Blueberry picking...

Daddy took the kids blueberry picking Monday morning...

Clara had her first sleepover Sunday night with her good friend, Grace, but we were able to meet up with them and help out after I picked her up...
We recently rediscovered our ice cream maker, and made some delicious vanilla ice cream to put blueberries on top of!
Sweet Clara...

Our brown-eyed girl :)

and our goofball! After I uploaded these pictures, I realized that the dress that Eliza is wearing is the same one that Hannah had on earlier in the day for picking berries! Eliza is always wearing clothes from Hannah's drawers and closet! She loves her big sister :)

I love that we live somewhere where we can pick berries in the summer!

Someone gets to skip her nap today...

The kids and I spent 4 days in Chelan last week, and Daddy worked both days of the weekend, so I didn't have the energy to insist on naptime today. I put off getting Eliza down for her nap, and before I knew it, it was 4 pm.....deciding that an early bedtime sounded good, I let her skip her nap today and watch a movie with her sisters. She was thrilled :)
This outfit is all part of her "disguise" that Hannah helped her with...complete with belt head band and dog leash attached!....the disguise was supposed to make it so that I couldn't find her to put her down for her nap ;)

Here is the little mastermind....

A pretty cute one!

My sweet boy....where did these blond-haired, blue-eyed kids come from?!??

Jumping boy!

We didn't have one of these for the girls, but borrowed one from friends this time around...

Isaiah loves to jump, and we all love watching him do it!

I've noticed that he is wanting new entertainment these days. He quickly gets bored with his familiar toys, and at times will just pick up the toy a put in front of him, and throw it! He loves anything new that he hasn't seen before, so some recent favorites are empty water bottles that make a good crinkle noise and good old cups and spoons to bang together!

These two are such sweet friends. They have been getting dressed together in the morning, trying to find outfits that look similar, so they can play twins. They wanted to share a chair to eat their breakfast...

Another one of Clara's creative ideas...the diaper box arrived, and Clara had all three of them decorating their "airplane", then they all hopped in together for their flight!

Having fun in the backyard with the hose...

and some grass, some dirt, and a pair of shoes! I looked out a bit later, and these two had created some big mud puddles that they were jumping into, splashing mud everywhere and having the best time! They both got a quick spray-down with the hose before they were allowed back inside!

Getting ready for the outdoor movie Toy Story 3...

Isaiah loved the big screen, and even Teanne got tucked under a blanket to watch!

The girls discovered that the huge mirror propped against the fence (that has just been waiting for a trip to the dump!) made a perfect reflection on the house for shadow dancing...

I think Clara and Hannah must have learned this pose from their cousins :) Eliza is giving it her best effort!

We got Darien and Monica for another 5 days. They were super-helpful with the kids and took Hannah and Eliza to the mall and park 2 days while Clara was at VBS. They were on kid-duty while Nana cleaned and organized the house. She did an amazing amount of work in 4 full-time days!! Now it's my job to try to maintain it :) We're back to just the 6 of us after 6 weeks of family at our house and our week in Oregon. We LOVED all the visits and play time!!! We're down to the last couple of weeks of summer, and then it's time to start shifting to earlier bedtimes and figuring out first grade curriculum for Clara and pre-K for Hannah!

Clara had her first soccer practice last week. We might as well start soccer, since it feels like fall most days anyway! :) She was so excited. We were about 15 minutes late, though, because I didn't realize how much extra time it takes to gather the gear and put on soccer socks, shin guards and shoes! I put the shoes on before the shin guards and had to start the whole process over again.....it's been MANY years since I've played soccer!

Another reason we were running late......Hannah and Eliza were taking FOREVER in front of the mirror stying their hair! I love this picture of Clara all dressed to go play soccer and Lizzie with her styling tools...

Clara's good friend, Kenzie, is playing on the same team, which Clara was so excited for!

I didn't realize how much Hannah wished she could play this fall, too. Joe was such a great dad and bought Hannah her own pair of shin guards on his way home from work the next day. She put them on right away, wore them to Costco that evening, and they were still on when I tucked her into bed that night!

Eliza's been trying on her big sister's gear, too!

Clara is really excited about her game uniform, and she's tried it on several times!

I'm hoping for some sunny, fall weekends for watching soccer games :)

7 months!

How can he be so old already?!

Some of his new tricks are shaking his head back and forth when we say "no, no, no", reaching his hand up and giving "high fives" and pulling the blanket up over his head when we say "where's Isaiah?" and then pulling it down and laughing. The girls are having so much fun with the new things that he can do!



Uh, Oh!!!

He's also getting really good at grabbing everything....and he's getting quick at it!

When we got back from vacation, the girls found tons of peapods waiting to be eaten! Hannah found this giant one...

Clara, collecting some food...




Aunt Julie and Te came back with us to spend the week, and the girls have fun trying on Aunt Julie's leg braces...

We've had to search for them a few times because they are such a fun toy...

Our princesses....I'm glad that the girls still have fun dressing up, so Eliza gets a chance to use the costumes, now that she can fit into them!

The girls kept busy out on the deck making "soap".....one of the main ingredients was actually dirt....

so the clean-up entailed a bit more soap :)

The first thing Hannah wanted to do when we got home from vacation was ride her bike! She asks every day.....many times a day.....to ride!