother.

currently reading...

elayna just finished reading the lion the witch and the wardrobe. she loved it. thanks grandma D. i'm currently reading a series by shannon hale. i finished the goose girl and now i'm reading enna burning. the goose girl is a beautiful retelling of the grimm brother's fairy tale. i really enjoyed it!

red, white and blue

we had such a wonderful 4th of july weekend filled with family, yummy food, and fireworks. next year i will have to remember to bring a tripod to the fireworks. my photos turned out kind of blurry.

4 months

baby brother turned four months old last week. at his 4 month check-up he weighed 14 lbs. and was 25 in. we sure do love this little guy. he is just the sweetest baby!