In case you are unfamiliar with late 1990s/early 2000s cartoon history, these are the Powerpuff Girls:

Blossom, commander and the leader; Bubbles, she is the joy and the laughter. Buttercup, 'cause she's the toughest fighter.

The girls were created in the laboratory by Professor Plutonium, this nice-looking fellow:


He meant to create the perfect girls (ingredients: sugar, spice, and everything nice), but, as so many scientists do, he accidentally spilled in some Chemical X, which gave the girls amazing super powers. It was a good thing, too, because the town in which they lived was constantly being attacked by any variety of monsters and villains, for example...

Enter the Powerpuff Girls, heroes of Townsville: Blossom! Bubbles! Buttercup!

And their doting caretaker, the Professor, as well as your garden-variety Townsville monster:

Watch out, monster!


Go Powerpuff Girls! I dare any monster to take on this little one:

She'd slay them with cuteness!

I don't care how many times I've said it. I'll keep saying it. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? How did my little baby go from this:


to this:



Where does the time go, and how do I make it stop? I don't think I've gone a single day since Rose was born when I have not wished that she could just stop growing and stay exactly the way she was at that moment. I will keep on adoring her more every day, but I just so wish the baby days would last a little longer. There's just not enough time to absorb all the cuteness.

I don't do themes for one-year old birthdays. I like to wait until they can appreciate my efforts a bit. For Rose's birthday, we just spent the day loving her (no big change there) and ate cake and stuff.

Penelope belts out a rousing rockstar rendition of Happy Birthday to You.

Hard at work.

 I think I might have to go get Rose out of bed to snuggle with her after looking at all these photos. Okay, not really, but I am seriously tempted.

I really love sleepy-eyed morning pajama shots.

Featured here are Derek's favorite type of donuts: old-fashioned.

And his favorite breakfast company: his girls.

Ava spent hours making a joke book for Derek--with original jokes, no less. What is a butterfly's favorite food? Butter! Why don't whales have lips? Because they'd get too salty! What is worse than a a baby with a stinky diaper? A skunk with a stinky diaper!

For our little trip, we ventured out west to the LBJ State Park and the LBJ National Park in Stonewall and Johnson City. There is a great farm there (the Sauer-Beckmann living history farm) which was mostly deserted, so we wandered all around trying out the antique appliances, the super old-school viewfinder, and the porch swing, then chatted with the park employees who were eating a deliciously fragrant lunch of eggs and sausage, all collected/cured/prepared there on the farm.




Next we stopped at the LBJ National Historic Park and drove all around LBJ's ranch, where LBJ was born, died, and buried. He also spent 1/4 of his presidency there at the ranch.

In the meantime, Rose became quite engrossed in a romantic baby book.




Next stop was the charming town of Fredericksburg. We are definitely making a return trip to do some more exploring. For this time, we just wandered around town, with the main attractions being the toy store and the candy store. Hey, no one can say we don't know our audience.


And no trip is complete without an impromptu photo shoot featuring Rose's comely figure.



This girl is so adored. I wonder if she has any idea.


We can't stop kissing her.


I think I'm going to kiss the computer screen right now.


Just in time, we took a gorgeous scenic drive during those perfect moments of evening when all is aglow in golden light. In the space of about 10 minutes, we saw a gray fox, several deer, a roadrunner, a jackrabbit, and some birds. From the girls' reactions, you'd think we'd stumbled upon an African safari.

Hey little guy.

Thank you, zoom.

As if the day weren't satisfying enough, the icing on the cake was...not icing or cake...but a monster burger, named by Texas Monthly as the 3rd best burger in Texas (Texas! mind you). Derek and I are slowly making our way through the 50 best burgers, and this baby was found out a dark, long country road late, late at night at the Alamo Springs Cafe. It was too big for my jaws, but somehow I managed to shovel it in. It's on a jalapeno cheese bun which was amazing. Delicious.


Ava was not so impressed. Probably had something to do with the fact that she konked out on the table halfway through dinner and had to be carried out of the restaurant. Some people just can't hold their burgers so well.


It was a perfect day, and a great day to celebrate the guy we all adore more than any other.

Moving on to the grown-ups. Derek and I had our birthdays this spring/summer too. And no matter how young we think we are, and how young we feel, those years keep on adding up. I hope we can still say that when we're 90 (the feeling young part).

Unfortunately, I do look a bit haggard in this birthday shot. Oh well. It was a long day, I'm sure.


I had an early-morning breakfast out with some girlfriends on my birthday, and then went out and did something fun (which, blame it on my old age, I cannot remember what it was, but I'm sure it was great). When I got home, I noticed that all the blinds were closed on that lovely sunny day, so I went to open them up and there in our backyard was a beautiful new birthday tent! Yay! So exciting!



Our current tent fits two fairly slender people, a small duffel bag, and that is it (but it packs light!). It is worthless as a family tent, and I have been wanting a nice roomy tent for all of us. Derek had this great plan to have a pizza-and-movie night in the tent and then all sleep there overnight. Unfortunately, that lovely Texas weather reared its ugly head, and we decided watching a movie and sleeping inside a tent when it's 100 degrees outside is not so pleasant.

Naturally, we left the tent up. Not realizing there would be a sudden, violent storm in the middle of the night.

And that the rain fly would be somehow (seemingly) impossible to attach in a torrential downpour with wet, steamed-up glasses and very little light. And that we would then suddenly become totally inept at taking down a tent that was quickly filling with water, staked into ground that was quickly turning into mud. The flashing lightning and pounding thunder were a bit distracting as well.



It was kind of hilarious. And we were beyond soaked by the end of it. All in all, a good birthday adventure.

I really like celebrating birthdays. We have had a good run of them this year, as usual, stretching from April through September. So we are going to start with Miss Ava. She turned SEVEN this spring, which just blows my mind. I still look at her and think of how she changed my whole life so completely seven years ago, and how happy I am that she did. I have loved her to pieces every day since then, and I love the spunky, resourceful, passionate girl who she has become.

Ava decided this year that she wanted a fancy-schmancy tea party birthday party. This decision was greatly influenced by looking at a blog post of her cousin Hannah's birthday party with a similar theme (http://www.fivelookingsharp.blogspot.com/2011/01/nostalgia.html) that was expertly executed by her master party-planner Aunt Ira. Here are a few of the details.

A delicious springtime spread

A spot of tea/tea-ish beverage

A toast! As my girls always say when they offer a toast over a meal: "To the good life!"

The hostess, poised and relaxed, taking a moment to reflect on the beauty of the day

Genteel conversation.

A ladylike sip

Even Baby Rose, ever the well-bred little lady, got in on the fun.

The dress-up station where the girls could strut their stuff

This was a fun party to put on. A bit of work, mind you. But Ava is worth it. She just told me today that she wants a rodeo party for next year, so the wheels are turnin'. Maybe a bull for the backyard?