Ice cream, fireworks, and a little more Annie

I haven't gotten around to putting together a Top 10 list of reasons why we've really liked Cincinnati this summer, but when I do, the Dairy Corner will surely make the list. It's this cute little ice cream place that's right down the street. We went there as a family last Saturday and have made a couple more trips since. It's an old school, hole-in-the-wall type place that only accepts cash. And oh yeah ... it's crazy delicious.

Yummy!

How not to eat an ice cream cone.

I don't think "Great Taste" referred to the label, Grace.

The 4th of July was really great. A BYU MBA alum who works with Scott at P&G invited us over to his house for a BBQ with a few other people from work and church. It was really nice to get out of the apartment and sort of see what could be down the road for us in a few years. There were kids everywhere and the absolute BEST salmon I've ever had. Trent (the BYU alum) had just gone fishing the week before (oh, in ALASKA) and he shared a bunch of the fresh salmon and halibut he caught. The kids absolutely loved it. Ethan brought his "new" bike and rode it around the cul-de-sac all night and both Ethan and Grace really loved their sparklers. Well, Grace loved the sparkler until she grabbed the wrong end of the sparkler and gave herself a nice blister burn on her hand. In typical Grace fashion though, she was fine 10 minutes later and showing it off to everybody. Sadly, no picture. But we do have other pictures, first of us on the way to the BBQ and then of the kids with the sparklers, pre-burning incident.

So Grace decided to further blur the lines between fantasy and reality by becoming Annie. Apparently being called Annie, wearing the same red dress every day for over a week and singing "Tomorrow" (which I have now downloaded for her off of iTunes) non-stop isn't enough. So Friday night, me and Grace stayed in while the boys went putt-putt golfing. Scott picked up some foam curlers for her hair. I wasn't entirely positive that they would work with her thin, scraggly hair, but we had a pajama party and we gave it a shot. She wanted "red, curly hair, just like Annie," but she had to settle for curly. Well, you can check the pictures yourself, but she sort of had to settle for sort of curly. Kind of a cross between Justin Guarini and Sideshow Bob, with a little Annie mixed in on the side.

BEFORE

AFTER

Ta-Da ... Annie (replete with "Sandy"), minus the hair on the left side of her head.

And here's Annie with Ethan

And we can't forget little Sophie. We've actually moved her into our closet now to provide even more of a "sound barrier" for the neighbors -- and it is working so far! Our little Supermuppet is starting to get a better sleep schedule ... during the day. However, thanks to the neverending cold that is circulating through the kids, she still wakes up all night and now has picked up an oh-so-attractive cough that would make a chain smoker cringe. She's still really cute though, even if she does wake up literally all night long.

I'm tired so I'm done. Harry Potter is calling my name. Don't ask ...