Tomorrow is Anders Two year old birthday. We celebrated in style on Saturday in over 100 degree weather. Everything was Thomas the Train and we had a bubble machine which was a BIG hit! It was fun to see Anders playing with some of the friends that came and of course it's always special to see him with Grandparents and Great Grandparents.
I had fun making the cupcakes and using a special food coloring spraypaint. We had to keep them at home in the fridge until the last minute because it was so hot we were afraid they would melt before the party. It ended up being a really fun day despite the heat.

We have also enjoyed having Chris' mom here for the week. I didn't get many pictures of our time together on my camera so this is the best picture that I have of Grandma J and Anders! Tomorrow we head off to Disneyland for the day. What I'm really looking forward to is Friday when I get to drive out of town and join some friends in Palm Springs for a girls weekend!

A few more pictures that I liked from recent events. The bottom picture is with my Grandma Cox at Aunt Mary's and cousin Katie's Grad party. Anders was fidgety and grumpy much of the afternoon and it took alot to get this picture. The top two are just favorites of our weekend with Chris' dad. The highlight for Anders and the guys was a Sunday afternoon at a local miniuture golf course. I realized again that I don't particularly like that activity so at about the 15th hole I retreated to the much cooler arcade to buy us all water and to avoid sun stroke. Anders had the time of his life and was red, sweaty and not ready to leave at the end.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last week. The middle picture is from Sunday when we saw a boy that could've been A nders brother. We found out that he was almost exactly one month older. The bottom picture is one of many taken with Chris' dad while he was out to visit with us last weekend. More will follow!

Today Aubrey came over and she and Anders had a grand time together as usual. They both love playing in the water and the weather was perfect for it so that's what they did! They were both soaking and happy. Right now Aubrey's mom Kelly has Anders and I have been finishing up some house cleaning and laundry. I feel so lucky to have such nice neighbors (friends)!

Update on the car situation. It's in the shop right now and it looks like it may be able to be fixed just fine. We're keeping our fingers crossed. Chris is driving a rental hybrid which the insurance is paying for. So far he feels like they are being fair and taking care of the situation just fine.

As life goes you never know what the day will hold. Yesterday, Chris came out to his car parked carefully in the parking garage at his work to find this. There was a note and the lady said that she had "no idea what happened!" "I was backing up and my car just went out of control!" The damage is so bad that he can't open the back passenger doors or the trunk and the frame is all smooshed. He took the metro home last night which was interesting. I was able to find someone to come and be at the house while I picked him up at the Norwalk station. This morning we all got up bright and early to be out of the house at 7:3o to get him to work for a 9:30 appointment. After dropping him off at work Anders and I had a nice breakfast at "Jinky's Cafe" which is right around the corner from the studio. The traffic wasn't bad at all and it was an uneventful drive but hopefully tomorrow there will be a replacement rental car for Chris to drive!

We are hoping that there will be a positive outcome and that the insurance will really take care of us. As you can see, Chris has a hybrid and it's pretty much essential for his commute. Gas is so expensive that it would be a very uncomfortable price to pay to drive a regular car. He gets about 50 miles to the gallon and it really makes a big difference right now.

So, I'll update about this again when things are somewhat resolved. In the meantime we are getting ready to have Chris' dad here over the weekend and we are really looking forward to that. Two weeks after that Chris' mom comes for a week and Anders birthday party will be on the 21st. Then the next weekend I get to escape for a couple of days to Palm Springs for an annual girls getaway. So, it's a busy month!