Round-the-house cuteness

Avy reading to Theo :)

Theo was running around in the yard and I heard "Ball! Ball. Ball! Ball." I finally looked and realized he had picked a green tomato and was throwing it around like a ball. So I told him "Theo, that's a tomato, eating. Not ball!" He looked at me, looked at the tomato, then took a big bite.

Ate the whole thing!

Carrots from the neighbors' yard.

She's writing me a letter on a leaf.

Lily was yelling and I kinda was ignoring her. Looked up to see Theo doing this though.

She's putting on her pants herself!

Putting fingernail polish on the kids as a distraction.

Theo, stage right: "Do me! Do me!"

Weekends are lovely

Daddy being home is wonderful for all involved - the kids get more attention overall, I get to sit down for meals, and Daddy gets to cuddle the kids. Here he's doing a school review with the girls (a new thing we're trying).

Avy and Ellie loved helping me wash the cars, so when they saw Loran washing his across the street, they asked to walk over and offer to help. Like I'm going to say no! Luckily, Loran was amenable to the help :)

Pool days! Hot as it's been we refilled the pool and the kids have had a blast - makes for an easy day's activity.

Theo was very proud of being allowed to hold the hose and did so very still until I told him he could wave it around. See the videos for him getting into the job!

Loran and Jeanie walked over to visit and Loran asked Lily if she wanted to go pick blueberries in his backyard. I was shocked - Lily said yes! I missed her holding his hand across the street but they were gone for a good while and her belly was pretty full when she came back!

Of course that meant everyone wanted to pick Loran's blueberries, so we trekked back over there... and this happened! Awww

Lily rocking boots with swimsuit.

Splash park fun!

There's a brand new park in downtown Bellevue that just opened up, and a friend invited us to join them there. This was one of those serendipitous days where everything just worked out.

It didn't seem like it at first. We were supposed to meet our friend there at 10 and by 9:50 I still hadn't been able to pack us food. We were running very late, and I hate running late. This worked to our favor though because at 9:55 our neighborhood sweetie, Nikki, texted me to ask if she could play with the kids. I invited her to come along as well.

Despite running late and the park being very crowded, we still nabbed a parking spot - the last one! And, thanks to having Nikki with us I was able to enjoy the day and even spend some time sitting down - crowded as it was I wouldn't have normally been able to do that.

Nikki (pink top) showing Lily one of the water features.

A spray pad! The kids loved these (see the videos for further proof)

After the kids had gotten thoroughly soaked we moved over to the playground part of the park. Again, Nikki was a god-send: monitoring the kids climbing up and down and helping them down the slide. I got to eat lunch at a normal hour!

The kids love Nikki :)

Random toad sculpture being installed, but it was so wartily-beautiful I had to take a picture.

After going home we all had popsicles, then Nikki went home and we had nap/quiet time. Nikki, we love you!

After nap/quiet time we ate our dinner outside then were joined by other neighborhood kids for a rousing game of hide-and-seek. Here the girls are seeking Erin (see the lump in the pool?).

Avy "hiding" under the pool. Eric was a good sport about it ;)

Then over to their grandparents' house for S'mores. All in all, a great day!

Bungie picnic

Family left that morning and while we were sad, we had our own things to do! We bicycled down to the Bungie picnic which is probably their best event each year.

The kids were all big enough for the bouncey houses this year!

Food food, so much food. Not pictured was the ice cream truck that pulled up next to us shortly thereafter.

The re-designed Sammamish park. Gorgeous, with a better beach access now.

Biking home! This was an 11 mile, very steep round trip. We definitely earned those calories!

Some calm reading time after.

Avy wants to read Daddy's book too!