Auntie Dawn's House

We spent a day out at Aunt Dawn, Uncle Tim, and Eddy's house in West Virginia. Our cousin Eddy is a lucky girl! Not only does she have her own 18 acres to run around on, she has three dogs, a zip wire, a swing set, and her own pool! We made sure we tried out everything! Even Sophie, who I can't even get on a carousel, willingly rode on the zip wire several times.


Aunt Shirley got all the kids sweet matching outfits for a family picture. The best I could get was four out of five cousins in the shot, but as soon as Aunt Jen gets me a a copy of everyone, I'll be sure and post it here.
<

Sophie and Cousin Kyla chillin' poolside. It was a little rainy, but that didn't change our swim plans.

Here's Madeline jumping off the diving board into the deep end of the pool!

Fish Outta Water

Did I mention that Madeline likes to swim??? Every day she works on some kind of new skill, her latest is an under-water-flip-somersault thing. She is a "Fish Outta Water" which also happens to be the name of Chali Tuna's new record, mixed almost entirely by my talented husband.

Monday Play-date

Aunt Jen let my girls and I tag along on her Monday morning play-date. We enjoyed playing at the park, walking through the woods, riding the carousel, and topped off the morning with ice-cream. Sophie was so tired, she went home and took a 3.5 hour nap. Thanks Auntie Jen, Kyla, and Ian! We had so much fun!

Swmmin' in Style

Grandma Shirley got the girls some adorable new clothes, including these cute new bathing suits. Thanks Grandma!

More Cousin Time

The girls love playing with their cousin Eddy. She is almost two already! Will she get a brother or a sister? We'll find out in November when Auntie Dawn's baby is due!

July 4, 2009

We spent our Fourth of July at Kyla and Ian's house where we grilled and set off small fireworks in the yard. We were completely outdone by the neighbors, though, who set off huge illegal fireworks until well after midnight. Madeline loved the fireworks, the other cousins, let's just say, weren't such big fans.  

Patriotic down to her tongue thanks to a blueberry jolly rancher:

Kyla found a caterpillar/bug thing.  I don't remember its official name, but it didn't survive anyway.

July 3, 2009

We spent the third of July at Grandma Connie's house where the town does a fabulous fireworks show over the water. We walked around outside while we waited for the sun to set, then headed to the best seat in the house: Grandma's balcony. The girls loved it, and with no parking or crowds to deal with, I loved it too. All in all, a great way to start off the holiday weekend.

Relaxing . . .

On the balcony . . .

Story time . . .

Ice-cream time . . .
Sophie took a bite out of her plastic spoon, I have no idea why. I was a bit worried about the jagged edges going through her system, but they seem to have passed through without incident.

The Dock of the Bay

Swimming

Madeline is quite the swimmer!  She is at the pool at least twice a day.  She is working on floating on her back, so far for 20 seconds or so.  I have a video but couldn't get it to upload here.  I'll try again later.  She swam across the pool, the width of it, on her back yesterday, and can doggie-paddle herself just about anywhere she wants to go.

Cousins!

We love playing with our cousins!!!  Bubbles, swinging, sliding, writing, and finger painting are just a few of the things we have done so far with our cousins Kyla and Ian.

The girls thought it would be fun to pose for pictures in the rain.

Grandma's Garden

The girls enjoyed helping care for Grandma's garden:  watering,watering, and watering, and then just a little more watering.  Madeline spent some time trying to catch fish, birds, chipmunks, and fireflies, but was only successful with the fireflies.

Tooth Number Two

Madeline lost tooth number two on Monday. The first baby teeth to come in were the first ones to come out. Now how long does it take the two new teeth to come in?

Madeline Lost a Tooth!

Now you see it,

And now you don't! Madeline lost her first tooth Friday night! The only downer was since Friday was her last day of school, she didn't get a chance to show her friends at school or get her name on that special bulletin board. She did, however, get a visit from the tooth fairy, a dollar!


Here's a picture of Sophie eating her waffles. I wish I could report she was potty trained, but *sigh* not just yet. After she went through three pairs of underwear in two hours last night, she was back in her diaper. We'll keep working on that one.

Grandpa and Travel Town

Last weekend, we spent several days with Grandpa Ralph. We decided to visit Travel Town where we could ride a train and look at some old locomotives. Funny enough, on our way out, we ran into our good friends: Carrie, Lyman, and Milo!

Our Young Author

One day last week, Kent attended Madeline's Young Author's Awards Program where her book about bugs was deemed "most imaginative."

Waterfall

I forgot to post this waterfall video from Lee Vining last weekend.

Madeline

Last week, Madeline received an award for "Outstanding Citizenship." She has really loved kindergarten, and I hope she enjoys first grade just as much. I think her ears are finally on the road to recovery, too. After Kent and I noticed something going on with her hearing, and she subsequently failed a hearing test at school, we knew it was time to investigate. Her doctor confirmed ear infections in both ears and prescribed an antibiotic. Two weeks later, still 2 ear infections and a new antibiotic. Two more weeks later, still two ear infections and a third antiobiotic. Two weeks later, her ears show improvement, and she gets a prescription for some prednisole (sp?). She goes back this Thursday. Somewhere in the last two weeks, Sophie had her own double ear infections. We sure are keeping our pediatrician in business!