Rain or Shine

Of course the one time we pre-planned a driveway happy hour is the one time the monsoon actually develops and doesn't skip over our neighborhood. Luckily it started early and the worst of the storm did avoid our neighborhood. We were left with temperatures in the low 80's and light rain most of the evening. Not enough to keep the kids inside.

Ghetto cooler: Omaha Steaks styrofoam in a Radio Flyer wagon

 Eloise loved the rain but mommy hooked her up with a little shelter in style...

 A little rain won't keep these kids from having fun!

 

Sunday Sillies

Grandpa Larry, Gramma Judy and Allison came over to hang out and play on a hot Sunday afternoon.

The big girls played Twister while Gramma and Natalie called out the moves. Eventually the big girls let Natalie play and after a few rounds, Twister evolved into a silly lazy game.

What Twister looks like when the rule about not touching the floor is thrown out the window...

Since she couldn't join in the Twister fun, Eloise wanted to show off her reading skills for Grandpa...

First Day of Pre-K

In true Natalie-style, she got a new dress and transitioned into the Pre-K room (5-days a week now) on July 20.  She is loving school, her teacher, her new friends and is learning so much.  She'll be ready for Kindergarten in no time.

"Mom, can't we just go inside already?"

   And then at school, her wonderful teacher took a photo of each of them.

Poker Face

We thought it would be fun to play cards with Natalie, so we taught her how to play poker.  We went with 5-card draw to keep things simple.  And we made it a matching game, so there were no straights, flushes, etc.  Both daddy and Natalie have a pretty solid poker-face.

Natalie was struggling to hold all five cards, so she laid them out behind a wall.

She was super excited to reveal her cards, especially when she had pairs.

And very eager to help keep score, which entailed awarding smiley faces for winning a hand.

 A little sample of how the night went...

 And after three hands, the little booger whipped out this Full House.

At the end of the night, Daddy won (as usual). But as Natalie went to bed, she was asking "Can we play again tomorrow?  Like all day?"

Eight Months of Eloise

"I was so excited to be turning 8-months old that I woke up at 6am. So mommy came in with a nice warm bottle and sang the familiar birthday song to me very quietly so as not to wake up everyone else. It was so nice of her that I made sure to give her some extra special rocking-chair snuggles."

Eloise and George: July 18, 2015

"Despite being 8-months old, I have no teeth and cannot crawl. I started sitting up the day after my 7-month birthday and have pretty much perfected that trick since then. I am beginning to roll from back to belly to back to belly but I prefer rolling in one direction so I don't seem to make much forward progress."

"Mom and Dad recently realized how much I LOVE to read. One of my favorite books so far is called 'Puppies and Kittens' because I can tell the difference between dogs and cats.  Well, kind of. If the dog looks a lot like Gus, I can tell that it's a doggie. Some other dogs still look a little like cats to me. I read the book pretty much every day though, so pretty soon I'll be a master at telling dogs and cats apart."

"I eat as much as humanly possible.  I wake up around 7 or 8am everyday and eat a bottle followed by a little bowl of baby food fruit.  I play for 2 or 3 hours and then take a 1-2 hour nap.  I eat lunch with mommy, which is a bottle and a bowl of baby rice cereal mixed with either a veggie. I play or swim with mommy for 2 or 3 hours and then take a 1-2 hour nap.  Right before mommy needs to go pickup Natalie from school, I eat another bottle and have a bowl of baby food chicken and apples.  I go to school to pickup my sister and then play with her when we get home for an hour or so.  Then... I take another nap.  Usually around 8pm, mommy or daddy wake me up, give me a bath and feed me one last bottle.  Sometimes I stay awake and talk to them and sometimes I go right back to bed. Just depends on how busy my day has been."

Snoozing with mommy's old Cabbage Patch Doll.

"Mommy made me test out the new (hand-me-down) hiking gear one night after bath before we went to Flagstaff. Can you believe she wasn't sure if I would like it or not?"

"And this is just to prove to everyone that I am not always as happy as all the photos look..."

A link to Natalie's 8-month update:
http://suburbanhayes.blogspot.com/2011/12/8-months-old.html 

Dueling Tutus

Normally I do not subscribe to forcing kids to wear matching outfits. Just seems like a lot of unnecessary planning/effort. But then I saw these tutus... on the clearance rack for $2. I just couldn't leave them there.

Needless to say, now the girls have one thing that matches.

 

Fourth of Flagstaff

To change things up a bit, we decided to travel to Flagstaff for the Fourth of July this year.  We went with Scott's childhood friend, Vince, his wife and their two daughters. So we packed up our trusty Bus with two adults, three kids, a dog, three bikes and a whole lot of crap and we hit the road...

 

The next day we all decided to go hiking in Lockett Meadow...

 

After hiking a little over 2 miles, we went out for lunch at Lumberyard Brewing Co. where our non-service dog was banished to the outside of the patio.  He made friends with everyone. If we had stayed a little longer, he probably would've been offered a job as greeter.

That night we had fun with sparklers...

A thunderstorm kicked up right around bedtime and Gus volunteered to keep Natalie and Maddie safe in their room...

The next morning we got our red, white and blue on and headed off to watch the parade through downtown Flagstaff.

 Followed by lunch, which for Eloise meant her first dill pickle.

As a birthday present to Katie, Scott took her to the Flagstaff Extreme Adventure Course for the afternoon.  (http://www.flagstaffextreme.com/Adult-Course.html)  Due to some thunder, they were put on a delay and then eventually pulled down out of the trees.

 

 

Meanwhile, after some big naps, the rest of us headed out to the Flagstaff Amphitheater to see a free concert put on by the Flagstaff Symphony.  It was perfect weather for some outdoor music.

Thankfully the weather held out and the next morning, Scott and Katie were able to go back bright and early and finish the Adventure course together.