Josey & Caity

 Our dear friend, Josey came to visit this summer. This time she brought one of her friends, Caity. We are so happy to have a new friend! In addition to having a ton of fun with Josey and Caity, Caity took a LOT of really great pictures of our week together. Here are some, in no particular order.

Running to home at one of her last two T-ball games.

He's just too cute!

My little blue eyed boy, swimming on our turtle.

Gracie was upset that I only had a plain band-aid, so I was drawing happy faces on it!

Such an angel...

Josey's one year pic. She has one like this of each of my kiddos.

Yea! Josey's here!

huh?

Besties

Gracie loves the giraffe Josey & Caity bought her. She named him Babycakes.

Besties: You can have more than one best friend!

Teddy Bear Park

Jerry's First Birthday.

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 :)

Brianna's First Birthday Party

We had a Bee theme.

Gracie liked Bee's hat.

We had a kiddie obstacle course set up.

Singing to the Birthday Girl.

Cake!

Checking out the new toys at home. It's so fun to watch them play together!

Hopscotch

The neighbor girls decided to teach Gracie how to hopscotch the other day. . .

Watching her friends draw the hopscotch. . .

Oh well.

An Evening with Friends

The boys decided to have a wings night, so the girls decided to get the kids together and have a night too. Above, Bee is pretty excited to not be the smallest person in the room. Richard was less impressed with the situation.


We let the girls do some bubble painting by blowing bubbles in a mixture of water, liquid soap, and neon food coloring. Then they laid a piece of paper on the bubble, which left a pop print on the paper.

Shirley did great with it. Gracie tried it twice and was ready for a bath.

As we were packing our stuff up to go home Gracie put Richard's boots on (big Richard, not Baby Richard, obviously).

Meeting Baby Evan

Daddy's sister, Jenni is in town from Portland so we FINALLY get to meet Baby Evan! Brianna got a three month head start on Evan, and it's a good thing she did!

Of course, Gracie couldn't let the babies have ALL the fun!

Balloons

The girls and I went out to Red Robin with some friends last night to celebrate one of our friend's birthday. I love how kid-friendly this restaurant is. They have lots of balloons in the entryway for people to grab. Gracie ended up with three!

Playdate!

Shirley came over for a playdate today! Gracie loves Shirley, talks about her often, and doesn't see her nearly enough. So today was a bit of a treat for her. She completely lit up when I told her Shirley was going to come over to play.

Enjoying a water picnic.

I can't help it, I love this picture!
They are sifting sand and collecting the rocks in the bucket.

Stopping at the feltboard on the way to the bathroom to paint. It was SJ's first time painting, and with no nap, it was a bit rough at a couple of points but I think she did great overall. I'm sure next time she'll have even more fun.

Using shaving cream to clean up.

Taking a break from the action to watch Veggie Tales and eat frozen yogurt tubes.
After this, Gracie took a nap, and SJ chilled in front of the t.v. resting for a couple of hours. Then we all got ready for church.

SJ licking yogurt off Gracie's finger-a little snack before church.