4 Generations, Great Grandma's Party, Dance, The Fair!

 Four generations!

 Yes, the girls are in pajamas. This was right before we walked out the door to take the kids home to bed. 

 Chelsea had an outdoor dance performance at Magic City (video posted on facebook and youtube). Grandma Heit along with Randy and Greg came to see the fun as well. 

 I'm gonna get those fingers!

 Over the 21st and 22nd we (minus Rick) headed to Fargo to visit with family and celebrate my grandmother's 85th birthday. Starting at the left we have Paul (my dad's bro) with his wife Debbie, their daughter Megan, Grandma, and circling around we have Mary (my dad's sis), Matt (Paul's son) and Beth.

 My Aunt Terri (another one of my dad's siblings-there are six siblings counting him) and my mom.

 Someone was sleepy after a trip to the sauna, I mean, chapel on Sunday. This is at the actual celebration for Grandma.

 There were several kinds of yummy cake, which the girls were happy to sample.

 Isn't she cute? My grandma, I mean. :P

 A little bit of the family history (provided by my parents) was on display.

 This was definitely a geared-for-adults party, but luckily the girls did well. Aunties and Grandma helped out with keeping the little ones occupied.

 Abby earned lots of fans with her general cuteness. Sleeping was a big hit. Also her surfing routine, where she stands up in the middle of the floor all by herself and tries to stay balanced. She also had to do a modified bear-walk crawl with that dress on. Her popping blue eyes scored lots of admirers as well.

 Another sibling, my Aunt Maureen is in the striped shirt. The man with the patterned shirt on the right is an old family friend, but I don't know his name.

 And we are moving on to the fair photos! The big girls got to go with Daddy one day. They had lots of fun visiting with the animals.

 Brie is still a couple of inches too short for most of the rides, but there were a few that she could do.

 I love this shot! Notice her foot all wrapped up. She somehow cut the bottom of her toe right where it bends over the weekend in Fargo. I don't know how, but she did!

 This slide thing was pretty good, too.

 Kid sized tea cups!

 Chelsea got to perform a second outdoor performance, this time at the fair! This brought us in for a second trip to the fair (mommy's first trip this year). So we did a few more activities.

 Abby got to come along for her first trip to the fair. She didn't get to go on any rides. Or play in the sand box, like the other two. (She eats it.)

 Good thing we didn't have to pay for these two to get into the fair and play in the sand, hehe.

 A nice air conditioned play area just right for the little ones.

 What trip to the fair is complete without a visit to Daryl's Racing Pigs?

 Cute little porkers on their first run.

 For the second run, they put silks on the piggies and let us "bet" on which one would win. We put half of a ticket stub in a colored box corresponding to the color of the silk on the pig. They drew a ticket out of the winning pig's box.

 Who will it be?

 And it's the GREEN pig by half a length.  We had quite a few of the colors covered. My ticket stub happened to be in the green bucket. However, I was not the lucky recipient of a Tubby Burger from Tubby's food stand next to the track. 

 We also got a lesson in archery. Chelsea was shy, but excited about it still. I even took a few shots. Fun times.

 I love Abby's face here. No, she wasn't eating off the floor. She did drop a piece of cereal though. The cereal didn't last long because there was a 10 year old "No food and water" Nazi on patrol. He was very quick to enlighten us about the no food or water near the displays rule. I shouldn't say Nazi. He was very nice. Just very quick. Yes, he spotted that closed water bottle as well. hehe!

 Round two of planting sunflowers. They brought home planted sunflowers from their first trip to the fair. Unfortunately they were utterly drowned and subsequently washed away before sprouting. I'm having doubts about our current seeds as well....No signs of life as of yet...

Any trip that causes the kids to look like this, is a big success!

More Summer Fun

 We set up our little baby pool the other day. The big girls dove right in. Abby wasn't so sure at first, but she warmed up to it.

 Love this girl!

 Our three lovelies!

 Mommy was laying out a bit, so Brie had to do the same. And she was cold, so this was perfect.

 Chelsea is holding Beachy the beach ball.

 Here is one of our birdies all hunkered down in the nest. I wasn't sure if it was alive because it wasn't moving. I stuck the camera up there and saw that he (she?) was looking at me. It soon bailed out of the nest after our friend Mark peeked at it. (Mark had to rescue the other baby birdie from being caught around the ankle by some string that was part of the nest. It was hanging  there flopping around, trapped. Poor thing.)

 Maybe we shouldn't have skipped the bathing suit...

 Zoey, Me, and Chels. :)

 I should have discovered the joys of sink baths earlier. The sink is enormous, and I don't have to bend over at all! I also have many more bath photos of the other two. It must be remedied. She's pretty hot stuff with those spikes, huh?

 Do you think she liked it?

 I had to wipe down half my kitchen, but it was worth it!

 The little stinker does NOT like getting a diaper on now that she's mobile.

More hair spikes!

Lovin' Summer

 It's finally starting to feel like summer. It was even warm enough to want to play in the sprinkler! The tractor isn't the ideal play sprinkler, but it works still!

 Careful!

 Screaming Brie

 Brie being a bird and eating her goldfish with her "beak" off our lovely "spic-n-span" carpet. Yum.

 Abby doesn't seem to mind being on the grass, though she does crawl up on her feet and hands instead of knees and hands sometimes. She'll go right onto the rocks without hesitation either. And she'll stick them in her mouth. Yum.

 Daddy tossing Abby up in the air. You can hear her laughing. It's so cute!

 ....Aaaaaaand...Action!

Here is a short clip of Abby's cute right-leg-out-to-the-side crawling technique.

 

Here is our second nest full of baby birdies. There were three the first time around. They grew up and left the nest. Now we have two more. If you knock on the beam under the nest they poke their heads way up in expectation of food. It's pretty funny. These little ones are so ugly they're kind of cute.

Brie being funny and not even realizing it. I love my kids!

It's Just a Tale

 "Peek-a-boo! I've discovered the blinds! I'm also very mobile and can pull myself up into standing position sometimes. What a big girl am I."  

--Abby

 

All sorts of places are good for play at our house. Even the entryway. Chelsea is really good at checkers, by the way. It's impressive. Brie and Abby, not so much. hehe!

Chelsea brought a battery powered candle under the blanket to tell a ghost story. It relates to My Little Ponies. That's why she talks about ponies and that's why the end is SO SCARY.

*SPOILER ALERT* I tell you the whole story here, so if you want to hear it, don't read on....

 

Dialogue: It was a dark and stormy night. Just. Like. This one. 

The three ponies were having a slumber party. Just. Like. This one.

And just when the last pony thought she was safe...

*Fabulous reaction by Brie*

...Right behind her, just inches away...was...

THE HEADLESS HORSE!!!

So great.

Fun Stuff

 Super Abby! The girls like to run around in their capes and be super.

 Taking advantage of some fun birthday stuff: Hello Kitty color by number and Hello Kitty pajamas.

 My kids get up way earlier than they should (in my mind) and that makes them really tired by the afternoon/evening sometimes. She's twisted AND curled in a ball AND using a hard plastic arm rest for an awkward pillow. Kids.

 Funnily enough, this is not the first time Chelsea has done this. She's not stuck or anything, but I don't really understand the draw of "underneath the walker."

 We had a picnic in the back yard a couple days ago. Abby is messily enjoying tater tot hotdish. But she's really cute doing it! Look at those gorgeous eyes! I also like how the food in her mouth makes it look like she's got little upper fangs. Ha! (She's just got two bottom teeth for real.)

 I caught stinker Brie pulling leaves off the tree to collect in the little red wagon. I think we need to trim off those lower branches anyway, but what a stinker anyway. Chelsea and Daddy are playing two person tag. He's great at wearing the kids out. 

 For FHE we went to Lowe's and picked out some lovely flowers. Tuesday we picked up the dirt and together we planted our flowers.

 The girls helped every step of the way. Chelsea likes this particular marigold. Brie seems...unconcerned...

 Chelsea definitely had the most fun with this project. Brie did enjoy the watering part though. They were so cute with their little watering pails going back and forth for more water.

 Here is almost all of our pots. We have another large pot similar to this one on the other side of the garage. This is not the final destination for the small pots. They are now in the back yard on a corner plant stand looking very cute. (I didn't have the stand yet, that's why they hung out on the driveway for a day.)

I realize we've got quite the combination of different flower types, and that they may not all be compatible with each other as far as space in the pot and amount of sun needed, but really, this was about having fun. We'll watch them grow (I hope!) and see how the look in a couple months. 

This was just this afternoon. Missoni and Alize came over. With the exception of the items on the red place mat, the entire table is COVERED in play doh and play doh paraphernalia. We have a lot now, but it's good because all the kids love it. Abby has discovered a love of goldfish crackers. Mommy doesn't mind, especially because the fish kept baby busy long enough for mommy to make dinner in peace! She even fed them to herself! It was great.