currently enjoying...

...freshly picked raspberries over hot milk cake with whole milk vanilla yogurt.

Sophie

Sophie turned 4 last month...she really wanted a rainbow birthday party.

At her request the party included: rainbow sprinkle cupcakes, fruit loops, strawberries, blueberries, the game "don't eat pete," a pinata, and party hats.

We hung prisms (rainbow makers) over the food table, and they doubled as party favors.


We took her down by the river to take some birthday portraits. Which was a mistake because she HATES bugs. Mosquitoes stress her out.

Once we got her calmed down she agreed to let us do a few photos as long as Jacob stood by and fanned the bugs away with the reflector.



We even captured a few genuine smiles.


Our second location had fewer bugs...she was much happier, and more relaxed. We got some fun shots.


A few things about Sophie, age 4...

She loves to play with her sister.She's been trying to learn how to read, so that she can read like Ella.

She loves to draw and paint...which recently has included face painting...

She is resourceful and independent. Case in point...she needed a band aid. We were out. she made her own out of blue painter's tape.

She really wants a pet. She would prefer a dog, but birds are much more plentiful around here. She's been trying for weeks to catch a bird to be her pet. She's been building nests (complete with eggs pilfered from the refrigerator, and bird seed) in order to entice the birds close enough to catch.

So far...no luck.

Her favorite foods are blueberries, strawberries, carrots and chocolate.

She loves to ride her bike and play outside.

If you ask her what her middle name is she'll respond "Sophie Claire Dahle," or "Sophie Claire Madeline Dahle." She refers to a large number of anything as a flock, ie..."Let's go to the library so we can get a whole flock of books, Look at that flock of hay." She loves going to primary. She reminds us every night that we need to read scriptures. She loves to sing.

We're so glad she belongs to us!

heat wave

Last week Vermont experienced a little heat wave. When we moved here I promised myself that I wouldn't complain about the cold.

I didn't promise anything about the heat...

We are used to hot summer temperatures, but we are not used to hot summer temperatures with humidity. And we are definitely not used to hot summer temperatures, with humidity, with out A/C.

Day 1: It reached a mild 92 degrees in our house, so we hunkered down in our basement (where it was a cool 85 degrees) with a fan, our camping chairs, and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. By 1:00 AM it had cooled down to 89, and we managed a fitful night's sleep.


Day 2: We dropped Jacob off at his air conditioned office and then spent the entire day basking in the cool waters of Lake Champlain.


That evening we decided there was no way we were going to survive without A/C, so we called around trying to find any store that still had window units in stock. At about 9:50 PM we ended up at a Lowe's 20 minutes from our house. They had 1 unit left. It was much bigger than we had originally planned on buying, but it was a good unit, and they gave us a discount. We couldn't pass it up. Unfortunately, it was so big that it didn't fit in our car. Fortunately, our super nice neighbor was available and willing to drive down and pick it up for us.


Day 3: Jacob spent the day building a stand to mount the A/C. The girls thought it was the coolest thing ever, that we could take the screen out of the window. They soon discovered the joys of throwing stuffed animals out the window for each other to catch. The A/C was installed and running in time for me to enjoy the cool air when I got back from my hot, sweaty jog that evening.