The New Routine

on the way, on the way, on the way to the...

All sorts of excitement! Party with friends every day! Nothing could be better! Nothing could bring this girl down!

Oh wait....

Hayden can't come? Talk about your all-time bummer.

I couldn't be more thrilled about the preschool Abbey got into--except the 5 days a week thing. We're all adjusting. I might even have Hayden out of her pj's by the time we go to school by the end of the week :)

Relish

Everything this girl says cracks me up. Not so much what she's saying, but the tiny little voice that says it. I'll bust up then go repeat it to Justin. He says I need to be around adults more.

You know. Refine my sense of humor or something.

That There's an RV

We snuck away for a little anniversary celebration. Oh...and these two tagged along :)



I looked into surprising J with a weekend away, but didn't know what to do with the girls. So I quickly decided to scrap my ideas and go celebrate our anniversary as a family. I've met a sweet girl this year through blogging who got married the same week as us and celebrates it with her kids. I love that idea--celebrating the anniversary of your family with your family :)

We were one of the first people on the beach that morning. Mostly because we were the only ones awake at the crack of dawn. See, we decided to rough it and go camping. What we didn't know was the 'campground' was a parking lot for RV's. We died laughing when we pulled up. We went back to the actual campground to talk to the lady who set up our reservation and she said, "Yeah...I didn't want to say anything and scare you." She offered us a spot in the wooded area, but we opted for the parking lot/sand dune since it was literally right on the beach. So we set up camp among the serious RV'ers, met a lovely couple, Jim and Sallie, who offered their fire and company, and were the first ones awake since everyone else was snug in their beds.

This pensive look on Hayden's face was so curious to me, then I went in for a closer look:

She was trying to 'kiss the sand'. I don't know. Then she didn't know what to do and didn't dare open her mouth. Silly kid.

My main objective was to take a nap on the beach. I woke up to someone laughing about the 'sun bathing baby' and found Hayden completely zonked out in the sand. I'm glad they woke me up so I could put a towel under her and an umbrella over her. Silly kid.

Where was Abbey this whole time? That kid is a fish!! She finally caught our love for the water. She wanted to walk me over to see the lighthouse and it took us 15 minutes to make the three minute walk. She seriously could not stay out of the waves. She'd get out and start walking with me, notice a wave, and go right back in. {side note: she just walked in the room and said "My heart has a bad feeling. My heart is choking because I need some water with ice in it." What?!?} Anyway, we eventually got there and Abbey dared me to jump off the pier like the other teenagers loitering about. I pretended I was scared so that she would egg me on some more. Little does she know I LOVE jumping off things into water. Eventually I got a running start and dove head first into the water. Coolest Mom Ever Status: Solidified.


It's safe to say we found the best ice cream in town. The little place totally reminded me of La Beau's in Bear Lake--all the sun-kissed families enjoying a treat after a day in the water. Abbey charmed the lady into putting a cherry on top for her. That girl always gets what she wants.

One evening a lady walked by, saw our tent in the shadow of a $100,000 RV the size of our old apartment in St Louis and said, "It just doesn't seem fair does it?" Then she saw the kids and said, "You all slept in that tent together?" then just busted up laughing. So did we. It did look pretty pathetic. Even more so the next morning as we packed up in the rain at 7 am after being hit by a storm all night. But overall, it was a fantastic little getaway.

We Know How to Pick 'Em

Something makes me deliciously happy when we roam this little raspberry patch. I love it. Love it, love it. And how cute do those girls look with their milk gallons tied around their waists?

Ha! Caught it mid-spit. "Dats a bad bewwy!"

The blackberries were a hit this time. Did you know those blackberry bushes are vicious? We all have the battle wounds after running down the row before realizing the thorns involved. Abbey opted for higher ground:

My little Hayden. Becoming quite the drama queen. This is what I got after refusing to let her hold my camera:

Cue Charlie Brown music...

how do they even learn that stance?
But in my defense, she looked like THIS:

We went to the patch on a whim while out running errands so the girls weren't dressed for the stains.

Then we still had some shopping to do afterwards.
Looking like this.
And we lost her at the store.
Looking like this.

I'll remember this next time I see a bedraggled child at the grocery store. Maybe they just came back from some fun.

Our Summer Haps

Wanna know what I love? My lawn. Ha ha! Seriously! Look at that lushness.

This is one of those summers where everything is just right. I love my kids ages, I love the fun we can go do every day. Hayden is doing well skipping naps, so we just play all day.

Melody found a children's garden online that happens to be just around the corner. Our kids found a perfect, shady spot to have lunch in the fairy corner.

Little glass beads were strewn about and the kids went bananas for them. It was like magic for them, I loved watching it. In fact, I bought my own bag at Hobby Lobby to scatter a few every time we go for other kids to find. (One time we went and the beads were all gone...it wasn't pretty.)

There are also all sorts of things scattered on the ground to build fairy houses. I took Hayden to the bathroom and when I returned, Melody had built this:



Those lucky fairies.

The girls love water balloons right now. But they DO NOT like them to pop. The things are actually their balloon babies and they walk them around, put them down for naps, love on them. As my sister overheard on the phone, it is pretty traumatic when one of them pops. A few nights ago we were outside playing with the babies in some hot, summer weather and within minutes this enormous storm came through.

One of my favorite memories as a kid was running through a summer storm with my mom, having a water fight with the water running down the gutter :) I thought of her and easily convinced Hayden to join me and Abbey ran out a few minutes later. I love warm rain storms.

My mom randomly emailed me the next day about that particular memory. She was giving a talk in Korea and told that story. She and I hadn't talked about it for years...if ever. It's fun we were both thinking of summer storm memories this week.

Party 'Till You Crash

We partied HARD, starting out the weekend with a curry barbeque at the Aanderuds. I was disappointed to learn my kids were both terrified of fireworks. Fun, fun night. Got home late, woke up early for a pancake breakfast and games with the ward.

We both agreed the kids needed some naps, then woke them up early to head to another party with Justin's co-workers who have become some great friends for us here. And (yay!) the girls both gave the sparklers a shot. On our way home we found a neighborhood putting on their own firework show. We were stunned at how much they spent on fireworks and we'll be back next year. It was perfect to park our car right next to it and watch from inside so the sounds didn't frighten the girls. Maybe we'll pitch in some cash for the show next year!

The next night we were off to J's department head's home for his annual party. Such a great party in a beautiful setting with our own firework show, it makes me happy to continue this tradition.

The girls love the chicken coop and searching for the pale blue eggs, but I took the picture below of Abbey seconds after three of them flew right past her head and ruffled her curls. She was a bit wary after that. Hayden was not!

J unexpectedly had Monday off, and I always love to make poffertjes when we come across a relaxed morning.

Quite the picture overload! But it was a bit of an overloaded weekend, I think we're just now recovering :)

Oooh, edit to add: you will need a poffertjes pan! People are wanting recipes, but I should have warned you'll need some new cooking tools. http://fantes.com/aebleskiver.html (the nonstick poffertjes pan towards the bottom) We came across them in the Netherlands and I begged Koryn to keep taking us back to the market to eat. She bought me my pan for Christmas years ago and it is such a fun breakfast to do. It's a little more labor intensive than pancakes, so I only whip it out when we have some time to enjoy the meal. If you get one, let me know! I'll email you the recipe.

Theatrics

My girls LOVE Goldilocks and the Three Bears right now. I didn't bring our regular books on our trip so they wanted to hear me tell them Goldilocks every night. One evening they got the idea in their heads to act out the story and lucky for them, awesome Uncle Noah and Aunt Allison are always willing to indulge. I don't think they knew what they were in for. Abbey wanted to go through the story about four or five times, each time playing different characters.

My favorite, favorite moment of the night was when Allison was playing Goldilocks and Hayden was baby bear. Hayden surprised me and really understood what was going on; when Allison fell asleep in her bed and Noah and Abbey took off to check on the porridge, Hayden went straight over to Allison and started crying, "Dats MY bed, Dats MY bed!" then tried to drag her away. I loved this night.