Summer Action

gracie and evan have really hit their stride as siblings.  i give them about 5 minutes most days before a fight breaks out.  they really have fine tuned their ability to easily push the exact right buttons to really tick the other one off.  of course, we do have some days when they play beautifully together...i LOVE those days.  for all the other days, i try to keep them outside and as active as possible.  its always better if they are too busy to fight!

this day, our activity was a morning spent at the water park and playground.  lots of running, sliding, swinging and hanging!

Wild Outfits and Toy Carwashes

So, e & g pick out their own clothes and dress themselves...pretty much every single day.  sometimes they match and have pretty trendy outfits thrown together...some days they put together winners like these.

 and when you dress this great, you obviously have to do all your activities out front so everyone can see your truly awesome outfits.

 regardless, they washed a lot of the toys that were in the sandbox, so now they are nice and clean!

Happy 4th of July!

It was another great 4th of July at the Lake!  Gracie had recently decided that she would wear headbands, so I (of course) had to whip up some festive headbands for the holiday weekend!  not to be left out, e got to decorate his very own 4th of july hat.  i'm not really sure he ever wore it, but he was pretty proud of it!

 the kiddos all decorated their bikes and had quite a lengthy bike parade!  they did lots of laps around the plymate's lake house...and, each kid was able to lead several laps!

 posing with uncle phil!  he asked gracie if she wanted him to hold her for the pictures or should he squat down.  she apparently thought they both should squat.  personally, i think gracie's plie squat has better form ;).

 and round two of matching swim suits!!  gracie and claire had matching gear for the beach trip, and they both ended up with matching suits for the 4th. this might have seemed planned, but it was just a happy coincidence!

 4th of july boat ride.  and, if this ride ended like many others, we probably had a bit of ice cream at paytons.

 both evan and gracie are huge fans of boat rides.  they were less enthusiastic when i joined because we couldn't go as fast since I was pregnant this summer.

 proof that they can on occasion pretend that they like each other.

 group shot in the girl's adorable outfits that aunt betsy made them.  e got to pick out some festive outfits from target...boys clothes just aren't as fun to make ; ). 

 no holiday is complete without a little sugar on top!

and, gracie wrapped up her holiday weekend with her favorite activity...reading!

Happy 3rd Birthday Gracie!!!

For Gracie's 3rd birthday, some of her friends and their mommies joined us at the zoo.  it ended up being a quick trip since a storm blew in around lunch time.  in the evening, we had a small birthday celebration with our family!

gracie was also swept up in the frozen craze, so she wanted frozen plates for her birthday celebration!

End of June @ the Lake

It seems a bit weird to be writing this now since it is the beginning of November and these pictures are from the end of June.  BUT, with a new member of our family, I want to try to get back up to date so that I can stay on top of all the new memories too!!!  It would be WAY too much to ask to actually write the memories down in something like a baby book : )

 if we are at the lake, you can expect these two to be spending some quality time fishing!  the fishing boat may have given bret a few gray hairs this summer, but i think both boys had a great time.  This picture is of the biggest fish that they caught all summer!

 gracie may not have the patience or the interest level that e does in fishing, but she is always intrigued by the catches of the day!  i think this one got loose and she got fin slapped....apparently some fish have sharper gills, and this one cut her a teeny bit.  but, for our drama queen, you would have thought it severed a finger.  she also still talks about the fish hitting her.

 gracie wasn't the biggest fan of the water at the beginning of the summer.  so, instead of wanting to get in and take a bath, she preferred to be the cabin's shower.  she would wash anyone's hair to get out of taking a bath in the lake!!

 evan doing what he does the most with fishing...changing the lures after nearly every single cast.

 beauty queen....and a drama queen!

and, gracie making stadium seating as well as posing like daddy!

Last Baseball Game

I think it is safe to say that Evan really enjoyed baseball season!  I'm not entirely sure if I'm ready for the competitive level of the years to come, but we will see!!!  Even before his last game, Ev was already looking forward to the next round of sports...soccer.

 Gracie dressed herself for the the last game....lots of stripes going on in this outfit.  

 rounding the bases

 working hard!!!

 evan's cheering section for the final game...including me...behind the scenes photog!

 and, he ended on a high note...one last big hit off the pitcher

 and sliding into home...not as easy to do on turf!

 so, he ended up in a little bit of a somersault

 one last time saying good job to the other team

 and, of course, the reason for the season...THE TROPHY!!  he already has quite the collection going

e also was super excited that his best buds were playing on the field right next to him at the same time.  so, of course, he had to have a picture with his bffs and his trophy

Busy Summer Days

I have had a few goals this summer.  The first was to teach Evan to tie his shoes.  He knocked that one out pretty quickly, and he is now proficient at tying and double knotting his shoelaces!  The second was to work on sight words, letters, numbers, shapes, and colors with the kids.  We need to step up our game here ; )!  The third has been to stay busy, busy, busy!!!  Bret has been traveling a lot and working lots of late nights, so I spend my days running the kids into the ground so that bed time is a breeze.  and so they sleep like rocks through the night!  We start every morning out with a 2.5-3.5 bike ride.  we spend the rest of our mornings at the pool, at the zoo, at the park and or on a play dates.  we spend the afternoons riding bikes, running around the backyard and doing other misc. activities.  

 one afternoon evan and i gathered tiny toys to freeze in ice.  i anticipated letting them use this toy to kill time the next afternoon.  evan, however, had other ideas.  he was up and dressed bright and early the next morning ready to chip, chip, chip away!  gracie enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as evan did!  he diligently poked and chipped at the ice until every toy was free!

 we went strawberry picking one excessively hot morning.  both kids had their moments this morning....i wouldn't mind going again when they are in better moods!  i think they would like it even better!

 evan was an all star at finding the best berries.  he ended up helping me pick 4.5 lbs!  the berries lasted us a week...we LOVE fruit!!

 gracie got a few!  she did give a lot of hers up to a friend that was picking with us.  she then realized she was hot and tired and proceeded to let us all know in her best grumpy gracie behavior!

 he was an all star!!

 and maybe a little sick of me asking him to look at the camera and smile!

 after we wrapped up, gracie hung out with her buddy shelby.  everyone loves a headlock...i mean hug.

 we are slowly trying to explore the many parks and playgrounds in the area!  this one had a few different options plus a walking trail.  we spent the morning climbing around the playground and swinging on the swings, and then we went for a little walk!

Baseball VS. Best Buds

Evan has been looking forward to two different games this season.  The first was against his best buds...twin boys that live in our neighborhood and went to preschool with Evan.  He would ask every week how many games until he played Beckett and Keaton.  Finally the big day arrived!!!  Unfortunately for E, he had a bit of trouble sleeping the night before (up from 12pm-3pm...ugh).  and, he woke up with minutes to make it to the game that started at 8am.  I was a little worried he was actually sleep walking.  He rebounded though after he saw his buddies!

 playing pitcher's helper!  his reflexes were a bit on the slow side since he was still half asleep.  i think he watched one ball get hit and roll right past him before he moved a muscle to get it.

 rounding the bases!!!

 one minor problem when you are friends with players on the opposing team.  when your coach puts you on second base, you will possibly chat with your friends instead of actually watching and playing.  first beckett came through.

 and then keaton!

 he even had two great hits off the pitcher!  no tee for this sleep walking baseball player!

and eating a bit of dirt while sliding in from home.  evan seems to think the goal of sliding into home is not to get in as fast as possible but to get as much dirt on your shirt and pants as possible.