circus fun! and fair fun!

Stella's first circus! Aunt Demetra went with us. It was quite the night - I have to say, the circus is not what it used to be. And in a good way. There is way less scary clownage going on (though there were still a couple of clowns, and my smart girl told me, "Scary, Mama, scary!". I mean, ditch the clowns already! Nobody likes 'em!). With the sensory overload and overpriced food, it's my kind of fun!

And then there's the fair... ah I love the fair. I wasn't able to go as much as I usually do, but oh it was great. Pure silliness and again, overpriced food and sensory overload. Jason was awesome and WANTED to ride the elephant with Stella. It was priceless. He even did the Dizzy Dino ride!

lady liberty!

happy 4th to all!

strawberry fields forever

This was our first time picking strawberries at Tanaka Farms. It will be a yearly adventure for sure! I think I ate my weight in strawberries.... so good.

munching on the fresh produce with Tana

where are you, strawberries??

delicious.

pro strawberry picker

an interesting pose. I see gymnastics in our future.

jumpy jumpy with Tana

Look at these bathing beauties. We had a pool day with BFF Tana and the girlies were all about jumping in. Here they are contemplating the jump. All Stella could say was "jumpy jumpy!".

Melissa & Tana

So excited.

greek for a day

We went to 2 great festivals this summer with Demetra - great food, great fun, and great clothing! {Stella's hand-stitched dress was brought back from Greece by Aunt Demetra :) }. It's a family tradition.

HB

Spent a pretty day at the beach... it felt like Hawaii

with the humidity and sort of overcast skies... loved it.

coppertone baby

These are Stella's 18 month pictures. See you at the beach!

god bless america

happy 4th of july !

sea world with the cousins

Our dear friends the AZ Nelsons met us at Sea World. We let the kiddies run amok. Neither J or I have been in 20+ years, so it was a really fun time. { Though he was in a bad mood about our booth picture (above) - I adore booth pics but J says only bad things happen in dark little curtained-off booths. The picture says it all. I love the lone pigtail }

We also wanted to issue an apology to the nice man who sold us his free passes from his work: you saved us $50! But Jason double-checked with the security guard that they were legit, who promptly asked the nice man to leave. Sorry about that... Here are our adventures:

summer is here!

We hit the pool with our friend/twinner, Emma...

the girlies loved the water playground. Happy summer!