Summer 2013

Here are some scenes from this summer. The girls are loving swimming every day at Raintree and definitely need their weekends to recover from their fun week. Merrill and I even were treated to lunch one day by Vivian who was in KS visiting her sister! 

Everyone was right when they told us that Juliet would start taking one day and not stop. Someone commented the other day at how vocal Juliet is for her age. I NEVER thought we would hear that about Juliet and I think that the majority of her talking has happened within the last month to two months. Her talking has not made her any less mischievous :). She gets a look on her face that Mark and I both know means she is looking for trouble.   

I think this video is very classic of the girls right now. Juliet is doing whatever seems fun at the moment and Amelia is right there to keep an eye on her. 

All dressed-up and ready to spend the 4th at the Meyer's house on the lake! The day started off great with the lake triathlon which Mark did the swim portion, Gekas biked (in full costume as a French man, for those that know Gekas you won't even ask why) and Meyer ran. It stayed great as we played on the beach and just enjoyed a day with the kids. After attempts at naps (what can you expect when you try to put four little girls to nap in the same room) we headed out for an evening swim. The short story is; Amelia jumped off the dock into the water to Mark, Mark didn't know Amelia was jumping into the water, Amelia's chin landed on Mark's head, blood started gushing down Mark's face, Amelia had no blood on her, the blood was all from Mark, Meyer helped him out of the lake fast as we were worried he was going to pass out, Amelia was totally traumatized, Mark recovered but has a nice gash on his hair line, Amelia milked her sore chin and from now on we will be extra when jumping into the pool/lake.

This photo is ala Amelia. 

Picking fresh strawberries. Juliet ate each one she picked. As did most of the little ones we saw there.

Amelia took her strawberry picking a little more serious. We picked so many we had frozen strawberries for almost a month....

modeling a new outfit from JuJu and her love of wearing my shoes.

The girls, GranAnn and I played hookie one Friday and spent the morning at Deanna Rose Farmstead in Overland Park. It is a really great park with ponies, goats you can feed, tractor rides, fishing ponds, cow milking demonstrations, etc. You know what the girls wanted to do the whole time? Go and play on the playground equipment that they saw on the way INTO Deanna Rose. Go figure... 

Part of uprooting your family is certainly making new friends.  Amelia and Grace all dressed up. Both girls are at Raintree and I went to Raintree with Grace's mom!

And of course we are getting to spend time with lots of "old" friends. Juliet, Amelia, Norah and Sophia are all off-springs of my architecture classmates. They needed this bath desperately after a long day at the lake! Norah and Sophia are both getting baby sisters this fall so next summer we will need a tub for six little girls!