Relaxed Thursday

We got rain today. It hasn't rained much lately, so that was different for today.

This was our Thursday:

I found Abrie here in the morning:

She had snuck a cookie out of the cupboard, the little sneak;) She had the funniest look on her face when her sisters caught her in mid-act, and then her face turned into her "cute" smile when she realized that I couldn't help but smile and laugh. I tell her every single day, "you're lucky you're so cute!"

Girlies had fun this morning playing "voyage:"

and then rode their bikes over to the bleachi-o's for our morning walk. Maddie and Faith rode their bike and trike down the steep grassy hill and Abrie had fun running through the soccer field with her sisters. I love watching how much fun they have doing the simplest things.

The rain cancelled our evening bike ride for today, so we made slime instead:

And girlies had fun playing downstairs until bedtime:

Medium confidence boost

This is my Flopper.

Yesterday at dinner she told us that when she grows up she'd like to be a "nature lover." I told her she can be that whenever she wants to be since that's just a personality trait and not something you have to study to become. She sat there and thought about it, and said "ok, then I want to learn to be a scarer on the scare floor when I grow up. That's something I could learn to be."

She is such a crack-up this child. And, she is the perfect 'medium' sister to her big sissy and her little sissy. She is Maddie's "wing man" and her boost of confidence. It's funny to see Maddie watch what FAITH does, and then try it herself. Maddie just yesterday started staying underwater for long lengths of time after being talked into trying by her little sister. Last night we biked down to the duck pond and Faith was showing Maddie how to climb up these tricky ladders. Maddie was so proud when she finally got the confidence to try, and was celebrating "thanks teacher Faith!!" It was cute.

And Faith and Abrie are a riot together. It's funny to see Abrie shadowing Faith in everything she does. Just this morning I was watching Abrie pretending to "check out" library books with the cash register scanner just like Faith does. Faith is the one that gets Abrie to do her big belly laughs all the time too.

100+ degrees?..

In the words of our buddies Pumbaa and Timon, "Hakuna matata."

No worries.

This week's temperatures have been scorching. And, today's were the highest. The heat index was 115 today. And yet, I'm reminded of the fact that I'd much prefer this extreme to the other extreme (PA winters) in that we can just strip down and take to the water when it gets this hot. And, that is exactly what defined our day today.

Girlies have still been wanting to do their bike rides in the morning and evening hours despite the heat, but I think today they felt the difference right when they went outside the door. So we decided to just hang out in the back and have a pool day.

The pool needed some fresh hose water and a good cleaning, so I filled it with freezing cold water this morning. It was already lukewarm bath water by the time my 3 girlfriends went for their second swim of the day after dinner.

Abrielle even went under the water twice today, and out of her own free will! I think she was just THAT hot. The pool is small, but still so much fun. I got in there with them today too, and we somehow still manage to do mini-versions of cannonballs and races;)

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Africa has been our focus this week, and it has been very fitting considering the weather. Girlies liked making their Masai neck plate designs:

Summer lovin'

Been neglecting to write anything down at night, but I do make a mental note in my head to remember. This summer has been a lot of fun (and very busy) and it's crazy to think that it's mid-July already. I don't want it to end.

We've been in a very nice, comfortable routine for a month or so now. Girlies' folders are really coming along well and they love looking through their pages as a reminder of everything that they've done this summer. Faith's writing in particular is making huge strides. Maddie writes everything herself and I just double check for her. And even Abrie knows the routine and looks forward to her morning drawings. Writing and receiving mail from their pen pals has also been a fun part of weekday mornings.

We're outside by 10am at the latest every morning, and most mornings all they want to do is go on a bike ride around the neighborhood. And, then they have their workbook pages or special "projects" to do with Dan while I'm at work and Abrie naps in the afternoon. Dan made me laugh the other day. He asked me before I left, "what's their homework today?" He's really getting into it.

Books are pivotal for these girls. They get so immersed in their books, and it's the perfect way to peak their interest on subjects that I think they might like. We're on Africa this week, and some of the previous weeks have been England, France, and China:

Chinese fish.

China night with Dan and his sushi.

Abrie gluing her Eiffel Tower.

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"Field trips" have been fun to plan this summer too, and our girls very much look forward to these planned days! We went with cousins to the Audubon bird sanctuary out in Phoenixville on Friday. It was a beautiful property, and they got to see some owls.

We went out to the King of Prussia mall for a little bit too and visited the 'Didney' store (Show Show's words!) and had lunch. And, we went back to spend more time with cousins too:

These kiddos really are the best of friends!

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Dan's last day off was yesterday, and we decided to take the little ladies out to Oregon Dairy. I loved that place when I was little, and we've taken Maddie and Faith several times, but Abrie had never visited before. They LOVED it. They have improved the playground so much, and it was such a fun place. We stayed for 2 hours, and Faith keeps asking when we're going to go back again. They had an adorable wooden silo slide, a big deck for ice cream, a tire horse, a little wooden treehouse that Abrie loved, etc. They really enjoyed the store too. They didn't believe me about all the samples that they'd get to try for free, and were so happy to be taste testing different flavors of Lancaster County. Dan and I were impressed with their sales too and got a lot of great fruit and our favorite apple sausage.

Nene's house after Oregon Dairy, and the day was a hit with our girlfriends.

The 5 D's of today

1. The big D....
Abrielle talks about 'Didney' (Disney) all the time!! Perhaps it's the fact that her sissies (and parents!) are always talking about Disney, but it's so cute to hear her say 'Didney.'

2. The gross D...

Words to make me cringe, "aaaaagh! Momma... help! Abrie pooped in the tub!" And, this one was diarrhea. Made for one lengthy clean-up. In Abrie's defense though, this is only the 2nd time in her entire life that she's ever done this. Faith was NOTORIOUS for using the tub as a toilet, and Maddie did have about a handful of times under her belt.

3. The 3 D's...

Dan and I are obsessed with the Food Network show, "Diners, Drive-in's, and Dives." Or, triple D.

It's the little things

This was my reminder tonight of all that is good in my life:

Girlies had set up their dollies (along with the dolls' "pets") downstairs on the floor next to me.

Horses and 2 peas in the same pod

Horses first:

We spent the morning at a friend's house. This friend happens to have horses. Horses = my girlfriends were in heaven, especially one particular horse lover who answers to the name of Madison.

Julie is just about the sweetest person you'll meet. She was nice enough to let Maddie and Faith help brush her two horses, True and Gem. Considering Maddie walks around with books from the library on everything from mustangs to miniature horses (and goes around talking about mares, colts, fillies, and the proper names for the grooming brushes), this was a dream come true for her to be up close and personal with her favorite animal. All 3- even Abrie!- fed the horses some snacks right out of their hands, and Maddie and Faith got to lead the horses out to the pasture. AND, Julie's fiance showed them how to hold chickens.

Peas in the pod next:

Is it not obvious that these 2 come from the same mold?!:

The things Momma used to do to us...

... this is what I envision my girls titling this post.

We did a taste experiment last week, and this was just too darn funny. I literally couldn't stop laughing and they keep asking to watch this over and over again (and laugh about it!):

4th of July 2011

Uncle Matt and *new* (they just got married) aunt Amber visited this weekend with cousin Kaitlyn. My girls were in heaven with their baby cousin. It reminded me of Maddie and Faith with Abrie when she was just born, only now Abrie was old enough to be just as nurturing. It was quite cute:


Dan's 30th birthday was Sunday. This is/was a milestone. It's crazy to think that he celebrated his 20th birthday several days after we got married, and now 10 years later here we are celebrating his 30th birthday. We took him to Captain's Cove for dinner with his family, and made him some beach-y cupcakes.

4th of July this year was quite mellow. It was very nice. We love the Wyomissing parade, and Abrie danced throughout almost the entire procession. Maddie didn't stop waving her flag, and Faith didn't stop waving! They collected quite a bit of candy that was thrown their way, too. We followed the procession over to the Stone House afterwards and it was really nice. We took advantage of free pony rides, and a dip in the water:

Rhonda and Dave invited us to a picnic then at Dave's sister's house and it was fun with the slip n slide that Rhonda had gotten for them:

Pen pals idea/ passport progress

Aunt Lisi and I are n'cahoots this summer.

Donovan, Ella, and Chase sent the girlies some letters in the mail last week and they were a hit here. These girls just love whenever they get mail, and they loved reading what their cousins had written them (not to mention, they thought the outline of Chase's hands was hilarious!). It's funny because I had just been telling them about how much I always enjoyed having my many pen pals throughout elementary-high school (in fact, I still keep in touch with my pen pal from Norway who I wrote to from 8th grade through college).

Anyway, we are excited at the prospect of summer pen pals.

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"Passports" have been a real success here. I still have to get to Michael's to get some cool rubber stamps so that they can "stamp" their passport pages after each time that they write/draw about something they did/learned this summer, so that will be fun to go and pick some stamps. In the meantime though, girlies love making new pages and learning about different countries/cultures. I haven't really stuck to the countries that we've covering on the given week at the libraries, but instead done our own version.

decorating passports: