Is July Over Already?

On July 7, I took the girls to the Lacey Library to meet real princesses - the fair ladies of the Lakefair Royalty.  My girls were so excited and the princesses were so sweet.

Sophia doesn't look it, but she was thrilled to be with all the princesses and the queen . . . and to get a real glittery crown like theirs.

On July 13, we all headed to Klamath Falls for a Schnell/ DeVoll reunion.  It's not a big family, but it's a GREAT family.  My girls loved playing with their cousin Landon, who loved being the oldest for once instead of the youngest ;)

The resort where we stayed (thank you Grandpa Ernie), had an indoor pool - which, sadly, we only used once, but the girls loved every minute of it.  Here they are posing at the door, ready to go make a splash!

 Since I was swimming with Sophia, I didn't get any pictures of Amelia. Sophia loved "swimming" in this pool - it was only 1 1/2 ft. deep.  I didn't mind it myself, since it was considerably warmer than the big pool.

And of course we visited Crater Lake while we were down South.  It is as beautiful and blue as always.

What I didn't realize about Crater Lake is that there is a hike in the SW corner of the park that is quite different, aka. hot and not so blue, but just as interesting, especially for my geologist sister-in-law.  Here are the 4 grandkids with Grandpa Ernie - ranging in age from 3 - 17.

On our way back to Klamath Falls, we stopped for lunch and a dip in the lake at Lake of the Woods.  Where Amelia fed the ducks potato chips . . . 

 . . . played in the water . . . (or, if you were me, just stood in the water, trying not to freak out that my girls were on a floating dock in deep water without a life jacket on) . . . 

 . . . enjoyed some brother bonding time . . .

and ate ice cream . . . in a towel - because Mom forgot to bring a change of clothes.  Who knew that lunch at Lake of the Woods meant that there would be an actual lake to play in, right?

Here's the whole gang - looking happy after a delicious lunch!

And of course, there always has to be silly games played at a reunion, right?  This is the aftermath of our minute-to-win-it "toss the Cheetos in the shaving cream hat" game.  Notice Amelia in the background trying to salvage Cheetos to eat.  Obviously they're a rarity at our house and too important to leave lying around ;)

And after we said good-bye to the Schnells/ DeVolls, we stopped for a quick visit to see Richelle and Phyllis in Central Point.  

And finally, we stopped to visit Grandma Diane before heading the rest of the way home.

July has just flown by.  Maybe we'll catch our breath in August . . . or not.  But maybe I'll be better at getting pictures posted before they're out of date.

Fun Times

To celebrate July 4th, we took the girls to the Tumwater July 4th parade.  It's a "hometown" parade, so the floats/ entries aren't that exciting, but the girls seemed to like it . . . other than the loud cars/sirens/etc. that Amelia does NOT love.

It was so cute watching the girls wave at everyone that went by.  Sophia loved the horses.

And Amelia thought the school bus was pretty cool - she really is excited for school to start.

On July 3, we took the girls to the Lacey fireworks show - the girls loved it.  They also loved lighting small fireworks in their own driveway on the 4th.  They've got a handful of snaps and are ready for things to get exciting.

Yesterday I took the girls to the Lacey Library for Princess Story time - stories read by the Lakefair Royalty.  They were a bit shy at first, but they soon warmed up to the princesses and were excited that they even got to make paper crowns with the princesses.

And there were so few kids there, that they each got a "glittery" crown and got to have their picture taken with all the royalty.  It's hard to see Sophia's excitement, but she couldn't stop talking about how she got to sit on one of their laps.  I love fun, free events that I can take the girls to.

Ah, Summer!

Sophia completed her first session of ballet . . . and was so excited to get her certificate of completion.

Amelia was so excited she couldn't even stand still for the picture.

Ken's Dad came up to visit for Father's Day . . . and helped us be silly with the ears of corn as we husked them . . . because, hey, doesn't everyone put ears in their ears?

Ken and I celebrated our 10-yr anniversary with a hike to Lena Lake.

Just the 2 of us.

It was so quiet and peaceful.

No interruptions, fighting, or whining.

And the views were beautiful.

Happy Anniversary!  Here's to Eternity and Beyond!

While Ken's Away . . .

Ken went to AZ for a week for work, so I did a few fun things with the girls to help us all survive the long week without him.

First, I took the girls to one of our babysitters to get their nails painted.  These aren't the best pictures, but the girls were so excited to have "sparkly" nails - especially since they've never had their nails painted before.

And then I took the girls to Portland for a few days of fun.  It was rainy and cool most of the time we were there, but that didn't slow us down too much.  Amelia wanted to show Sophia around the outside of the temple, since she didn't get to come with us the last time we came to Portland.

After lunch with our friend, Judy, we went to Pump It Up, Jr. - an indoor play area with inflatable toys for kids (and adults) to play on - slides, bouncy areas, and maze/obstacle courses.  All 3 of us had fun, but they certainly have more stamina than I did.

The next day, my friend Robin watched the girls for a few hours so that I could go to the temple for a session - which I enjoyed very much.  That afternoon, I took the girls downtown to ride on the MAX (the light rail in Portland).  The girls thought it was very cool . . . Sophia just didn't want her picture taken ;)

We rode the train to PSU and got ice cream at Ben & Jerry's.  A hit for everyone!

Due to "Fleet Week", the MAX was running slow/late, so the girls and I walked along the route, while we waited for the MAX.  The girls had fun posing with all the cool sculptures along the way. 

Sometimes I miss the "big city" life, but after the few days we were there, I was reminded that I certainly don't miss the traffic.

The sun finally came out the day we were leaving, and the girls had fun jumping on the trampoline, swinging on the swings, and playing in the sandbox.

Back at home, I took the girls to play in the "creek" in front of the Children's Museum when it was  80+F.  We're definitely NW girls - over 80F is too hot for us.  Thank goodness for places to cool down in the water.

It's been a fun week, but we'll be so glad when Daddy comes home, glad as we can be!

Misc. Randomness

• Amelia really wants a pet.  She has started talking to the spiders that come into her room.  She even got mad at Ken for taking one out of her room.
• Sophia loves picking out cds to listen to.  Today she picked out one and was surprised that is was Christmas music.  We listened to it anyway and enjoyed Christmas in May.
• Ken was gone for 3 days to a Physical Therapy Conference.  I tried to be the "nice" mom, rather than the "cranky, can't function w/out Dad" Mom, and took the girls to the Children's Museum.

Both girls love performing on the stage at the museum, but Amelia was so quick, she finished her performance before I could take a picture - hence the picture of her bowing.

 

The next day I took the girls to the Lacey Spring Parade. Their favorite part was getting all the free stuff that was handed out during the parade.  Amelia's least favorite part?  The chaos of running out into the street to get the candy.  Sophia's least favorite part?  Me taking this picture before the parade started ;)

• I take my double stroller/Burley when I go on walks with the girls.  I have come to the conclusion that I would rather push an empty stroller than carry a girl because she got too tired to walk anymore.  Today I was the "sag wagon" - carrying the girls and their scooters because they were too tired and couldn't make it back home.  I'm not complaining though - I definitely get a better workout when I'm pushing the stroller with them inside.
• Amelia has a new interest - eating the whole strawberry, stems and all.  I'm hoping it's just a phase of exploration; like the other day when she ate a peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich - yuck!
• Last night we all got to go to a surprise party for our friend, Lisa.  It was an 80's theme, costume party.  I found my costume in my 72-hr kit - baggy jeans and a t-shirt; Ken found his in his closet - white pants and a t-shirt.  It was so fun celebrating our awesome friend.  Here I am with the group of ladies . . . I was afraid I'd look like a dork putting my hand under my chin, so instead, I look like a dork because I was the only one who didn't do it ;)

Too bad you can't see Ken's white pants - they were rockin'!

And in honor of Lisa's thriftiness at Goodwill, etc. we all brought white-elephant gifts we had purchased at a thrift store.  I'm pretty sure we ended up with the best gift - a huge bag of pens, highlighters, crayons, markers and notebooks.  Totally rad!

Happiness is . . .

. . . riding the school bus at the Kindergarten Open House . . . that is, until we found out the bus wasn't going anywhere, then Amelia got very sad, very quickly.  Don't worry, Amelia, school will be starting before we know it and then you'll get to ride the bus for real.

 . . . making silly faces while your sister is in her dance class.

 . . . and now it's Sophia's turn.

 . . . running through the sprinkler when it finally got warm enough.  But who needs to run through it when you can just stand and try to drink the water?

. . . chocolate waffle cookies with ice cream, homemade hot fudge sauce, and chocolate dipped strawberries on Mother's Day.  A great ending to a great day (even if I did have to talk in Sacrament Mtg).

So Many Good Things

So many good things have happened in the last month, I can't believe I'm just now blogging about it.  We started April with Easter . . . and our traditional Easter egg hunt in our back yard in between the Saturday sessions of General Conference.  Sophia definitely had the hang of it this year  . . . 

and it was a race to see who could find the eggs the fastest.  Amazingly they each found the same amount of eggs!

Me:  "Amelia, show me your basket" . . . and I get this weird pose.

Ken: "Sophia, show me your basket" . . . and he gets the basket.

 The happy egg-finders at the end of the hunt.

At the end of the day on Saturday, I asked Amelia what her favorite part of the day was.  She told me her favorite part was General Conference.  That was definitely my favorite part too.  So many good talks and good music . . . but maybe Amelia liked all the good snacks I had set out.  My philosophy is if their mouths are full of food, they tend to be quieter ;)

After General Conference was over on Sunday, we colored Easter Eggs.  I'm not a huge fan of hard-boiled eggs and I know my girls (and me) like to color eggs, so I did my mom's trick and we used raw eggs.  The girls did great and we (myself included) only cracked 4 eggs . . . out of 2 dozen, I thought that was pretty good.  And since we eat scrambled eggs almost every day, the girls had fun choosing which egg to choose each morning for breakfast for the next few weeks.

Ken wanted to take pictures of the girls for his mom, and Amelia insisted on standing on a bunch of pillows for one of her pictures.  (I have no idea why.)

 I should have kept some of the "outtakes" but there were so many, I decided to just go with one of the good ones . . . one, as Ken says, shows their personality a bit.

Oh my, it's that time of year!   On Monday we went to Evergreen Forest to register Amelia for Kindergarten.  She was so excited . . . and Sophia was excited for her too.  Sophia is going to miss Amelia a lot while she's in school, but I'm hoping I can get Sophia into a preschool of some sort to help soften the blow.

And last, but not certainly least, Amelia finally decided that she was ready to use the potty!  She did it the day before Ken's birthday and he says that was the best present he could have gotten.  There has a been a whole lot of fasting and prayers for that girl.  Miracles still happen!  Even Sophia told Amelia that she was proud of her!  I can hardly believe I got 2 potty-trained girls within a month.  Simply amazing!