No more skinned knees!

Anna Claire decided Gracie should wear her helmet and pads. So with a little assistance she got her all dressed up. Gracie thought is was fun at first but that was short lived.

Mardi Gras?

It is the time of year to welcome the new residents to UNC. On Saturday evening the chief resident and her husband threw a great Mardi Gras party, New Orleans style! Everyone had a great time getting to know each other, including the kids. We ate red beans and rice, shrimp creole, and jambalaya. And finished things off with a great King's Cake. Everything was delicious! Boy does next year's chief have something to live up to.

Power Lab!

Anna Claire finished up a great week of bible school on Friday evening with a program for the parents. She had so much fun singing and dancing to the music. She now has the power to: be thankful, help others, be brave, live forever, and tell others about God. She came home with some good stories also! Her favorite story went like this: "We played a game where one person was blind folded and two friends led them around. It was a trusting game. Somebody put mud on boy's eyes. And when they washed the mud off, he could see!" She told us the whole story. I was so impressed with her.

Swimming Lessons

Today was the last day of swimming lessons for this year. Anna Claire is exhausted, but she is having a great week! She is going to the pool every morning and Vacation Bible School every evening. She isn't swimming by herself, but she is much more comfortable in the water. She is blowing bubbles and "swimming" in the shallow end without her ring. She is even jumping in the baby pool by herself. I know this doesn't sound like much, but at the beginning of the summer she was wearing her ring in the baby pool. I talked to her swim instructor and she said if she would just go under she would be ready for the next class up. So we will work on that so she can move up by next year.

Gracie also had a great week of fun in the pool. She is running around in the baby pool. At the first of the summer she was walking around and would fall and go under. Now she isn't falling much and if she does she gets back up with a smile on her face. She loves to walk with a noodle and splash me.

New Countertop!

Check out our new countertop in our downstairs bath. Kim did a great job putting this in with a little help from Gracie. She would bring him all kinds of things he didn't really need. And this morning I found a little bit of liquid glue still on her face!

Swim and Sing!

This week we have been pretty busy. Anna Claire started swimming lessons, so every morning we have been at the pool. She is doing great! I love the pool, they take such good naps when we get home! The Greens met us there a couple days and we had lunch with the flies! They were terrible. I don't know why in the world there were so many. She will continue with lessons through next week. I hope we will see a little fish swimming around by the end of the week.

She was also in music camp at a nearby church this week. She had a great time. She came home singing all kinds of new songs. Next week she will be in VBS at the same church. The music they learned will be the same as last week, so I expect we will be hearing a lot of these songs.

Last night we went to the Carolina Inn for Friday's on the Front Porch. Every Friday evening in the summer they have live blue grass music and picnic style supper. We have gone several Friday's this summer and have a great time. Anna Claire loves to dance with all the other children and her Daddy.

Gracie is amazing us with her new words. She is learning new words everyday. Today she said go and book. And she loves to talk on the phone. This morning she found one of our old cell phones and carried it around talking for about 30 minutes!

Anna Claire's funny story of the day: This morning Kim and I were talking about getting a Mac one day and I told him we should have gotten one a couple months ago when we got our PC. He said I didn't even know what a Mac was then. And Anna Claire says, "Yes, she does, it is like mac n cheese, Daddy!" We both just laughed!

Summertime!

This morning at playgroup the girls ran through a sprinkler and enjoyed a slice of juicy red watermelon. What's more fun on a hot summer day?

Hey Gracie, Do this...

As I hear Anna Claire saying this, I turn around to see...

What will she teach her next?

Gracie loves to climb on everything so any encouragement and she is trying it!

Happy Birthday "Miss" Christie!

Today is a good friend's birthday, so Anna Claire helped me make her family dinner and a cake. Her nephew and niece are visiting her this week so we had a house full, but it was a lot of fun! Christie even took Kim's scooter for a ride. Brian (her husband) did too, but I will let him tell you about that if he wants to.

What's New Today

Yesterday we spent the day at the pool and the girls totally surprised me! Anna Claire put her face under the water all by herself! I couldn't believe it, she was sticking her face in and blowing bubbles. She was also so proud of herself. She also went down the slide at the pool with a friend and loved it! Hopefully I can get the picture and post it soon! (I couldn't get to my camera, so a friend took it.) Thanks, Christa!

And, as for Gracie, she tried to copy a word we asked her to say! She is not very interested in talking, but she tried to say please! Also last night during supper we were working on learning where body parts are, and she is about to get tummy, ears, and mouth down pat!
The girls are really becoming best friends! On the way home from the pool I glanced in the backseat and they were holding hands. It was the sweetest thing, I just couldn't get to my camera then either. (Probably a good thing since I was driving.) Anna Claire is a great big sister!

Beach Pictures

Fun in the Sun

We had a wonderful time at the beach. Anna Claire keeps asking me when we are going back! During our stay, we played in the ocean and sand, splashed in the pool, and paddled the boat around the bay! We had great weather and lots of delicious seafood!
This past week the girls really enjoyed being around their Gran, Grandaddy, Ki Ki, and Uncle David. On the way home, Anna Claire kept saying I just wanted to spend one more night. She loves all the attention she gets from them. Gracie was also a little more needy this morning. She just doesn't understand why I don't hold her all the time!

Gracie is surprising us with her new tricks lately. She has started clicking her tongue and thinks it is so funny. She also is now smacking when she gives kisses and even blew a kiss for the first time this week! She loves to put on Anna Claire's shoes and pretends to wash and brush her hair. She loves the water and jumps in, goes under, and comes up laughing! She is growing up too fast!!! By the end of the week Anna Claire was also pretty comfortable in the water. She would go anywhere in her ring, and was swimming from the steps a little ways to someone without her ring! She even went under a couple times and didn't totally freak out. Today, her favorite song is Hakuna matata and she is singing it all the time!
On Saturday evening, Kim, David, and I went to Kathy's wedding. She was one of my college roommates. Everything was beautiful, and we had a great time seeing lots of college friends.