A week with Ganiyah

Ganiyah has been a wonderful friend to the girls since the moment she was born and we are always delighted to have her over. Her daycare was closed for the week so we happily included her in our week's activities. The girls had a great time dressing up and performing their dances/songs for me. What Alette and Abria lack in talent, they made up for in creativity and enthusiasm. I've been going through some old pictures and couldn't resist posting this one of Ganiyah and Abria.

Missing NC already....

I really want to take the girls to the beach one more time before we buckle down to school and busier schedules. However, the outerbanks spoiled us! As glad as I am to live close (relatively) to Ocean City, it is a pale comparison to NC. So I am reliving by browsing and organizing pictures. This is from our last day-by this point the girls were very comfortable in the water and clearly having a blast! Even Xander was delighted to be a part of the group jumping-his initial foray into the water caused him to freeze. Just a few more swim days....

Go to the pool, go to the beach...repeat....

Sand, water, and lots of free time. It is the perfect holiday mix. It is so interesting to see the progress the girls make each year. This year Alette easily leapt into the pool and the ocean and by the week's end was happily ducking her head under the waves. This was also the week that suddenly Alette decided she was ready for a shower....a HUGE leap forward for her. Although she still needs/wants me near, it means that the sand actually got rinsed from her hair every night. Of course, once Abria saw her big sister in the shower, she too wanted to take one. That was much less successful. She stood plastered against the wall, slightly overwhelmed by all the water and as a result, was very happy to return to taking baths. However, Abria easily overcame her hesitation by the beach. She loved running into and out of the waves, over and over and over again. True to her nature, Abria wasn't much into jumping the waves but instead prefered to sit on the sand between the wave action.
Miss Z was also able to make the trip with us. It was a huge deal for her and she was initially terrified of the ocean. However, when she saw the girls frolicking and screaming in delight her desire to join in overwhelmed her fear. She definitely had to be coaxed each day back into the pool and the waves but made huge strides in overcoming her initial fright.

We hit the woods!

We once again joined some of our church friends for the annual camping trip at Hickory Run State Park in Pa. The girls simply love it and beg to stay longer each year. Truthfully, at the end of the four days I am exhausted and ready for the comforts of home. This was especially true this year as we got POURED on all day Monday and my air mattress deflated every night. Ugh! We survived the rain though, didn't see any bears and I managed to get some sleep. It is so much fun to watch the girls explore, play with friends and generally have a great time.
The girls warm up by the campfire on a chilly morning. I was so impressed by my ability to start a fire...and keep it going!




Alette toasts a breakfast marshmellow. Yes, I let the girls have marshmellows for breakfast on our last morning!



The nearby stream was filled with minnows and frogs. We spotted lots of frogs but were rarely able to catch one.

Happy Birthdays!

This year we got to celebrate two birthdays in one week! Abria turned three on Monday, and Miss Z turned 4 on Thursday. Our week was filled with celebrations. On Tuesday we took the girls out to 'The Pop Shoppe', their favorite restaurant. It was great to escape the heat and enjoy dinner together. Ironically, 2 of the 3 girls nibbled at their food-too engrossed with chocolate milk and too excited about gifts to have much of an appetite.
We continued the celebration on Wednesday when Andy's family came over. Despite the oppressive heat and humidity we all had a great time watching the girls play and open gifts.
Abria is getting the hang of being 3. For a very long time, when talking about birthdays, she would insist she was turning 5-after all, her sister is 5 and she gets to do so much more than a 2 year old. Alette is now insisting that she is 5 and 1/2.

Ice Cream

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice-cream! The weather has been sticky, hot and humid. We've escaped to various a/c locales-thank goodness my girls never grow tired of visiting the bookstore or the petstore. However, this Friday we were bound to be stuck indoors waiting for the city inspector (who gave a estimated time range of 10am to 3pm). So we made it an ice-cream day. The girls had ice-cream with their morning waffles, we did some writing about ice-cream, did an ice-cream craft, and of course, made ice-cream. Making ice-cream in a baggie in your kitchen is not recommended. The bags leaked, the girls quickly got tired of all the shaking and eventually I just stuck the concoctions in the freezer and hoped for the best. A couple of hours later, the girls enjoyed some remarkably good tasting ice-cream!

Pizza Night

We've been reading 'Pete's a Pizza' by William Steig, a very funny and sweet book. We turned Alette into a pizza, did a pizza collage, made playdough pizza and then finally, made pizza ourselves. Alette usually wants to help in the kitchen but loses interest after a very short while. This time though she stuck through-mixing up and kneading the dough, then rolling and stretching it out. Of course it helps that pizza is one of her favorite meals :) and despite the whole wheat crust, she enthusiastically ate several pieces (once she had pulled off all the cheese of course).