Roller skating

Grace was invited to a roller skating birthday party and we were really excited to go.

Grace has never really roller skated before but look at how easy it is with this helper!  And her Daddy, too.

Soon she was skating with her helper "all by herselth!" (all by herself - one of Grace's favorite phrases right now.)

Soon she was zipping around the rink.

And then she wanted to try without her helper.  Again, she was wanted to do it "all by herselth!"

And she did.  I can't believe my 4 year old can skate better than I can...

Camping indoors

Grace has really wanted to go camping but the weather just hasn't permitted it.

When plans go awry...improvise!  

So we set our camp up indoors.  Marshmallows and all.  And we absolutely adored it.

Where's Faith?

This morning I went into the girls' room to wake them up and get the day started.

Much to my surprise, Faith was missing from her bed.  Perhaps she had a bad dream last night and decided to climb into the bed with her big sister...

Grace is bendy just like her MeeMee

Grace is quite flexible.

Apparently, that is an inherited trait from her MeeMee.

It's not from my side of the family.  My bones definitely don't bend like that!

"Yizzard" is back

Grace, what are you doing?

 I see sum-fin!  It's under dare!  (I see something!  It's under there!)

And sure enough, there he was.  Yizzard.  It's been a long time since we last saw him running through our house.  So long that I thought Yizzard was gone for good.  Apparently I was mistaken.  This time we let him be.  Grace now considers Yizzard to be her pet.  Nice.

We painted Nanna's kitchen

The girls and I drove to Linden to my Nanna and Gran's house.

We had an agenda - paint Nanna's kitchen!

 This is what it looked like for the last 30 years or so.

Even Faith was eager to help!

So we took the cabinet doors off and brought them outside to paint.

 We even painted the ceiling.  Seth is a messy painter, can't you tell?

 Nanna couldn't resist peeking in.  And I think she looks pretty pleased.

Here is her kitchen afterwards.  So bright and cheery!

The upper cabinets are a bright, Springy blue. 

The bottom cabinets and walls are white.  And countertops a cheerful, country yellow.  We also painted her accent telephone wall yellow and her mother's chair yellow, but it needs another coat or two.

Afterwards, we were all tired and covered in paint.  But very, very satisfied and pleased with our hardwork.  Faith included.

Family Movie Night

We've started another summer tradition.

Movie night camp in!

We pile up on the floor with all the pillows and blankets.

And settle down to watch a movie together.  And for those of us who fall asleep during the movie, we get to camp out on the floor. What fun!

When you give a kid a camera

You just never know what kind of pictures you will get.

A view of toys from the sofa.

Maybe a picture of a painting already on the wall.

Streamers.

Perhaps the carpet.

Our ceilings look really high from her viewpoint.  And somehow we ended up with footprints on the ceiling.  I'm not sure I want to know how those got there...

I can't believe how long our stairwell looks!

A picture of the most important people in her life.

And that includes Chloe.

A closeup of Chloe's nose.  Everyone wants to see that, y'know.

Seeing the world from Grace's eyes is so enlightening and wondrous.  It makes me want to be 3 again.

Our growing tree

At my Nanna's house there is a small corner wall in her kitchen that she will never paint over.  That is because as her grandchildren grew up, she would mark on that wall how tall they were each time they came to visit.  I remember looking forward to each visit just so I could see how big I was getting. 

I want to do the same thing for my children and hopefully grandchildren, too.  But it is very unrealistic that David and I will ever live in one house for more than a handful of years at a time.  So I came up with Our Family Growing Tree.

I was able to buy this 8 foot piece of pine - already primed and painted white - for only $3.23 at Home Depot.  I bought a second, skinnier 8 foot piece of primed and painted pine for another $3.23 and had them cut it into various lengths between 1 and 2 feet long each.  Then I nailed them to the wall in the girls' bedroom to make a tree!  Grace helped me make tissue paper balls using paper napkins and then we hung those up to give our tree some leaves.

 Grace loves to see how tall she is getting.

 We're keeping up with Faith as she grows as well.

Momma and Daddy are on the tree, too.  Grace also had the great idea of painting these little wooden birds (found at Michals for only 99 cents each) and adding them to our tree.  The blue one is for Daddy and the pink one is for me.  Grace and Faith each have a pink bird, too.

Now we have a functional and decorative growth chart tree that we can cherish for years to come.  It was cheaper and more durable than any chart I've seen out in the vast internet, plus it's tall enough to record anyone's height - 6 foot 1 inch Daddys included!  And the best part of all; I will be able to take it with us the next time we move...

Playtime

One of our favorite past times is playing with building blocks.

 Grace helps me build the "tallest tower."

 And Faith laughs when she knocks it down.

 After a while, it turns to tickle time!

Most of all, I just enjoy playing with my kids.

Tent time!

This weekend the girls and I built tents all over the family room.

 It was a multi-room enclosure using big quilts and smaller blankets.  And chairs and desks.  Pillows, too.  Basically anything we could find, we used.

 The girls had fun hiding from each other in our makeshift quarters.

 First, Grace would hide from Faith.

 Then Faith would come crawling through room by room until she found her big sister.

 After she was discovered, Grace would make another getaway.

 And again Faith would search for her.

 Grace even cheated a few times hiding above our encampment.

 But Faith always managed to find her.

 Faith never gave up tracking down Grace.

 And Grace never tired of hiding from her. 

That is, until Faith finally tore the tents down looking for Grace after Grace hid in the kitchen.  But that was okay, we just built another fort even bigger and better.

What a great way to spend a lazy weekend together and I'll treasure Faith and Grace's squeals of delight and peels of laughter for a lifetime.