July 2014 (the not-family-reunion-parts of July)

More zoo pics

We found a back road out of town to do some low-key fireworks. There are no exciting pictures to go along with our activities. We did enjoy having Auntie Beth and Randy along though.

Lucy's Amusement Park

I get sick just watching all this circular motion. I looked long enough to get a couple pictures and videos, then I had to look away. Me and circles? We don't get along.

The slide is probably the best part. At least, the part with the best reactions.

Chelsea lost another tooth!

Early Saturday morning fresh-out-of-bed pictures.

It's time for Abby's first official hair cut! I almost forgot to do a "before" shot while her hair was dry. She was already in the tub by then and this is the best I got. Oh well.

Note: Her bangs don't grow that length naturally. I have cut her bangs many times, but not the rest.

So here's our wet-hair "before" shot.

And our wet-hair "after" shot.

She had fun with it.

The girls always sit on the bathroom counter while I dry their hair.

All dry! And dressed. Does she look older to you?

June 2014

The last day of first grade. Chelsea drew two pictures on the walkway in front of the school.

A last hug for her teacher, Mrs. Heilman. She is awesome.

So. More hamster stories. One morning Rick got up and went into the bathroom to find Rosy on the floor looking at him. How did she get out? He picked her up and then found that the cage had fallen to the floor, opening up. Where was Katy? We couldn't find her anywhere. So we borrowed a live-animal trap from Auntie Beth who had one for her science activities. No Katy was trapped. BUT. I did catch a glimpse of a furry creature scuttling across our garage one day. So we put the trap out there and in no time caught this little guy. A vole? 

Later we found Katy floating in our sump pump hole. Gruesome death count: 2.

At the zoo. Normally we are too cheap to put money in the merry-go-round. But it was running all on it's own, so the girls took a ride.

Our big girls

And more cuteness

May 2014

Aaaaaand more hamsters! We gave away the two baby hamsters that our Rosy gave us. So there was room for one more. So we got a new, darker colored one and named her Stormcloud. Well stormcloud and the others did NOT get along. So we traded her for yet another new hamster: a white one that we named Snowflake. Well. As it turns out, SNOWFLAKE was pregnant. She gave us SIX more little hamsters. Unfortunately, Abby got ahold of one of the babies and played with it. To death. It was very sad for me, but such is life.

All the cuties. They eat a ton.

Chelsea turned SEVEN years old this month! She had a Frozen themed party. These are white chocolate covered marshmallows, some with sprinkles. They are supposed to be snowball-ish.

Here is the Elsa cake. It is supposed to represent her in her ice castle. The "ice" is edible, but I didn't add any flavoring to it so it didn't really taste like much. It was really strange to eat a candy that didn't taste like anything. All the sugar was there, but not taste. Kind of an eye-opener. What do they really put in all the candy we eat? I'm not sure I want to know.

Here's two of Chelsea's best buds. Madisyn in blue and Leah in white.

Monkey see, monkey do.

They are waiting their turn to do the obstacle course.

Daddy set up an obstacle course and several other great outdoor games. He had them running, ducking, dodging, high-knee-ing, throwing, and racing all over the place. Marshmallow, I mean snowball, throwing was involved.

They are carrying ice cubes from a bowl over to the plastic bench, relay style. When they got enough ice cubes, they were to build an ice castle.

They worked up quite an appetite, so we figured we would feed them. One of the girls is allergic to pineapple, which I didn't know. Luckily I cut the Hawaiian pizza last, so it was unlikely that we would poison her. She survived. 

Present time! To decide which prezzie Chelsea got to open, we put the hamster in the middle, and whoever she went to got to give Chelsea the gift that she brought. The girls loved that.

Showing off some of the prezzies

Cake with candles

I also made blue gigglers that looked like ice cubes and plain marshmallows that were supposed to be snowballs. I served strawberries to add SOMEthing a little healthier. 

Cake and party number two, the family variety.

More good presents, including a cool Lalaloopsy Puppet Kit assembled by Grandma Heit. It went over really well needless to say.

I'm happy to have a SEVEN year old!

April

 For our Easter dinner contributions we made some chocolate dipped strawberries. They are orange because they are supposed to resemble carrots. Get it? They don't look overly carrot-y but the girls had a great time dipping, and that was most important anyway. Chelsea and Abby prefer plain strawberries and Brie doesn't like strawberries at all, so they didn't really eat them. But the rest of us enjoyed them!

 

 The girls also helped make these lovely nests. They didn't want to eat them because of that poison coconut, but they enjoyed the process and that was most important anyway. But the rest of us enjoyed them!

We also brought some fresh green beans dressed with a bacon and onion and salt and pepper mixture which turned out fairly well. The girls wouldn't touch them, but the rest of us enjoyed them!

Have I ever mentioned how hard it is to get these girls to eat? Ever? It's hard.

 Matt and Jerusha Wilson joined us Heits for Easter, which was pretty spiffy. The girls enjoyed stuffing their eggs with candy and then hiding/finding them. Of course they gorged themselves on the CANDY instead of all the other yumminess involved with dinner. Are we surprised by that? 

No. No we are not.

 It took Abby a while to get the hang of watercolor painting, but eventually she caught on. She kept getting frustrated that it kept "not working" all the time. More water, more paint. That's all she needed in the end. I love Brie's red headed Aurora. I think she thought it was Ariel. Or at least wanted it to be. (There were no Ariels in this particular paint book.)

 And of course we have the circus! This is old hat for Chelsea and Brie, though they still enjoyed themselves.

 But this was Abby's first circus! She chose this cute snake instead of a light-up toy like the other two. Incidentally, yes, one of the light-up toys was broken before intermission. Surprise, surprise. Luckily some superglue has helped. But I am happier with Abby's choice of souvenir than with the annoyingly bright and loud and breakable (heartbreaking!) light-up options.

 Pony rides! Here's Brie. We didnt' get any great shots because we had to walk (very briskly!) along with the kids and ponies. Moving photography can be tricky, and it was over pretty quickly.

 Abby didn't want to do it but I put her on anyway. She clung to me for a few seconds but then decided she'd rather hang on to the saddle and enjoy the ride. She loved it! She wanted to do it again, but that was not an option. ;)

And here's Chelsea! She had the most fun overall. The younger two were basically done with the circus after intermission, but still held out till the end. They complained a bit, but they made it.