Uncle Paul and Pirate Swords

My brother in law Paul came to visit us for a couple days last week. We had a picnic downstairs because of the rain, and the next day we took him to Coopers Rock. We had family home evening as we walked around. We wish he could have stayed longer!

Savannah loves getting into Clara's dress-up clothes, and she gets some crazy combinations. Here she is wearing candy pajamas, a ballerina headband, a tutu, flower lei and is wielding a pirate sword. She's demonstrating how to correctly say "aargh" and poke someone in the stomach with the sword. I love this picture.

Baby Quilt for Alisia

I found this tutorial a few months ago and wanted to make it, but didn't have anyone to make it for. Then a good friend had her first little baby, so I had an excuse! It was fun, easy and fast. I had never made anything like it and I had a lot of fun. Congrats Maaike and Lukas!

Pirates, amusement parks and tree stumps

We were down south this summer for a while, and did lots of fun things with my family. I'd add lots of pictures, but my computer/internet doesn't like me to do that too much, so we'll go with four.


One afternoon we went with everyone to an amusement park, which the kids loved. Clara and Sarah went on this car ride that was nice and slow on the straight part, and then it whipped them around the corner. Clara just laughed her head off. It was so funny to watch.

 

 The cousins...let's play "Where's Savannah?" extra points if you can find her. And no, I don't think she felt left out.

One morning Mauri and I took the kids (minus Savannah) on a pirate boat ride on the inlet. Clara got a couple "tattoos" (an octopus and an anchor), and Tate got a scar on his cheek which was pretty cool. We went out looking for treasure, etc., and it was really fun. The music from "Pirates of the Caribbean" played the whole time, which made it feel authentic.

Jason got some slalom skiing in before he rode a tube into a tree stump. Pretty talented, isn't he? (At skiing and slamming himself into a stump..what are the odds?)

Pigtails and pictures

Today I put Savannah's hair in pigtails, after she got the rubber bands and said, "green. blue. both." Have you ever seen cuter pigtails? She obviously likes them and happily showed them to daddy and Clara when they got home.

Jason's grandpa (Papa) passed away a couple weeks ago. Papa used to do clowning, and at his funeral there was a bowl of clown noses, so we took some home. Savannah had a hard time keeping hers on her tiny nose, but they thought the noses were funny.

 

On Clara's first day of school she actually took some pictures with her sister! I managed to get a couple before my camera batteries died.

Clara has taken up photography and one day spent probably an hour arranging and re-arranging her stuffed animals. I see some potential, don't you?

Summer

A friend is letting us borrow a little slide until her kids are old enough, and the girls just go around and around on it. We're trying to teach Savannah that she's supposed to climb up the stairs and go down the slide, but Clara's example isn't helping very much...

Gotta love the Sonic Cherry Limeade!

This girl loves her blanket

Pricketts Fort

Jason is working nights this week, so this morning we ventured forth to Pricketts Fort, which was built in 1774. At the time there were about 30 forts in the area, and this reconstructed one is a composite of several of them. It was like a mini-Williamsburg, with the living history people. We saw an Indian wigwam (Clara didn't think the hanging bear furs with the heads still one were real...sorry, no picture of that gem), a garden, spinning, a loom, sheep, chickens, the works. It was really fun, and the State Park it was in was beautiful. There was also a cemetery with graves in it from the 1820s. That's the earliest I saw, anyway. It was awesome.

We tagged along with a school field trip, which Clara loved. I think she felt like such a big kid. Then we ate lunch by the fort and the girls raced around. The best part was Jason's homemade chocolate chip cookies. Who knew there was such a gem just down the highway? Wild and Wonderful, I tell you.

Clara doing jumping jacks in front of the fort. The alternative was her putting her hat in front of her face.

 

 

Savannah's 'deadpan' face. Clara kept saying, "I'm getting such a deadpan right now!"