ready for fireworks

my little runner girl

Yesterday we did a whole lot of this:

It was pretty nice sitting outside and enjoying the sunshine and getting sprayed with water by the kids every once in a while.  Jules spent some time beside me, both of us reading our books while Josh played in the little pool.

After a while, her energy got the best of her.  You see, Julianna knows that 8 laps around the track at the Y equals a mile so at one point yesterday she said, "Mom, I'm going to run a mile."  And then she took off and ran 8 laps around the outside of the house.  I thought it was so funny.  She was actually pretty pleased with herself too.  Here she is all schweaty posing for a picture "to send to Daddy." 

a trip to some farmer's markets

After the Y this morning, the kids and I ran some errands and picked up Nanna to go to a couple of local farmer's markets.  It was a load of fun gallivanting around our town with nothing in particular to do.  And look at all of the beautiful sites we saw!

Tuesdays are 25 cent ice cream days at the Cobblestone market so Nanna gave the kids quarters to get homemade ice cream.  I am not even kidding when I say that it was probably pretty close to the best ice cream I have ever tasted.  Mmmmmm.  Mouth water just thinking about it.  Needless to say both kids enjoyed it.

We listened to live music while they ate.  You know how long it takes a kid to eat a scoop of ice cream, right? It was sweltering hot outside today, but the music was good and seeing Josh bob his head along to it was priceless.

Here's a beautiful view up the hill into downtown WS.

Lovely flowers and vegetables for sale...

Baby ducks!

Questions of the day:
-Does your town have a nice farmer's market?
-What is your favorite thing to buy at a local market?  Today we got tomatoes, squash, sunflowers, and banana peppers and my favorite thing to buy is probably tomatoes.  There's nothing like a home grown mater (although you wouldn't have caught me saying that a few years ago)!
-Describe the best ice cream you've ever eaten.

Dessen's What Happened to Goodbye Makes Me Happy (and Makes Me Want to Try a Fried Pickle)

The most recent young adult book I read left me salivating for unusual eats.  It's also one I just recommended to a friend on Facebook.  I recently wrote about it over at BlogHer Book Club.  Please go take a look!

today i...

• chose to take the stairs instead of the elevator
• ate the salad instead of the nuggets meal
• raced my daughter across the yard instead of heading inside to sit on the couch
• got up at 5:45 am to go to the Y even though I didn't want to and then ran 2.2 miles after two weeks off from running (a little disappointing since my last run was 4 miles)
• focused on the positive

Questions of the day:
-How do you stay focused on the positive?
-What good choices did you make today?

overheard

Julianna to Jonathan the other night on the couch:
Daddy, will you please stop messing with my long gold hair.

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Jules after leaving Pirate's Voyage at the beach:
That was such a good movie.

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Julianna wants to know, "Mom, when does the ocean stop?"

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Josh pointing at the sunset across a corn field on the way home from the beach:
"BEACH!"

... and Froyoz for the Mama