More Playing

On Saturday we went out to a campsite in Index where Kathe and Kendra were camping with a group of people.  (Not far from where Martin and I went the two of us a couple weeks ago.) We thought it would be nice to visit with Kendra and hang out by the river for the afternoon. At first Lily had a bit of an attitude- but then she warmed up and ended up having a lot of fun. We played in the water by the river, climbed on rocks and went exploring. Lily and Kendra played with the other kids there in the sand pits, in the field running and chasing and having a great time. Finally as it got dark we got the campfire going and made smores- Lily's first time roasting smores at a campfire. Soooo messy but sooo good! Some of the pictures are blurry....but you get the idea. What a beautiful and peaceful place.

Playing by the river

L O V E love

Last night Lily was painting at the kitchen table as I got dinner ready. She got out her whole little art set and was perfectly happy painting away. When dinner was ready I told her it was time to clean up so we could set the table.

Lily: Mommy I'm done with my painting- it is for you!
Mommy: Ok. Find a place for it to dry- maybe you could hang it on the fridge?
Lily: It is already dry.
Mommy: Great- lets clean up the other stuff then too, ok?

I helped her put her paint set away, she poured her water in the sink and rinsed her brush. As soon as the table was clear I went about my way setting the table getting ready to eat not even thinking about what she had done with the painting.

Later- after she had gone to bed I went into our bedroom and this is what I saw:

She had left it on my nightstand- right on top of the books I'm reading- next to the Frog we painted together on our girl's day and my special box with her "diamonds" in it. A place for special things- she knew it belonged there. And she was right.

LOVE.THAT.GIRL.

This and That..

Last week we were sitting at the dinner table. As I was pouring my soda into my glass Lily looked at me and said totally straight-faced, "Mommy are you having (airquote) Fizzy Juice (airquote)?"

Um. Did you just use airquotes?????

We all died laughing.

Then at bed time she said, "Mommy I don't even know (airquote) when you were born (airquote)."

Um. What is that supposed to mean?

Crazy Kid. Now its a common joke at our house. Though I'm not sure she (airquote) UNDERSTANDS (airquote) why it is so funny.

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Last last weekend the boys had a fishing day and Lily and I had a girl's day. I got... um... 1 scrapbooking page done (wahoo Feb 2006!) then we painted these little cute princess and frog bobble head ceramic things. Lily has greatly improved her fine motor skills since we last attempted that kind of painting. She was concentrating so hard...but then got a little frustrated that it wasn't perfect (my kid??? the perfectionist? NEVER!) Hahahaha.

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Lily is signed up for the Library's summer reading program again this year and we are about halfway- though we didn't make it to the library to get the "halfway" prize yet. We just finished Charlotte's Web- which she loved and are starting Stuart Little- with many shorter books in between. But- I am struggling to come up with many more options for longer books she'd be interested in that come in an at least semi "illustrated" format. Anyone have any childhood favorites they can think of??? I was thinking Little House on the Prairie next but then what? Has to be very kid friendly content- Like, Chronicles of Narnia are a bit much at this point but maybe in the next year or two. I love reading books with more substance to them- it is so much more entertaining...and she is always dissappointed to stop for the night...but super excited to continue the story the next day. It is for sure going to be a challenge keeping her challenged for the next year before she starts Kindergarten.

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We've got so much planned for the rest of the summer...can't wait to share it with all of you!

Remind me...

Remind me to post about the AIR QUOTES and THE READING PROGRAM and GIRLS DAY.

I am so behind!

Bunk Bed

Part One
Poppa got the bunk bed done for the girls. Kendra hasn't seen it yet though. I can't wait 'til she comes over to see. I think the girls are going to have a lot of fun with it. We rearranged the whole room (oh I love rearranging!!! And organizing...wow. I'm sick. Somebody help me.)!!

Lily learned to not be afraid of climbing up and down the ladder in like two seconds (wahoo!). She helped me make Kendra's bed and even put a bunch of her stuffed animals for her up there. The first night she had trouble sleeping but we put her nightlight up right near her now so she's been fine ever since. My big girl. Though notice the winter coat, boots and pants. ON AN 80 DEGREE DAY. But...I let her pick her own clothes so that is what I get. If she gets too hot at school she always has extras. But really, boots???

Part Two coming soon...

Swimming

Lily's first swin in a real swimming pool...she had so much fun. At first she was scared to get in the pool but I scooped her up and took her in with me anyway- she immediately started kicking and wiggling around. Within one minute she turned to me..."Let go Mom! Let go!" as I was gripping her life jacket...I slowly let her go and off she jetted through the water as if she'd done it a hundred times. I caught that momentary glimpse of my little girl- my baby- growing up...soon it'll be her bike with no training wheels "Let go mom!" Then before I know it she'll be grown and I'll have to really let her go...maybe I'm getting ahead of myself...but it was just a moment...then we splashed and played and had a blast cooling off after a very hot day.

Biringer Farm

we decided to go to the Biringer Farm U-Pick Strawberry and Raspberry Patch. It sounded fun but I was a little worried Lily would have fun for like ten minutes then be ready to go...and since we were going to drive all the way past Arlington I wanted to make sure we had more "fun time" than that. Well- we were lucky the weather held out- it was warm and sunny- and we actually did have way more than ten minutes of fun.

We rode the tractor- which Lily wasn't sure about at first- but we were able to convince her and she was fine. The Tractor driver told all the kids that if they didn't have mouths full of berries they wouldn't get to get back on the tractor on the way back...FUN!!!! We ate and picked tons of Raspberries and Strawberries and had lots of fun. I just love doing things like this- making memories, having fun, being a little adventurous- doing things I might not do by myself.

We stopped at a little produce stand/nursery after the berry picking. If you put a little food in the tin can on this pulley system- the goat up on top pulls the rope to get the can of food. Pretty cute.

Flowers for the Fourth

Martin surprised me with these flowers on the deck when I came home from work on friday...

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! We were lucky enough to have Kendra, have a BBQ and make it down to Gasworks to see the big show. A great day for sure.