Flashback to Father's Day

So I'm really trying to play blog catch-up. Only about a month to go:-). We've been so busy making memories that I haven't had time to record them for posterity!

Father's Day was a multi-activity fun day. We spent the morning opening presents and swimming at our neighborhood pool. This was truly the best swimming shot - check out those baby moobs (man breasts for those new to the term)!

Later that afternoon, we went to the Missouri History Museum to attend an African Dancing Class with Kevin's parents. They had taken the class a few weeks before and deemed it a very fun, family-friendly high-impact workout. I had my doubts about the high-impact exercise, but I was sorely mistaken. It was an hour and half of dancing accompanied by six African drummers. It was awesome! The girls were so entertained that they stuck it out for a whole hour before they had to take a break and explore the museum. Here are Pat and Kevin in action - serious concentration!

The drummers let the kids try their drums after class (OK, OK...I tried them too).

We ended the day with dinner at Fitz's, complete with a milkshake treat! This picture just "melts my heart", as the kids like to say.

I have to include some video so that you can hear the incredible music (and giggle at my kids gettin' down).

Leaf Bag Joust

Last winter, a creature was born in our backyard: The Leaf Bag Person. When I rake leaves, I always open the leaf bag by putting my arms and head in it (while standing), and shape it open with my arms. One warm day last January, I was trying to finish bagging the last little area of leaves left to bag (and ward off some cabin fever). Reiley bundled up and went ouside with me to get some winter swinging in, and my half-crazed winter brain thought it might be hilarious to walk around with a leaf bag on my body. Fortunately, Reiley must have inherited my hilarity, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We both took turns playing the Leaf Bag Person, getting lost in the yard, bumping into the swingset, etc. Leaf Bag Person has made several other appearances since that fateful day, and we have the footage to prove it.

He's a maniac...maniac...

Sawyer's newest party trick is clapping. He just started doing it in the last week or so, and now it's the first thing he tries once he's got your attention. He likes to look at you, raise his eyebrows a little bit, and give you a clap. It's so cute with his chubby little forearms! We managed to capture a video the first day he was trying out his new skill. He pairs it with a pre-clap headshake to look a little bit like a drunk, crazy frat guy. Enjoy!

Fishing Fun

My plan of more frequent posting hasn't panned out - maybe because we've been too busy with the fun of summer! Early in the summer we took the girls on their first fishing trip with my parents. "Trip" really just means a short drive to Tilles Park, which has a great shady pond with many ducks and geese to keep us entertained.

My dad talked through all of the steps of preparing your rod with Reiley. She was very serious and concentrated on the whole endeavor. Reiley really wanted to catch a fish and wanted to ensure that she was doing things the "right" way.

Ainsley sat in the chair and spent about 90 seconds jabbing the water with her pole before she got up to chase the ducks around. And just where did the gals get their awesome camo hats, you may ask? My dad (who works in sales) picked these up from a client and deemed them as the perfect fishing hats. The girls loved them!

Here's Ainsley with some of our duck friends. This might have been about the time that Ainsley decided that the ducks were a little too friendly for her comfort. Unfortunately, Mommy (ever the animal enthusiast) made the mistake of encouraging the girls to feed the ducks their leftover bagels when we first got to the lake.
That may have been why the gang of ducks and geese trailed us the entire time. Reiley was unphased by the distractions and waited for a bite (with a few near-catches) for two whole hours! I was pretty impressed with her patience. We didn't get a catch on this outing, but we learned what fishing was all about.Sawyer took a little snooze during the trip, and then played happily on the blanket. He loves to be outside!

"God, are you there? It's me, Ainsley"

We love us some prayin' in this house. We say two kinds of prayers at dinner to reflect our different spiritual upbringings. We start with the tradional Catholic mealtime prayer, and then say a "holding hands prayer" where we go around the table and anyone who wants to say something to God says it. Ainsley's been listening to us do this for a while, and has recently wanted to join in. Reiley has a variation of the same prayer each night at dinner, which typically includes "people who don't have food or a place to live", the summer edition of "people who don't have air-conditioning", and general thanks for whatever fun thing she did during the day.

A few nights ago, when it was Ainsley's turn, here's what happened:

Ainsley: " (eyes closed, head bowed) Dear God, thank you for bringing me my delicious apple juice...(looks up, eyes open) Did God bring me my apple juice??"

Me: "Well, no, Daddy brought the apple juice to the table, but God made the trees where the apples grow, people pick the apples and make them into juice, we buy it at Trader Joe's, and Daddy brought it to you"

Ainsley: "God made the trees?"

Me: "Yes"

Ainsley: "The apples grow on trees?"

Me: "Yes"

Ainsley: "Oh," (head bowed again) Amen.

Baby Love

Sawyer and I have developed this fun little game over the past few weeks. I give him a kiss on the cheek, and he grabs my face with his two chubby little hands, gives me a really wet baby kiss, and laughs. I LOVE it! I wanted to see if he would share some love with a baby too. Here are the results (try to filter out the far-too-enthusiastic Mom-talk from yours truly)

Update and New Strategy

My current blog strategy is clearly not working. The purpose of the blog is to keep family and friends near and far updated on our happenings since work, the kids, and life in general make me a HORRIBLE (really despicable) email and phone communicator. Phone messages get forgotten, accidentally deleted, or written down on a piece of paper that gets recycled when I try to declutter. My email box is currently at 300, kids at times have been known to hit delete while my inbox is open, and I'm sure I've accidentally coded a friend's email address as a spam source. I thought a blog was the answer. My problem is that I save blog ideas thinking I'm some sort of paid blogger who is followed by hundreds of adoring fans waiting for the next installment. Though that would be an awesome job, I don't have it, and I think all of you mostly want to see pictures of my kids and less musing from me:-). So that's the new strategy: put up pics when I've got them and limit the words.

Here's an update on our latest happenings:

We got to meet Cousin Lucy! Kevin's sister, Kathy, has (clearly) the most adorable 8-week-old baby girl. She was in St. Louis for the past three weeks and we got to spend lots of time fawning over Baby Lucy. Holding her, singing to her, bouncing her, and loving on her A LOT. It's so fun to have a cousin! I loved having Kathy here to be one of my full=time "Mom friends". Chatting while nursing our babies together, watching the other girls run around, indulging on afternoon coffee to keep ourselves awake - so great! Now that she's back in NYC, we'll have to resume our afternoon Skype sessions (maybe drinking coffee simultaneously:-)).

Reiley has been spending the last few months starting her first season of softball. Here she is sporting the much-too-large uniform with matching visor. I'm very proud of her because playing in full-sun, heat, and humidity is NOT her forte, but she's been a trooper. She's declared being in the field as "pretty boring", and her favorite part is the snack after the game. Though she does say that batting and running the bases is "pretty awesome."

Dance class resumes this month, and her summer camps at her soon-to-be Kindergarten, Shining Rivers Waldorf School, will be starting in a few weeks. She's growing up!

This picture of Ainsley explains it all. She is in a fantasy world at all times. It has been months since she will willingly respond to her actual name of Ainsley. We've all gotten in to the habit of asking her "Who are you being," in fear of the rage that will ensue if we call her Ainsley. She will play any animal or human character she creates, but typically for a maximum of 15 minutes. She and Reiley are often partners in pretend play until the fighting starts over who gets ownership of a pretend character (Madeline, the Angel Gabriel, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, are hotly contested alter-egos). Ainsley is certainly entering the age of 2.5-year-old independence, but she's still very affectionate and always a hoot.

Sawyer turned 7 months old this weekend and he is seriously this happy 90% of the time. Full-time sitting up seems to have made him even happier. He will play contentedly with all of us around him for sometimes up to an hour (silent thank-you prayers are being sent up often)! He's still very big. At this 6 month appointment he was 21lbs, 3 oz, and he sure seems heavier every day! He loves to laugh at his sisters and be outside.

Obviously, I'll need to work on limiting the words