Birthday party, swimming lessons, visitors

Hello all!  I trust everyone is well out there.  Things have been crazy/fun/exhausting...you know the usual.

We did have the girls birthday party recently, Piper's birthday isn't until July 15th, but we had a joint  birthday party for them...and holy crap did they clean up...and now Traci and I are trying to find places to put all of the toys...I even suggested hiding some of them. 

The party was a huge success, we had lots of family and friends come and visit, and a good time was had by all...especially Maizy and Piper.  My brother and sister were able to come into to town to see the girls and stay for a bit.  I am sure Piper wore out Uncle Derek and Aunt Heather!  Many thanks to everyone that came to our party, it was a great time, and it reminded us just how lucky we are to have such amazing family and friends.  It also reminded us just how lucky we are that Maizy gets to have a birthday.  With the heart condition she had at birth she statistically should have been a miscarriage, in fact she had a 1% chance of making it, so needless to say dad had to try really hard not to lose it when everyone sang her happy birthday.  Good job little girl, you've overcome a lot and we are so proud of you.

On a lighter note now...Piper has started swimming lessons, and she loves it!  Piper loves the pool and water period, we are in our pool usually everyday and Piper thinks she's a mermaid...she says I'm King Triton...so I am cool with that...I have the huge muscles, I just need a big white beard and a golden trident and I will be good to go....alright...back to swimming lessons.  Swimming lessons are about 30 minutes long and resembles what I can only imagine what herding cats looks like...if those cats were little kids and were in a pool.  Piper is of course the smallest kid in the class so when they go into the training pool, which is deeper than the baby pool but not as deep as the regular pool, she has to hold on to the side of the pool or to her teacher.  But she is having a great time learning to swim!

The garden is doing great as well, Piper loves the garden, I have to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't pick and eat everything.  Very rarely do peas and tomatoes make it to the house.  Shortly before the 4th of July our first tomato was ready to pick, she picked it and told me "this tomato is beautiful...I will eat it!" and with that she devoured then entire tomato.  She didn't even offer me a bite, just a big toothy smile with tomato juice all over her face...that's pretty adorable kid...but next time I want a bite.  I guess having a kid that loves veggies as much as Piper is a good problem to have!  I think soon I will start a new type of blog post on the site.  It will be recipes that Chef Piper and Chef Daddy make, see Piper loves to help cook and it's really a fantastic thing to do with your kids!  You can instill in them healthy eating habits and they can spend some time learning about healthy food and how to prepare them.  It also allows them time to have fun and pretend, Piper has her own little apron she puts on and she helps me make dinner in the evenings.  It's a lot of fun and it allows us to help mommy a little when I am home...at least I think helps...hell we probably just make a huge mess, but the foods good.  So keep a look out for some recipes!

Take care everyone!  LIFE IS GOOD!