Fun with Cousins, The Children's Museum

A week ago, we went to the Children's Museum with the cousins. They all played in the area with the balls when you first walk in for a while, but they all moved on after a while except for Evie. She played there for such a long time, and was just amazed by the balls going up the tubes. It was really fun to watch her as she tried to figure out how it all worked. 

I love her face in this one!

Sam took advantage of the time to get in a good afternoon nap

Finally, I picked up Evie and took her into the rest of the museum. She was kicking and screaming at first because I was taking her away from the balls, but as soon as she saw all the other fun things in there, she was soon excitedly exploring everything.

She especially loved the little grocery store. She loaded up her cart as full as it could get!

Nora trying out the bug-mobile

Everyone wanted a turn riding the big horse!

The water table was a lot of fun to experiment with

Evie picking the flowers - she did eventually put them back

Nora checking out one of my favorite things in the little play house - 

The little mouse hole!

Evie cooking up something delicious 

Nora ironing 

After the museum closed, we went to dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. We had such a big group, they had to seat us at two tables. Somehow, all the kids ended up at one table. It was a pretty interesting dinner! 

Here is Grammy at the kids' table!

Mom bought a fun toy that the kids played with at dinner. They were little magnetic shapes that you could use to build things. Andrew built some very neat structures, and the smaller kids had fun smashing them! Oh boy.

For some reason, Evie refers to these toys as "ingos"

Me and my sweet little man!

Smiley Boy

Sam has been smiling more and more lately. He seems to really be getting the hang of it, and he can tell that I just love it!

Today we were visiting my parents, and Sam spent some time in the "nest". Nora put up some little animal friends for him to look at.

I got the camera to see if I could get a smiling picture, and he was a little charmer!

Awww!

A little blurry, but so cute 

Super happy!

My Family, by Nora

On Sunday, Nora's Sunbeam class was about families. When we got home from church, she drew this picture all by herself, then came and showed it to me. I think it is so cute.

Summer Time

I love summer! There is always lots of fun stuff going on. Here are a few things we've been able to do in the past week:

Some moms organized a weekly playgroup for the neighborhood during the summer, and it has been really fun. Last week they had it in the evening, and set up a water slide on the hill at the park. Nora loved the water slide, and went on it over, and over and over!

Here she is waiting in line. We had to help her with that concept a little bit.

Getting ready to go...

Wheeee!

Evie was too scared to go down the slide, but she had a ball running up and down the hill and watching the other people go down the slide.

She also hung out with Mike and Sam for a while on the beach towel

Sam and Daddy watched from the shade

On Saturday, we were able to go to a fun birthday party at "Jump on It". We had never been there before, but they have two big areas with trampolines, one for little kids and one for bigger kids and adults. They also had a wall with big inflatable bounce houses and slides for little kids to play on. Nora got right into it and had a blast!

Evie was a little cautious at first, then decided to try the "Monkey House". After a while she figured out how fun it was to jump in there. Later on she tried the trampolines with me. What a fun place.

Peeking out the door to the monkey house!

On Monday we went with my mom to the 24th of July parade float preview at the South Towne Expo Center. It was great to be able to see all the floats close-up (and in an air conditioned place!). The overall theme for the floats was "Then and Now". Nora was impressed by all the glitter.

The girls liked this giant piggy bank

Grammy and Sam in front of the Chinese dragon float

This temple float was really neat

Nora's favorite was this fairy tale float

This Egyptian float was really well done. The theme of it was preparedness, referencing the story of Joseph in Egypt.

We thought of Dad when we saw this giant owl!

They gave everyone a ballot to vote for their favorite float. It was very hard to decide since there were so many great ones.

Hanging Out at Home

Here are some recent pictures I have taken while we have been doing things at home. We get out a lot more than we did when I was pregnant, but it is also good to have some downtime at home.

Sam has two older sisters who like to help take care of him. Nora is keeping him company while he is having some dreaded tummy time. 

Then Evie decided that he needed to be cleaned

He is starting to make some really cute smiles, but I haven't quite caught one on camera, yet. He looks at your face really intently while you smile at him, then does a concerned face like he is really concentrating, then a big smile! So cute.

One of Nora's random outfits 

I was going to break down these big boxes for recycling, but the girls started playing in them so we decided to decorate them and play with them in the backyard. The girls were very excited about the tempera paint. Nora said that hers was her kitty house. 

Nora caught Sadie, then decided that she wanted to hear a story since she had been hiding in the bookcase. Sades looks thrilled, doesn't she?

Evie found Brina!

Sam is getting some cute baby chub!

He is also getting a lot more aware of the things around him, and likes to play in his baby gym.

I got a new duvet cover for our master bedroom, since the old one had a hole in it, and had been through an unfortunate bleaching incident. The new one is a little flowery for Mike's taste, but I'm hoping it will grow on him.

Brina likes it!