Monsoony Fun...

So we have decided to go rogue and have cancelled our internet at home.  It is in part because of a sharp increase in cost but mostly because we wanted to see if we could (gasp) survive without it.  I am sad to say the only causality that really matters in this op is the blog.  Lacking internet at home on the weekend severely hinders my ability to keep up with it.  But (fear ye not) I now have a plan.  I will put them together on the home computer and then take them with me to upload when I do my Saturday morning dissertation hour(s), part of my new commitment to finishing this PhD by this time next year....

Trying on some angel wings on Congress Ave.

The Lacroix crowd has had a number of fun little vignettes to our weekends in July.  On the second Saturday (after my first ever "dissercation"  a week of vacation to work on my dissertation...another one of my new efforts to finish my PhD this year) we finally made it down to Second Saturday downtown.  We went out to Ethiopian food with friends, which was great for Patrick and I but I am afraid Izzy and Evie were not fans.  We then wandered about in the humid but coolish post monsoon storm air, it was lovely.  We even ran into the midwife that helped bring Izzy into the world almost exactly 2 years before!

Then the next weekend we trekked out to a birthday party... which doesn't sound like much, except for the fact that there was a massive storm just as we were leaving our house, making what should have been a 1/2 hour drive into an almost 3 hour one because we had to turn around at a wash we couldn't cross, go down dirt roads to avoid downed power lines on a major road and drive through a torrential downpour.  The party was loads of fun though with good Jamacian food and plenty of candy.  Izzy even, coincidentally, met a little boy who will be her classmate when she starts preschool next week!

A little role reversal...Evie on the trike and Izzy on the scooter

Then this past weekend, continuing on the monsoony theme, Izzy, Evie and I took a late afternoon/evening walk down to see the Rillito River flowing (Patrick was out at a happy hour with a friend).  It was wicked humid and hot but really fun nonetheless.  Luckily for me as we were slogging back to the house Patrick came home and gave us a lift the rest of the way because after an hour and half of walking with two kids who were now very, very tired it would have been a tortuous last few blocks!  Someday perhaps I will get better at predicting exactly when the girls are "half" tired and turn around then.

The big home project of the last weekend was fixing the fish pond.  It involved repairing pack-rat damage to eletrical wires, new pumps and much Patrick problem solving. 

 

After the pond was finished on Saturday we decided to turn the rest of the area into a fairy garden and so spent Sunday building the first house for the fairy village.  It was originally a project for the girls but turned into a creative endeavor of much satisfaction for Patrick and I while the girls hung out and played at other things.   Patrick was the principal architect, I designed the stepping stones.

 While not fairy related, the girls did do some crafts though this weekend.... which one did which?

 The weekend ended with a Mother/Daughter dinner and a show date.  I took Evie out for Japanese food (which she much prefers over Ethiopian by the way) and then to Valley of the Moon for their Princess Bride show.  We both really enjoyed the show and also got some great ideas for this next weekend's fairy house building exercise...

At a scene at Valley of the Moon, nothing like theater where you can be up close and personal!

All in all it has been a pretty rockin' July.  It has been really dry and hot the past few days, which makes me afraid that our lovely rain is gone until the fall... but you never know, we might just get another good storm or two... here is to hoping!

Sun setting on the mighty Rillito River