Rewind (July-Present)

I promised myself that I would completely catch up on the blog before the baby came. And I finally am --with a week and a half to spare!

The kids loved "helping" Popie water the garden.

For the Fourth of July, we did our usual fireworks display at home

and invited our neighbors, the Nelsons, to join us.   Actually, Michael was the only one of our kids who really enjoyed the evening.  Sadie was glued to her seat the whole time; she didn't want to get any closer to the fireworks than she had to --until we set off some blackcats and then she jumped up and ran to Nana's lap with her hands over her ears.

Adelaide stayed like this pretty much the entire time.  She didn't like the noise or the lights.  Even now, several months later, whenever she hears a loud noise, she'll run to me and cry "Fireworks; scare me!"

Happy 2nd Birthday, Ada!  What a sweet, bright, (mostly) happy, and extremely enthusiastic little person she has turned into.  Whether it's playing, dancing, reading a story, or throwing a little fit, she puts her whole heart into everything she does.

If you haven't already caught on, Adelaide loves horses, and she was very particular that she wanted a pony birthday. This is what I came up with, and she LOVED it! She still talks about her "pony cake" about once a day.

Here, the girls are sporting some very fashionable "pony tails."

One of Ada's presents was a pony on a stick, but surprisingly, she didn't care too much for it.  Maybe a pony head on a stick is too abstract for her right now?  Anyway, Sadie latched onto it and is giving it plenty of attention.  She loves ponies too, as long as they are "princess ponies."

Our ward (church congregation), hosts a Christ-Centered Children's Camp each summer, similar to VBS. Michael loved it!  Here he is showing off his "grass head."  I think it was from a lesson about "the wheat and the tares."

Aunt Alison came up one weekend to enjoy some homemade imaginary cookies and pie at this delightful picnic tea party.

A few weeks ago, Nana treated us to a trip to the Downtown Aquarium.  It was our first visit, and we had a blast!

We saw lots of fish,

the famous white tigers (I was so sorry to not get a better picture of this.  The tiger was really active, even jumping up onto the glass enclosure like it was trying to pounce on all the on-lookers.  I thought it was kind of scary, but it didn't phase the kids at all. I guess they just thought he wanted to play.),

rode the Ferris wheel (I think this was Michael and Sadie's favorite part),

and rode the Shark Train. --It's so cool. It takes you into a tunnel full of nothing but sharks swimming over and around you.  The neatest things were the sawfish! They really do look like the pictures in the books.

This is Ada's fake smile.  Whenever you take her picture, she immediately makes this goofy, toothy grin and says through clenched teeth, "Cheese!"

We moved Ada into Sadie's room a few months ago, and to appease the resident inhabitant, we sweetened the deal by turning it into a "princess room."

This month, we got Sadie a big-girl bed, which she loves!!!

Ada got Sadie's toddler bed, which she loves (Here she is showing off Bebe and Horsey.) . . . and the baby will the crib in a few months.

Michael just finished his second week of school.  Here he is on his first day, excited and ready to learn!  Sadly, he came home a little less enthused and said it was "pretty boring."  It has, however, gotten a little more interesting, and he seems to be enjoying it fairly well.  He comes home every day and his big news is not about anything they learned; it's about everyone's behavior and whether or not they got candy as a reward.

 

Last week, Sadie decked herself out in hair accessories, came into my room and announced, "Aren't I beautiful?!".

We do miss having Michael at home all day, but I have to say that the girls are managing pretty well without him.  They have been getting better and better about playing together and making up their own entertainment.  Last week we had some friends over. They all got dressed up and had a dance party. --Girls really are sooo different from boys.

Funny story: I was in the girl's room one day while they were playing dolls. One of the dolls, "big baby," is larger and more life-like than the others.  I said something about how it was about the same size our baby would be when it is born.  The Sadie turned to me and said "Hey, maybe that's where the doll came from.  They dried out a baby."  Of course, I started laughing at the thought of a doll being a taxidermied baby.  The Adelaide picked up the doll, licked it, and announced, "Juicy!" --like it's obvious it's not a dried out baby; it tastes good.