Clemyjontri Park

The park has a weird name, but it is a very very cool place to go with kids. It's a 2-acre rubberized playground filled with tons of things kids love to play on. Today, we went there with Jill and Jonathan and some of their friends and had a great time! Also, during the weekdays, the carousel rides are free. So, you can ride as much as you want! I think we rode about 8 or 9 times!

Nina was cracking us up making faces in the distorted mirrors.

Oh, the Fun "Wi've" Had!

Being without my camera is really frustrating at times. On Friday evening, we went over to our friends, Jill and Mark's, house to play their Wi. It was SO much fun. It was our first time playing, and it definitely provided some funny moments. The other fun thing we've done so far this weekend was go to our community's Freedom Festival. I thought I would be crafty and use our old Handicam to take photos with, but it's been so long since I've used it that I had it on the wrong fuction the whole time I was taking pictures. I ended up with a very long video of still shots with crowd noise in the background - definitely not worth posting. I did get one picture though. Nina was part of the kid parade that started off the festival. All the kids decorated their bikes, wagons, cars, strollers, etc. in American themed colors and balloons and rode behind the fire engines leading the way to the festival location. It was so cute! This picture was taken as we were waiting to start the parade. The festival was a great time. Nina got to go on the kid rides, there were bands playing, and a great fireworks display at the end. Today we're heading downtown to see DC United take on the LA Galaxy. It's been a fun weekend!

Camera Troubles Again

Well, we waited and waited for the new camera to arrive, and after a few days of using it, I noticed one of the focus functions wasn't working properly. After spending some time on the phone with tech. support, the camera was determined to be malfunctioning (I could have told them that and saved a lot of time), so a replacement is on the way. Since I was missing a lot while not being able to picture post for awhile the last time, I'm going to try to use my old camera (that fell off the counter) until I get my new one. We got it to stay turned on, but it's functions definitely aren't working properly. I'll see how it goes and hopefully get some pictures up again while waiting for the replacement camera to arrive.

Quite a Party!

Nina had a great time at Emme's 4th birthday party yesterday. The party was at a very cool place that is a build-a-bear/ice cream shop/party location all in one. Nina was so excited for the party that she couldn't even take a nap that day, but she had a great time, and the party was tons of fun.

Here is the birthday girl!

The party room...
This is the area where you pick out your animal to stuff, the outfit, etc.
Emme got to pick out all the ice cream toppings for her party guests.
Then each kid got to pick an animal to get stuffed as well as an outfit for the animal. Nina picked this purple bear with a purple ballerina dress.

All the kids were quite well mannered while eating pizza and ice cream.
Obviously, Nina loves ice cream.
Things got silly for a little while, but all the kids held it together pretty well.
At the end, they were all given a birth certificate for their animal with their picture on it. Here is Nina looking at hers.It was definitely a great party!

Baby Talk and Boyfriends

Most of my friends who have kids around Nina's age have boys. Since gender doesn't really seem to be a factor in play right now, it's great fun to have friends who we enjoy hanging out with, and whose kids are friends with our kids. Actually, it makes me realize that we (the adults) aren't kids anymore, but that's a whole other post! Anyway, this week was great fun because one of my good friends from high school, Becky, came for a visit from Florida, so we met up at her sister's house to get all the kids together and catch up. Her sister's house had some fun toys and a playground that Nina and Jonathan had a lot of fun playing with.

Here is the start of their rock band...

Jill and I love seeing our oldest kids having so much fun together. Our two younger ones are only two weeks apart, so we bet Kate and Lyla will be good buddies also!

Lyla's baby talk video didn't want to load...I'll try back later.

An Adventurous Morning

It was such a beautiful day here today, so I decided to take the girls out for an adventure morning. It was really for Nina's benefit, but Lyla enjoyed the time outdoors as well. The plan was to fill her bag with all the cool things we found on our adventure walk... Here are some of the things she collected, however the most exciting thing we found all day was...
...a lost dog!! As we were finishing our adventure walk, a little dog came running towards us after just crossing a busy 4-lane road. He seemed friendly enough, so I called him over, and noticed that he had a collar with a tag on it. We waited a bit, but there was no owner in sight following behind him, so I had my cell phone on me and called the number on the tag. We were able to reach the owner who met us at the park to pick up Georgio (the dog). I was kind of excited to see the reunion of Georgio and owner, however, the reunion was less than joyous! Evidentally, Georgio is a bit of an escape artist and this wasn't the first time Georgio's owner had gotten called out to come pick him up. Oh well, at least Georgio is home...for now.

Father's Day

We enjoyed a very nice Father's Day on Sunday. Mark started the day by getting up in the 4:00 hour to meet Mike Clarke for several hours of fishing. They got back around noon, and Megan and I had made a nice brunch for everyone - very delicious. We continued the day later with my family who came over for dinner. Of course, the girls loved playing with each other, and the guys were hooked on the US Open golf tournament.

I thought this picture was cute because it really looks like Lyla and Nina are talking to each other. Lyla is just about done holding herself up!
Nina wanted to wear my flip flops all day, and the bottom of the shoe is what you see in the picture!




Shenley, Garland, and the girls arrived after we took these pictures, but that is when the real fun began. The girls played hard all evening, and when I took this video it was well past their bed time. They were running like this for over 30 min. straight (the reason why little Ryleigh is staggering a bit trying to keep up with the big girls). Who ever said that girls are quiet and calm never visited our house!

Funny Comment

Nina and I were sitting on the couch together, and I had just finished with my shower, blow drying my hair, etc., and she touches my hair and says, "I like your hair, Mommy. It's so brave."

At the Pool

As I stated in the previous post, Nina is really enjoying the pool this summer. Yesterday, we took the girls over. Lyla and I grabbed a spot under an umbrella, and Mark and Nina had some fun in the water.

We're Back!

The camera arrived yesterday after being delayed by weather and train derailment (or so said the tracking info.), so we're back to picture postings now. There has been a lot that I have missed since my camera went for a tumble. Lyla rolled over for the first time, she laughs a lot more than just a single "ha" now, and it's really quite funny. Also, she turned three months old on Sunday of this past weekend.


We gave an attempt at potty training with Nina, but she didn't want to have anything to do with actually doing anything in the potty, so that is on the back burner for now. We've also missed some great opportunities for photos of her at the pool. She has loved going this summer. Unfortunately, Lyla can't wear sunscreen yet, so one of us has to be home to be with Lyla while the other takes Nina to the pool, so we're not there as much as we would like, but she really enjoys it. She is quite the fashionista at the pool. Her bathing suit and hat match, and she wears her pink crocs and her pink sunglasses with her hair in pigtails. It's really quite cute! She's also wanted to resist my taking her picture, so trying to catch her in a photo today was like trying to photograph the elusive clouded leopard!

Camera is on it's way!

Thankfully, we'll be back to blog postings soon. The new camera was ordered today, and hopefully will be arriving soon. We'll be back soon with even more pixels and resolution for your viewing pleasure!