A few quick tidbits

All of our children love to climb on anything and everything. But Kayla, being the oldest, tallest, and strongest has reached the point where she can do some pretty decent tree climbing. Here she is at a nearby park last week.


The girls each completed library summer reading lists this month. We are still working on the more varied "lists" that I made up for the girls, though we are nearly through with those as well. Ava received a board book (see the picture below) and Kayla and Elise received several little prizes, plus a kid's bowl of Coldstone Ice Cream and some other gift certificates for various restaurants that sponsored the Summer Reading Program at the library. The girls both chose mint ice cream with a special topping. I tried something new, which was delicious, but had a bite of Chris' coffee concoction which I think triggered a new craving...the following evening I really wanted coffee ice cream with crushed up oreos. Fortunately it was a craving that Chris didn't mind helping me fulfill at all. :)


A friend got the kids some sidewalk chalk and they have been covering our tiny patio area with fun pictures and colorful chalkiness.


Earlier in the week, we made calzones one evening for dinner. There was left over dough, so the following day I let the girls each make a personal pizza. They were thrilled.


This is just a completely adorable shot that Chris took of Kayla at the park the other day. I love it.


We brought up the gifts at Mass today. Elise chose this week to put on one of her shoes and one of Kayla's shoes (they are the same color) so Chris carried her barefoot. Oh well; luckily God takes us as we are.

Chris is a great bargain hunter and keeps an eye out on Ebay when we need something to see if he can snag a great deal. We were both in need of new hiking shoes, and he found a colorful pair for himself at a great price and shortly after found me a schnazzy pair as well, which I took out for a spin around the neighborhood with the girls earlier this week.


Ava's hair is trying it's best to become blond this summer. Kayla took this picture of her recently and if you look closely you can see Kayla's bright skirt reflected in Ava's eyes. ha. And of course, you can see Ava's shaggy, golden California hair. :)

It is amazing how golden it looks when you are actually out in the sun too.

We went to a "Symphony in the Park" performance at a nearby park last night which I got to enjoy for the first song until Ava began to get super antsy and kept climbing all over me and my baby belly which was not very comfortable. I half listened and tried to enjoy the lovely music anyway, until a few minutes later, Ava climbed on my lap with a slightly leaky poopy diaper. I pulled out container of wipes, wiped us off, and fled to the bathroom at the end of the song. Elise, Ava, and I spent the rest of the performance at the playground a short walk away and Chris had a little father/daughter date with Kayla listening to rest of symphony. Chris told me they played America the Beautiful and Kayla sang along and filled me in on some of the other great selections they played. It was nice to be able to let the girls hear some beautiful music like that in a live performance in a setting that they could do (at least for a short length of time). I look forward to more experiences like that in the future (minus the getting pooped on part).