Pool Time in the Backyard!

Thor's first time in the pool.  He was not a fan of the slip-n-slide and he defiantly did not like the sprinkler and the pool seemed to have the same reaction!

Or maybe not!  He actually liked the pool once he got use to the cold water.  I think it was a bit of a shock to his system to be in it.  Maybe he takes after mommy and will only go in the water if it is warmer but still cool or unless he is extremely hot!! Hehe  The girls of course had a blast!!

Arrows

On one of the several beautiful days here we were hanging out in the front yard so Grace could ride her bike.  We live in a pretty quiet part of our neighborhood and not too many cars go down our street unless they live near us so as long as we are outside we let Grace ride her bike in the street.  We were sitting out there just enjoying the day and watching her go in circles, literally in circles.  No back and forth from one end to another just going around and around.  Seemed pretty boring.  It was then that Mark got this wonderful idea of putting arrows down for her to follow.  I was thinking he was just going to do a couple and just a small path.  I was wrong!  He took up the whole street in front of our house and others!!

Of course it didn't take long before Eva wanted to join in on the fun.  Except she was not very good at pedaling and was getting frustrated cause she wasn't covering very much ground.  So Daddy decided to help her out!! :)

After "driving" the route for a while Mark made some improvements and they were back at it again!

The girls had a BLAST!!!  They loved it!!  Not only did they love it but several people through out the neighborhood loved it!!  It was fun to sit in our living room and at least once a night we would see and hear people out there riding their bikes, scooters and some just walking it.  It enticed not only the young but all ages! :)

Standing

So right after Thor figured out the army crawling he began pulling up on things but only to his knees.

 That lasted about a day maybe two before I walked into his room after a nap to find this....

 Yup time to lower the mattress!!!

 With in a couple of weeks he was standing up every chance he got!  The girls were so excited until they realized he could now reach more of their toys.  They are still very good spirited about it and most of the time they laugh about it or try to distract him before he destroys what ever it is they are playing with.

 It also means that every morning and afternoon I am greeted this way! :)

4th of July

Our 4th of July celebrations were very low key this year.  We stayed home, had a couple people over for dinner and then went to bed or tried too...

We did not even get fireworks this year.  All we got was some snaps and poppers, I'm sure that is not what they are called but I don't know the name of them.  

Eva was not a fan of the poppers.  I guess it reminded her of balloons popping.  I'm not really sure but she sat behind me like this the whole time the other kids were doing it.

After everyone left we found a box of unopened snaps so we went to the front to set those off before bed.  (Yes even though the sun is this bright it was after 8:00!!)

The neighbors were out side doing small little fireworks and asked if the girls would like to do sparklers with them.  Grace jumped at the chance and Eva hid behind either Mark or myself.

After all that fun it was time for bed.  It was getting pretty late and we were hoping the girls would fall asleep before the fireworks started.  We did not go to fireworks or keep the girls up for them cause it doesn't get dark here until after 10:00!  So the big fireworks don't really start until sometime between 10 & 10:30, that is just too late for my little ones.  However, due to the small bangs of the smaller fireworks Eva could not fall asleep and was up until the big ones started and then there was just no sleep for her.  All the banging was scaring her.  I finally decided to take her outside so she could see them.  She loved them or the sight of them anyways.  She was not a fan of the loud bangs.....

Thankfully after watching them for 10 or so minutes she was finally able to go to sleep!  However, I was not so lucky it was after midnight before I ever slept!  At midnight all the fun had to stop.....thankfully!!  It seriously was 2 hours straight of nonstop bangs!! :)

Hope everyone else had a great 4th!!

Soccer

Grace has been asking to play soccer for the last year or so but with our move it just didn't work out last year.  However, I found a sports class over the summer that was soccer and t-ball combined.  Here are a couple pictures and videos from the soccer sessions.  I would have included t-ball but I still need to filter through the pictures from the second half of summer. :)

Army Crawling

A progression of videos on the army crawling.....

Of course by now he is much faster than these videos and he can even crawl normal.  However, he prefers to army crawl cause he can do it faster and get to things quicker!! :)