Mother's, Father's, and my "Birth" Day 2017

On Friday, we celebrated my 30.5 birthday, which is random, I know. Having a birthday so close to Christmas has always had its ups and down, but this last year, it just became too much. The holiday season is so so busy, plus we always go to another state, plus it is our anniversary right after Christmas, and to add to that my birthday is just plain ridiculous. So, after being a little upset that John didn't do more for my 30th birthday, we decided that it would be better for everyone if we celebrated my birthday on my half birthday instead of on my birthday, birthday. But because we were busy on my half birthday with visitors, we pushed it back to July 21, kinda random.

Regardless it was a super fun day. The girls aren't back in school yet. John came home from work early. We made delicious food (Thai salads and homemade gelato) and went swimming. The girls gave me sweet presents--a puzzle, money for ebooks, and yummy fancy cereal and coconut milk. John gave me a massage table, which is so stinking cool! No more having to shove our faces in a pillow to get a nice relaxing neck massage. Awesome!

Father's Day was not day-of either. We were driving home from a camping trip with the Guinns and so we did the Father's Day dinner another day. I think we might have given him his presents that day though. He got gray socks (which he really wanted), nacho cheese, and a weather station. We have the sensor on our back porch and the first day we had it too high and close to the roof of the porch. The radiant heat really made the reading high. Since then, we have moved it twice trying to find an accurate spot. It is really accurate except when the sun is shining on the porch. It is only about 3-5 degrees warmer than google rather than closer to ten. I want you to appreciate that this 127 day was actually one of the hottest of the year. I think Google said it got to 120 or 121. So, it really was exceptionally hot. It has been a fun new toy.

Mother's day was so fun too. I asked for another main dish salad for dinner. (I like main dish salads a lot, plus I feel healthy when I eat them!)  My main present was an ice cream maker. It is awesome! We have used it far too often this summer making whole milk ice cream, frozen yogurt, and most recently homemade gelato. It's all delicious! Of course, Ellie girl gets kind of sad that we want to make chocolate ice cream so often, but really we only make it once every 2 to 3 times we make it, which is less than I would have guessed we make the chocolate variety.

Holland, not surprisingly, picked up immediately on the word 'ice cream,' but she really doesn't understand the concept of dessert. For example, it is not uncommon for her to announce in the middle of lunch, "ice keem!" wanting some of course. Mean ol' Mommy won't even give it to her in the middle of lunch either. 

We made some cute cards to send to the grandmas. I practiced my calligraphy on it. It was fun. 

We love our fun ice cream maker! Unfortunately, around this same time, we discovered that you can make cookies in the microwave. Just keep a fresh bowl of cookie dough in the fridge and in less than a minute you can have hot cookies. The texture isn't as great as it fresh from the oven, but in this heat, I would much prefer not turning on the oven. John likes it too. :)