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!