Weekly Recap Resumed

Time to start up the weekly recap again! The break was mostly due to our vacation (of which I have a bazillion pictures to post when I get through them all!).

This week, we've been trying to make the most of the last bit of summer before school starts. We've been trying to get as much beach and pool time in as we can. Ellie even started swimming on her own in the deep end (with her life jacket on)! Even Aria loves the water.





We tried canning for the first time this week. We started with peaches because they're super easy. They're super yummy, too!



I've been going for runs in the evenings after the kids go to bed. I usually don't enjoy exercising at the end of the day when I have no energy left, but it's actually been really relaxing. I'm sad that the evening light is quickly disappearing as we approach fall. Soon I won't be able to go anymore!



When we went grocery shopping this week, Ellie was REALLY upset that I wouldn't buy her a Halloween costume, so we came home and pulled out the butterfly wings for her to wear. I'm not ready to think about Halloween yet!!



We went to the Science Center on Friday because they were having an Engineer It! weekend. It was a lot of fun for the kids. They even had a guy demonstrate a machine that they called "the real life equivalent to batman's grappling hook".









While we were there at the Seattle Center, we made a stop at the big fountain, too. The boys had a lot of fun playing in the water. Ellie was a little nervous though, and stayed just out of reach the whole time.





I caught these two being cute and playing with each other this week. Asher was trying to teach Aria to say his name.









Miss Aria is on the move now. She will crawl a few inches on her knees, but mostly scoots around.

She is also starting to pull herself up to her knees on things.



She is perfectly content to be left on the floor to play and play and play. The room often looks like this in her wake, though.



The other funny thing she's doing right now is the "sniffy face". I'm pretty sure all my kids have done this.



She's getting really good at feeding herself. She can even pick up small things like cheerios to put them in her mouth.

 

Such a happy baby. :)



That's it for this week... Hopefully I'll have some vacation pics ready to share soon!

Weekly Recap: Happy 4th of July!!

The big news this week was obviously the 4th of July.

We started the morning with the flag raising at church. We got there five minutes late and had already missed the actual raising of the flag! We enjoyed seeing our friends and eating some cinnamon rolls, though.



After the flag raising, I took some pictures of my cuties in their festive outfits. I tried to get one of them all together. Sadly, this is the best I got!



Aria was cute and smiley for her pictures.









I told Ellie to give me a pose and this is what she gave me...



... so then Ben showed her how to put her hands on her hips.



I tried to get one of the girls together and it didn't go so well!



I did get one, though.



Asher wanted his picture taken with Aria, too.



In the afternoon, we went to a BBQ with friends which was fun. That night, we debated about going to fireworks. It's hard to want to keep the kids up so late! In the end, we decided to just go for it. We went up to the golf course this year and the view was amazing!! (That's Lake Washington with Mercer Island in the middle... and Seattle off in the distance.)





Ellie insisted on wearing her sunglasses even though it was after 9:00 at night.



This was our spot for the fireworks:







It was a really cool spot because we could see fireworks going off all over, as far as the eye could see! This video doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.





Other stuff from this week...

Ellie used her birthday money this week. She chose this broom and has been using all her free time to sweep the kitchen floor ever since.





This week was the end of an era at our house..... the salt water fish tank era to be exact. Ben cleaned out and took down his whole fish tank setup this week. I never thought I'd see the day that this happened.



Saturday evening walk...







Playing with Daddy



Bookworm



Crazy drivers!



Aria was staring me down while I was eating my lunch the other day, so I handed her one of my apple slices to see what she'd do. You would have thought it was a lollly pop the way she licked and licked that thing. She loved it!

Ellie turns 3!

I've been putting off Ellie's birthday post because I'm hoping to do some pictures with her. It's getting farther and farther from her birthday though, so I figured I'd better just post!

Our sweet Ellie turned three on June 23rd and we celebrated her birthday the Saturday before. When we asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday, she said, "Go to the mall and eat!"

So that's what we did!



We decided to take her to the Disney store to pick out a present. I walked around the whole store with her, ooing and aaahing over all the dolls and dressup stuff and backpacks. She ended up picking a $4 pair of sunglasses! I love how easy to please kids are at this age. :)





After the mall, we went home and had cake! Ellie requested strawberry cake, so I went with strawberry shortcake.











After cake, it was time for presents!



 

Closing her eyes to wait for one more present...














Happy birthday, sweet girl!!