Playdate!

 Shirley came over today! This always calls for a fun activity, and I've been meaning to do this painting activity with my girls all summer so it seemed like the perfect time. I rolled tennis balls in paint and put them into the pool and the girls gently tilted the pool to make the ball roll over the paper that was taped to the bottom of the pool. The older girls did awesome, and seemed to really like the process but Bee was slightly tortured that there were balls and she wasn't allowed to grab. 

 Shirley declared that she was making the painting for her Daddy, so Gracie agreed that the next painting was for her Daddy. What a lucky couple of Daddies!

 When all the painting fun was over the kids started begging to swim. I tried to talk them out of it, saying they'd get cold, but all three were asking so sweetly that I got the suits and hose out. Funny, though, as soon as we were situated and I started to clean the patio they all wanted to "help" clean the patio. I gave one of them a sponge to wipe off the picnic table and went in to start lunch. When I came back out, all three of them were using the water to "clean" the patio! It's never been cleaner :)

Scottish Festival

Grandma took us to the Scottish Festival today. The girls had so much fun, they didn't want to leave. Both of them got their face painted. Gracie started to get her hair braided but lost patience with the process. They rode on a car with "Nessie" on top, listened to Scottish music, and shopped at the little vendor booths.

Gracie chose to have her face painted like Ironman.

Of course, it had to be sparkly, so she is "Sparkly Iron-Gracie."

Bee was next. She was quite agreeable to pretty much anything I suggested, but when I said "Puppy?" her face lit up.

Becoming a puppy.

Bee Puppy!
The woman was working on her spots and Bee was excitedly pointing to her pile of paint and exclaiming "Yellow! Yellow! Yellow!" so she became a brown and yellow spotted puppy.

Riding "Nessie."

Gracie went back to the face painting and asked for Spider-Man on her arm.

Mini Ninja

Bee cracked me up today when she grabbed Gracie's Karate uniform off the desk and proceeded to put it on. She asked me to help with the pants and belt and then walked around the room kicking the air and yelling "hi-ya!" Of course, she toned it down as soon as I got the camera on, but towards the end of the video she does a couple of cute kicks.

Preschool

My heart broke a little this week when Gracie had her first day of preschool and I couldn't be there to drop her off and pick her up to ask her about her morning. When I got home from work, I asked her about school and she told me about a little boy that was crying. Apparently he fell and hurt himself but the teacher gave him a band-aid and he's ok. Whew. I plan on getting a picture of the kids on their first day of school every year and wanted to start with PK, so I had her pose on our kiddie picnic table and asked her to "look excited for school." The pic above is what she gave me. After asking to see it, she asked to try again and gave me the ones below. Always a ham!

o

State Fair

I am not a fair-goer. I don't enjoy the crowds, and it pains me to spend so much money on all the food and other things that are so frivolous. However, when Daddy said he wanted to go so the girls could see the animals, we went.

Not being a fair person, I had no idea where to park. We ended up finding an sweet elderly man on a corner who let us park in his driveway for free. When we thanked him for letting us, he thanked us for trusting him! He said lots of people ask him "what's the catch?" and drive away. It was about a two mile walk to the grounds, which would have been fine. But then we realized we were also on the wrong side of the grounds for the animals! Ugg. I can handle a long walk; but a long walk with thousands of people, who all view my stroller as clearing the way so they can cut me off is a bit much for me.

Luckily, the kids' reaction to the animals made it all worth the frustration.

We saw the goats first. Gracie's preschool has goats that the kids take care of and both the girls fed them at the open house. So goats are pretty popular around our house right now. However, Gracie spent most of the time in the goat building asking for the piggies.

Gracie was elated at meeting the piggies. She was amazed by how big they are, and how big their noses are. She danced around in the aisles, singing and loving the pigs~who started at her like she's nuts. I tried to get a video but, of course, she stopped when she saw the camera.

The girls also met and pet a horse, but every time I tried to get a picture of it the horse turned his head out of the frame. Gracie made the owners crack up when she exclaimed "This is the most humongous horse I've ever seen!" It is also the first horse she's ever seen in person!

When walking through the cow building we saw a man caring for this cow and he asked the kids if they would like to pet her. The Bee was very excited, and pet her nose right away. Gracie was a little more timid, but when the man told her they don't even have any top teeth (I didn't know that!) she went closer to pet her.

The kids participated in the Girl Scouts' exhibit, Little Farm Hands. It was a bit frustrating at first, as I thought I could handle both girls and let Daddy take a break. Then we reached the tractors. . .

First, there weren't enough tractors for how many kids entered at once. Then the one Bee got didn't have a trailer, so she didn't know what to do with her bucket of chicken feed she was supposed to be transporting. All the while, Gracie was trying to get on her tractor. None of us knew how far to drive. Bee tipped over on her tractor. . . finally Daddy heard the commotion from across the "farm" and came to rescue us all!

LOVE this pic.
Gracie asked if she could pose with Charlie Brown-which is rare!

Turning in all the fruits, veggies, and milk we "grew" and "milked" to get a dollar from the Girl Scout.

They then brought their dollar to the "store" and picked out a little treat for all their hard work. Bee picked out potato chips, and Gracie surprised us all by picking an apple.

Enjoying their hard-earned treat while Daddy bought some Cheese Curds.
Always the 'Sconie!

So Big, Indeed

See this post?
Gracie was almost ten months old, learning to sit up and do "so big."
See that sleeper she's wearing?
Yeah, JR wore it to bed tonight (at two months) and it fit fine.
What a difference!