Home again Home again, jiggety jig

We flew back to Texas two days ago. It is nice to be home, with Ryan, in our apartment, and back to our routine. I was thinking how grateful I am that we can afford a nice apartment and to take care of our needs as a family. We're not where we want to be, but I need to be more grateful for where we are. I can stay home with Willa, we generally have life pretty nice.

Today at the park, Willa stepped in an ant pile. I had left her for a moment to go help another little girl who was crying. The girl had climbed to the top of a toy and couldn't get down. Her mother was across the park playing on her phone and smoking a cigarette, classy. I ran to help the little girl and when I came back to Willa there were ants all over both legs! I quickly grabbed her and started swatting them off. Fire ants usually swarm the victim and then start biting, so thankfully I got to her during the swarming part instead of the biting. She still has 8-10 bites on one leg and 1-2 on the other. She cried, but I think it was mainly from the shock of me grabbing her and swatting at her legs so abruptly. Chalk one more big minus for Texas.

Hogle Zoo with Ashley and baby Mason. This lion water fountain brings back so many memories!

Final concert at Suzuki Institute, aren't my students adorable?

Willa with her very favorite best buddy, Celeste.

A little bit of Utah so far

We went to my aunt and uncle's house to watch some nice tame fountain fireworks. Willa got to play with her second cousin Thomas (he was much nicer to her than she was to him).

We tried to get a picture of the three cousins together, these are our best shots.

All my siblings came over for a July 5th party. My mom set up this slip n slide down the hill in the backyard. Willa was so ready to try swimming and the slip n slide that she would let any cousin hold her if they would take her down. Look at that GLEE on her face! Also, look at that adorable patriotic swimsuit, I love TJMaxx!

The Utah Suzuki Harp Institute officially started today. I love love LOVE institute and have so many fun memories of going every single summer growing up. All three of my students from Houston flew into town and I am so excited for them to experience it too! This is just one of many rooms of harps. I think the latest harp count was 125.

Dessert for Breakfast

 My sister Carrie once told me that eating sugar cereal with whole milk was extremely delicious; she was telling the truth. Once Willa started drinking milk, we always had at least two gallons in the fridge. One gallon of whole milk for her, one of low-fat for Ryan and me. On the weekends, sometimes it would be three gallons because we'd have to buy an extra gallon on Saturday because we knew we would run out before Monday.

We got sick of it (and Ryan was relistening to "In Defense of Food") so we decided to just drink the whole milk. We actually only have milk with cereal, and sugar cereal on Sunday morning has become a little tradition.

Recently, Ryan went to the store to stock up on some sugar cereal options for Sunday. He tried a new bagged brand and it was a major disappointment. On closer inspection, the bag reveals that the cereal is "all natural".  Now, if I'm buying a gigantic bag of sugar cereal - do you think I'm the sort of person who cares if my cereal is "all natural" or not? NO! The people who care about that are eating All-Bran right now. Not that I have anything against eating naturally, I think it's a good plan. I just accept the fact that a giant sugar bomb is going to be bad for me whether it is natural or not.

Willa, unfortunately, has gotten a taste for the cereals as well. When she sees us pour a bowl she RUNS to our side for some scraps. Luckily, it's not too often that it happens. Today, however, she screamed for cereal, wouldn't eat Cheerios, wouldn't eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and finally ate Lucky Charms. She eventually gets her point across, but it will be easier and less wasteful when she can just say, "I want the cereal with the marshmallows."

Here is a picture of her scowling while eating a banana. I was going to post of photo of her begging for some of Ryan's cereal, but he was wearing his Mickey Mouse pajamas and said that that would be embarrassing.