Balloon FUN

Last night we had a nice dinner at our friend's house!

The girls got to throw water balloons after dinner, but the most fun was their attempt at blowing up the balloons!! Abby struggled but soon figured it out and had a blast. My friend Danielle caught some great photos of her trying!

Peach Festival

We headed down to Knotts Island, NC for their Peach Festival!

Cute bouncy houses for the kids, face painting, food and more.

Good little afternoon outing that took us about an hour South just over the border into North Carolina!

 Abby LOVED the bouncy slide!

 Maddy's turn down the slide!

 Abby going through the obstacle course bouncer

Bikini!!!!!

Its all the rage.......a tiny weeny pink BIKINI!!!

Some of her friends have had them so far this summer, so I indulged her wishes and picked out this cute one on sale!! I was nervous it wouldn't fit though since she has such a small waist and butt, but alas, it was perfect and she loves it!

Princess Tea Party Anyone??

Nothing like a tea party with friends!! (Especially when your friends are a Tiger and a Teddy bear!!)

Cut & Paste

Abby's newest discovery is that she learned to use scissors!

So cut and paste is the new thing to do in our house. And on day 1 of her cut/paste attempts, while I was making dinner, she created this kite all on her own. Mike walked in the door and she started asking for string for her kite. No kidding this started out as 1 solid piece of yellow paper and she cut the corners & sides and pasted them back on to get it to a kite shape (diamond).

Fish out of water

After getting out of the pool, a certain someone was annoyed that she wasn't getting all the attention and pouted on the side of the pool while daddy and Maddy played.

Then she figured out how to engage Maddy again, and the fun continued! It was like Batman and Robin......as Maddy chased her "cape".

Splish Splash

Maddy has her own way of playing in the pool, which is exactly how I remember Abby doing it the first year we moved here when she was the same age. She does love to swim occasionally, but she has more fun playing on the steps and throwing toys in the pool! The other night after big sister got out, she found a new friend to play with.....DADDY! They took turns pouring water on each others heads! She was a good sport.....so was daddy!

Monkey Madelyn

Maddy can be such a monkey lately! Here she is climbing and chewing on the baby gate (whats new....this kid chews on everything....she's like having a new puppy around the house).

Swimmer Part 2

Here she is swimming again! I think she is trying to save us on swim lessons for next summer......we shall see!!! (If the video takes too long to load, just click the "YOU TUBE" button on the bottom right of the video screen below and it will open it in a new window to view)

Learning to Swim on her own!!!!!

Sooooo.....our BIG Girl is learning to swim. We've been trying for weeks to talk her into letting us swim with her without her floaty on, to proove to her she can at least touch in the shallow end on her tippy toes! And to our amazement, she let us do it tonight. Not only that, but as soon as she conquered walking around the shallow end on her own, she jumped off the swim step and swam out to us all on her own. She kicked her little feet and kept her head above water just right (and Mike even checked under the water while she swam to confirm that her feet were not touching the bottom as she kicked)! Who knew!!!???!!!! She was SOOO proud of herself and even showed us how she could pull herself out of the pool all by herself (another first).
Here's the 1st of 2 quick videos from tonight with her swimming without her floaty!

Uh Uh!

These days Maddy knows EXACTLY what she does and doesn't want!
As I was giving her a bath last night, Abby tried offering her toys and she kept saying "uh uh"and sometimes shaking her head. I think she was fooling around with Abby, getting her to offer every toy in the tub just for fun!

Newest Creation in our bread world

Mikes newest creation.....Sourdough!! And it is WONDERFUL.....while it lasts!!

It was a 3-4 day process to prep the mix and let it sit, but he did a great job and it is great for breakfast!

Garden FUN!

Spent the morning at our local Botanical Gardens, where they opened their new butterfly and maze exhibits for the summer. The girls had a lot of fun and cooled off at the water garden afterwards since it was in the 90's today!

 Abby giggling as she found a butterfly!

 Maddy attempting to touch EVERYTHING....she's a very hands-on girl

 Hmm......where did daddy go?? First maze!!

 Second maze....you can see Abby's head sticking up in the far row!

 Reward for solving the maze.....ringing the bell!

Big Girl Meals

Maddy has finally graduated from her highchair seat, to a booster at the table.

She is definitely big enough, and I am tired of washing the tray 3 times a day!!

Another feat......she made it through two days of not emptying her plates onto the table! In her high chair I guess she got so used to me putting the food directly on the tray that when I started giving her food on a plate, she would immediately dump the plate contents onto the tray and hand me the empty plate saying "All Done". Cute, but not functional. She is starting to figure out we all use plates!

Sisterly......torture (I mean love)

The ups and downs of being a little sister.......this moment was definitely a DOWN!
(FYI- no children were harmed in the production of this photo......)

Even though Maddy looks like the wicked witch under the house......or in this case the couch!

Just Girls Having FUN!

My friend Danielle dropped her girls (Addison & Casey) off yesterday for a fun filled morning, and boy was it ever.

These girls love spending time together, and they enjoy every minute. Here are some photos I took, and cute video I captured.

Video link of the girls having fun eating their lunch outside:


Video link of the girls (AKA Princesses) playing ring-around-the-rosie with Maddy: