I know... I'm really late posting about July. To make up for it, here's a really long post with lots of pictures. :) July was a fantastic month. It all started out with Ernie's birthday, and Vita had a blast at her dad's party. Her favorite part was leading the group in singing the Happy Birthday song and helping him blow out the candles. Oh, and the cake was pretty good, too. Shortly after Ernie's birthday, Ernie had to go out of town on business to a glassblowing convention in Texas. He was gone for almost a week, and Vita had never been without her dad for so long. Just when Vita was starting to feel sad and miss her dad, a mysterious package came in the mail... from her cousin Waverly, who generously handed down to Vita some princess dresses she had outgrown. Vita has been having SO much fun playing dress up, as evidenced below. Here's Vita as Snow White. Here's Vita as Cinderella... and there was a bunch more in the box, including Belle and a beautiful pink princess dress, but I didn't manage to get pictures of all of them. The dress up clothes also renewed Vita's interest in dresses in general, and she wanted to try on some of her dressy dresses also. This month, Vita also got a fun new toy that she plays with almost every day. She LOVES these Tinkertoys. There's just nothing like open ended old fashioned toys. I had these when I was a kid, too. Here's Vita hard at work on her very first creation (a robot). Look how proud she was when she was all finished! Here, she's holding the robot's hand. Vita also got a visit from Grandma Marianne and Grandpa Vito! We had a lot of fun that weekend, playing tee ball, reading books, playing in the backyard, and just hanging out. Here's great shot of Vita and Grandma Marianne. I only got one shot with Grandpa Vito and it was blurry (sorry dad). We've had all sorts of backyard fun including helping Vita get a little bit more familiar with the bike we got her for Christmas last year which was way too big at the time but finally fits. Tea parties are always a favorite too. A couple of weeks ago we headed down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with some good friends, using free passes loaned to us from some other good friends. We had a great time! Here's Vita and I with with the jellyfish. Vita making friends with some strange characters. And a shot of Vita with her dad and our friends Mike and Jackie. Towards the end of the month, we switched bedrooms to give Vita (and her soon to be sister) the bigger bedroom while Ernie and I will have the smaller room. Ernie and Vita's Grandma Victoria worked really hard painting the room a beautiful and subtle robins egg blue... and Vita helped out a little bit too.