Weekly Recap: Beach Day, Summer Haircuts, and more

Summer is in full swing here at our house! We had our first BIG beach day with lots of friends the other day!


Now that the local schools are out, I can go to the high school track to run. The kids love it because they can run around on the football field (or the track) and I love it because they are completely contained!



Summer hair cuts also happened this week. Evan did NOT want his hair cut, so I had to bargain with him.

Me: "If you let me cut your hair, you can have a mohawk for a week."
Evan: "Two weeks."
Me: "Fine."





Aria sat up in the shopping cart for the first time this week!



She did so well, we sat her in a restaurant high chair a couple days later.



She now has a fever though, so it might be a while before I stick her back in a germ infested cart or high chair again.

Other photos this week:



Baby stretches






Dinner helper


Ellie being my personal stylist:




And to end with, here are a couple of cute videos from the week:

Ellie making Aria laugh.



Aria playing with her spoon after she's done eating. Maybe she'll twirl the baton when she's older? ;)

Weekly Recap: Cafe Rio and Strawberry Picking!

We started this week off right with a trip up to the new Cafe Rio that just opened about a half hour north of us! The food was just as good as I remember and it was a fun little outing with friends.



Ellie and Mabel were so cute sharing their drink.



After Cafe Rio, we explored the mall a little bit. We passed the American Girl doll store on the way in and Ellie immediately started begging me to go in. We went to the Lego store first, but the whole time, Ellie kept asking me if we could go in "the girl store". When I told her we could, she literally RAN inside, she was so excited. Luckily I don't think she realized that everything in the store is for sale. She just had fun looking. I think I had as much fun looking as she did!



Monday was also Ellie's first day in actual underwear and she did really well! We did end up using all of the spare clothes I brought along, but for her first day, it wasn't too bad.  The rest of the week went really well, too. We had a couple of days with no accidents. She usually doesn't have more than one in a day, so I'd say we're doing ok!



Aria has started rolling with purpose now. She has realized that she can roll over to reach something. I find her wedged under furniture and stuck in corners all the time now.





The most exciting thing for me this week is that my camera came!! I have been saving up and finally bought it for my birthday.



As a result, I have more "real" pictures (as opposed to phone snapshots) than usual this week. :) Mostly of Aria because she's an easy target.









Twirling!


Excuse the lack of clothing, by the way. That's how we do things around here when we're potty training. ;)

Helping fold laundry



On Friday, we went strawberry picking! On the way out the door, Ellie said, "Mom! I need my sunglasses for picking strawberries!"











On the way home, I took a wrong turn and got a little lost. I was glad I did because check out this view we found! (That's Lake Washington with Mercer Island in the middle of it. You can also see Seattle way out there.)



On Saturday we celebrated Ellie's birthday a couple of days early. More on that coming soon! :)

Weekly Recap: Potty training, Snoqualmie Falls, and Father's Day

This past week was our LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL! Hallelujah! We were all so ready to be done. I'm hoping that having my mornings free will help me get back on top of housework and everything. I still feel like I'm in newborn mode even though Aria is already six months old!

The other big development this past week is that Ellie decided she wanted to start potty training! I have been dragging my feet in this department with having a baby and teaching school and everything. Ellie is almost three though (next week!), so it's beyond time to get this going. She suddenly started insisting on wearing underwear and sitting on the potty, so I gave in.



I let her pick out some underwear at the store and she was so excited about them that I let her hold them in the car. She promptly put a pair on her head.





She's doing really well. I was a little lazy about it while we were finishing up with school, but this week, we're jumping in with both feet!

Ellie helped me make a sticker chart for her. I love that the chart is so girly (the colors and the My Little Pony pictures), but her choice for her first sticker was a ninja turtle. :)






We took a little field trip to the science center on Thursday.









Poor Aria got hit by a wayward toy this week.



I was trying to ice it and I was texting with Ben about it. This is the very helpful text he sent me...



Ellie hasn't been quite as much of a stinker in the kitchen lately (thank goodness!), but I did find this lovely sight when I walked into the kitchen the other day.



I took this cute video of Ellie this week. She found this framed piece of music that I used for a Relief Society lesson and was pretending to use it to sing. :) (The hair accessory was all her, by the way.)



On Saturday, we went to Snoqualmie Falls.







We've been there before, but this time we wanted to hike to the base of the falls.

Aria's first ride in the hiking backpack:












Sleepy baby on the hike back up.


Sunday was Father's Day.

I'm so grateful for my Dad. He's intelligent, kind, thoughtful, and such a good example. I'm glad he's my dad and I'm grateful for all he's taught me.



I'm also grateful that my dad's good example prompted me to find the same qualities in my husband. I'm so grateful for the wonderful father that Ben is to our children.



I'm also grateful that the Spurs won the NBA championship on Sunday so that Father's Day wasn't ruined. ;)





Ben enjoying one of his presents:



So grateful for this guy of mine. :)