My friend, Pam, did a photo shoot for us. We were blessed with perfect weather - overcast skies for better lighting and no rain. The girls started out smiley, but Amelia didn't want to have her picture taken. Despite that, Pam got some great photos of the girls.
Pam pointed out a hole in the ground, and next thing we knew, Sophia was digging in the hole. Amazingly, her dress didn't get dirty . . . just her hands, which Pam got a perfect picture of before we cleaned it up.
I have this cool steamer trunk, which I thought would be great for the photo shoot. But by this point, Amelia had really had enough of her picture taken . . . so she climbed in and didn't want to come out.
But Pam still got some great pictures of her ;)
Sophia was nothing but smiley for the photo shoot.
And this one shows what my mind was like prior to the photo shoot. I got Sophia dressed that morning and as I was cleaning up her room, I couldn't figure out where her pajama bottoms were. I looked everywhere and finally concluded that Ken or the girls must have put them somewhere. And then half-way through the photo shoot, Pam captured this picture - proof that I am crazy. In my sleep-deprived state, I had put Sophia's tights on top of her pajamas.
Amelia loves sticks and after collecting some throughout the morning, she wouldn't set them down. I love that Pam got such great pictures of our girls, that reflect their character.
Thanks Pam for capturing the "magic" of our family.
I'm still adjusting to neither of my girls taking naps, but I do have to say that no naps certainly makes bedtime easier and earlier . . . and it doesn't hurt that it's getting darker earlier now.
A few weeks ago I noticed that my children were hardly watching TV. My guess was that it was somehow connected with the sunny weather we were enjoying. I'm thinking my hypothesis was correct; the rain started back up and when it's cloudy and raining, all my girls want to do is sit and watch TV.
And now that we're watching more TV, what do we watch? If Amelia gets to choose, we watch cooking shows on PBS - she loves them!
I've had a cold the last few days, and yesterday I experienced something my mom has been dealing with every day for over a month now - I couldn't smell, so therefore, I couldn't taste anything. It sure made eating boring.
I have confirmed that I love living somewhere that has seasons. I'm not necessarily looking forward to the rain for the next 6 months, but I am getting tired of my summer clothes and am looking forward to wearing something else.
I've mentioned before that I hate shoe shopping. I've been wearing the same black pumps for at least 8 years - I loved them - but they were completely worn out. So I bucked up and went shoe shopping; found a new/used pair, threw out my old shoes, and then unfortunately realized that my new shoes were horrible. Gave the shoes back to the discount store and resumed my hunt for new shoes. Bought a pair online, but when I got them, they were too big. Sent them back. The hunt continues . . . and meanwhile, I'm shoeless in Olympia. Ugh!
I'm getting a jump start on Halloween and am making "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" costumes for Amelia and Sophia (I'll be the Cat in the Hat). Ken thinks I should call Amelia's "Mine 1" and Sophia's "Me Too" because that's all they seem to say lately.
We have this weird phenomenon at our house - the girls and I get little holes in our shirts right about the belt line. I originally thought mine were from wearing belts - but I haven't been wearing belts lately and the girls don't wear belts and our shirts are still getting the little holes.
Today when I went to the meat market, I had to do a double take at their Weekly Specials sign. It read "lion roast, $2.99". They often have exotic meat for sale, but I couldn't even imagine where they got lion from . . . and then I realized they meant to say "loin roast".
Ken had Monday off, so we headed to the Children's Museum for a few hours. Amelia wanted to make a bouquet of flowers, but was sad that she couldn't take them with her. I told her we'd take a picture of it, and take that home, but she wasn't as happy about that idea.
Sophia liked the ball that goes up in the tube, spins around in water, and then comes back down.
The girls love to color, but Amelia did NOT want her picture taken.
Amelia wanted to dress up and get on the stage . . . but only stayed there long enough for a brief picture.
And Sophia loved the vacuum tube maze that projected balls and scarves out of the tubes.
And we ended our visit by taking a "family portrait". (Left to right: Ken, Amelia, Sharon, & Sophia)
This has nothing to do with the pool, but I thought it was cute. The other day both girls were playing so nicely and correctly with their toys, I just had to take a picture (Amelia disappeared before I could take her picture). And Sophia looked so cute with her head propped on her hands.
So when the forecast called for 90F weather this week, I figured that was a good excuse to get out the pool for the last time. We've only pulled it out twice before - once in UT and once here - and both times Ken set it up. And now I know why. It is exhausting. I spent an hour blowing it up - alternating between blowing into it from my mouth and using a foot pump that didn't work much better than just blowing into it. After countless comments from Amelia "is it ready?" . . . "this is a lot of hard work, huh?" . . . "is it ready now?" . . . "can I help?" . . . "is it ready NOW?" . . . I decided the pool was inflated enough to hold water and put the hose in. My girls love to splash and play in deep water, but thank goodness they were just as happy to run back and forth in a few inches of water instead.
I made sure that the pool was in the shade, put sunscreen on the girls, and sat down to catch my breath . . . literally. Well, being exhausted, I didn't think about the shade moving, so after about 10-15 min, the pool was mostly in sun . . . which my girls don't like (yeah, they're definitely used to living in the NW). So I offered to get them their hats - which they said yes to - but which were promptly dropped into the pool. This led to their next activity for the next 10-15 min. Dip the hat into the pool . . . exit the pool . . .
run across the yard and let the water drip from the hat onto the tomatoes in our "pseudo-garden" . . .
try to smile when Mom asks you to . . .
run back to the pool . . . and repeat. Overall, the girls spent an hour playing in the pool which equaled the hour that I spent blowing it up, so I figured that was pretty good.
And on a completely random side. The other night I looked outside and saw these 2 "jungle women" out in the yard. It just made me laugh.
We went to the beach on Saturday, to avoid the Labor Day rush, and it was great! The sun was shining, a cool breeze was blowing, and there weren't a ton of people. We were at Westport, on the WA coast. This isn't a great picture, but I love how you can see the Olympic Mtns while you're at the beach.
The girls had fun digging in the sand . . . it's always hard to know where to start.
Amelia wanted to fly her kite, and did a great job getting it up and keeping it up.
And then Sophia wanted a turn holding the kite. She did great, until she got bored, and then just let go of the kite. Thank goodness the wind wasn't blowing too hard and I was able to catch it after running after it.
More digging in the sand . . . who needs a shovel? I've got hands!
And a few sand angels . . . doesn't everyone do sand angels?
And then the girls got brave enough to play in the water. . . and couldn't stop giggling and laughing, they were having so much fun.
My friend Liza and I went to the "beach" with our kids today, ie. Tolmie State Park, on the south tip of the Puget Sound. They looked so cute walking up the path in their rain coats and rain boots.
The tide was out when we got there, so there were sand bars to stand on in the middle of the water.
My girls don't care if it's not sunny at the beach. All they want to do is dig in the sand . . .
and throw things into the water . . .
and walk in the water.
All in all, a successful day at the beach before it started pouring rain, and we headed for home.
