Busy Bees

I asked Elanor the other day, what her favorite thing to do was.  She said "read books".  It made me so proud.  

Even though she is only three, and can't read yet, both she and Liddy would be content for hours on end with a large pile of books.  In fact, one of our new favorite hobbies is visiting the library.  

But it's summer time, and we can't spend all of it inside reading books.  And we have certainly had a lot of fun lately with lots of different activities.  I realize now, as I see the collection of pictures below, that we have been up to a lot, spending time with friends and family, and enjoying the summer.  

Summer got started off with a new "first", Ella graduated (from daycare)!!

And here she is with her graduating class.  All six girls graduated and will be starting preschool this year.

Bella, Ella, Maeve, Piper, Addison and Paige

We have had lots of fun with our neighbors.  Here is Olivia, Elanor and Evie playing on the sprinkler mat.  A favorite thing to do on a hot summer day.

 We also spent a weekend at Dillons Beach with family.  We rented an amazing house, walking distance to the beach and with a gorgeous view.  We saw deer, did jigsaw puzzles, flew kites (with shoes attached!) and I even learned how to play Pinochle.

Grandpa George, Lindy, Megan, Ella, Julie, Dan and Lydia

And Liddy found some fun cabinets to hide in and play "peek-a-boo".

In general, we had an active, memorable month.  Here are some more pictures of the highlights.

Lydia playing in the fish stream at the discovery museum.

Elanor dancing her heart out at the San Anselmo Art & Wine festival.

Maeve, Ella and Lydia on the train at the Art & Wine festival.

Ella, the future artist, painting Papa a picture frame.

Playing by the flowers at the Golden Gate Bridge visitor's center

A walk across the Golden Gate Bridge

Watching the boats from the side of the bridge

Building sand castles at Paradise Beach with Tony and Melissa

Fun in the water at Paradise Beach (with Melissa)

A walk on the pier

And climbing trees.

Just Some Good Old Fashioned Home Improvements

A blog post about something other than the girls, CRAZY, I know.  But we will get there, you'll see.   So a little background: about six months ago we demolished our brick patio in the back yard and had a new one installed.  In order to save money and keep the bricks in good condition, Dan and I did the demolition ourselves and hand cleaned about 1,000 bricks, and these bricks have been sitting on the side of our driveway looking for a new home.  

Ever since we moved into this house, I have had it in my mind to remove the scalloped bricks in the front yard and make a nice brick planter.  Here is a picture (from a while ago) of our front yard.  If you look beyond the overgrown shrubs, you can see the scalloped bricks which I desperately wanted gone.

So I hired some skilled laborers (OK, I provided lunch and good company).  And together we dug out the planters, poured a concrete footing and layed some bricks.  I wish I would have taken pictures of day one, where Aunt Laura, Aunt Carol and Grandpa George helped me with the concrete.  Concrete is Heavy!

But I got some action shots of day two, when Grandpa George, Uncle Greg and my mom helped place the bricks...not as easy as I thought, either! But Aunt Carol warned me, home projects always take twice as long and cost twice as much as you plan.

Then, on day three, I had three little girls to help spread the new soil and plant the new shrubs (and find all the rollie pollies and earthworms around!).

(Elanor & Olivia)

(Elanor & Evie)

And the finished project looks great!  I honestly can't believe how good it looks.

And so now, I'm trying to find a use for those old scalloped bricks, more on that later.

Next post about the girls, I promise. 

Words

What a fun start to summer, so much going on.  Words.  That's been the theme this past month, and they are spilling out of Liddy's mouth like CRAZY.  So far, here are Lydia's words:

Mommy, Daddy, Uh-Oh, Bird, Dog, Ball, and Mine (I wonder where she learned that one!).

Liddy and Elanor are really starting to play together as well.  They got a basketball hoop the other week and Ella will actually lower the hoop for Lydia to dunk a ball...so adorable.

Elanor is also learning words, but she is learning to WRITE words.  Below, you can see she can now write her name!  A very proud moment for Mommy to see this.

In addition to all the learning we are continuing to run, laugh and have fun together.  We went to a birthday part at the beach yesterday.  It was the first birthday party where the girls were invited because they are friends with the birthday girl, not because Mommy & Daddy are friends with their Mommy & Daddy.  It was so fun to see Ella with her friends...below are Ella, Piper (left), and Maeve (the birthday girl on the right).  

And Lydia had fun too.  This beach was so amazing, sand and sun without too much of a drive, so I am hoping we will be back a few times this summer.

Oh, and Lydia ate about 3/4 of a watermelon...we had to have them lined up ready for her to keep eating so the rind didn't end up in her belly.

Can they please just stay this age forever?!?  They are so cute!

Our Cute Little Easter Bunnies

Its been busy, as usual.  We have been go, go, go, and play, play, play.  We have been playing with friends and with each other; inside and out; and really enjoying dress up time.  We have even had a few "princess" play dates, dedicated entirely to princess dress up time - which goes along well with the newest fascination in our house: FROZEN.

Princess Play Time with Molly

Playing inside

Firefighter Lydia

"Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"

Outdoor Playtime at Landsdale Station Playground

We have also had fund preparing for the Easter bunny, and of course our THREE egg hunts this year. We joined in with what seemed like all of San Anselmo at Memorial Park for our first egg hunt the Saturday before Easter.  Neither Lydia nor Elanor "found" any eggs, which really entails just picking one up off the ground.  Both girls were more interested in watching all the people instead of finding eggs.  But that was OK because we still had two more egg hunts to go!

Time to Dye Eggs

Easter Egg Hunt at Memorial Park

The most amazing part of Easter this year was seeing the girls' faces as they found the surprises that the Easter Bunny left for them.  I can't believe how excited Lydia got when she found a princess doll in the backyard of Grandma and Papa's house.  I will never forget that face.  

And Elanor was really enjoying seeing what type of candy was on the inside of the eggs this year.  She found colored eggs (Robin Eggs) and mini chocolate muffins (Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups).  What an amazing holiday.  I can tell, this is only the beginning of what is going to be a great summer.

A Year of Firsts and a Whole Lot of Fun, Lydia Kate Turns ONE!

Lydia turned ONE!!  It has been an amazing year, and we are so very proud of our little Liddy.  For this special occasion, I decided to start a new tradition, a day with the birthday girl!  I took the day off of work and spent it just with Lydia and we went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum.  We had so much fun in the tot spot climbing ant hills, playing in the fish river, and bouncing on ponds full of lily pads.

And then it was the birthday party, and Lydia was dressed so cute.  Unfortunately, she was sick this day and ended up sleeping through most of the party, but not before we could sing her "Happy Birthday" and have her blow out the candle on the cake.

 The following weekend we took the girls to the Oakland zoo.  They both loved the reptile and amphibian room, and we HAD to see the elephants (it was Ella, not me that wanted to see them, I swear!).

Since Lydia slept through the cake eating at her birthday party, we gave her a piece after the zoo.  Wow, I didn't know a little girl could eat cake that fast!

It was so special to have Aunt Mary Louise, Cousin Doreen, Grandma Cindy, Great Papa George, and all of my aunts, uncles and cousins at Liddy's first birthday party.  We are truly blessed to be able to spend so much time with family, on our birthdays and every other day possible.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYDIA!  I can't wait for what the next year will bring.