Some Pot heads!
Are you starting to get the feel for the parade? No car-sittin' politicians in this one.
This guy just wanted me to take his picture, so I did.
The skies cleared and the sun actually peaked out briefly, right before it set, so we could attend the fireworks show with our favorite little neighbor girl, Sofia, and her family. The kids thought the fireworks were almost as good as the fireflies (poor kids never get to see them as their mom makes them go to bed at 8!).
Note to anyone going to the U.P. in June: it is freezing cold. Freezing. Cold. The highs were in the forties and I only brought one long sleeve shirt and a sweatshirt for the kids. So, we were all shivering and made every stop very brief. We found this very sandy and very isolated beach, had it been warmer we would have stayed all day. The kids and I had a great time collecting these wonderfully round and smooth palm-size rocks. We (illegally, mind you) took a large bag home with us and it's a good thing we did because those rocks kept the kids occupied for hours.
Sadie sleeping and holding one of her rocks:
One of the numerous waterfalls we saw along the way:
Getting the back trimmed up a bit:
A little blowdry:
A perfect little bob:
By the way, her hair is still in her face, but she doesn't fuss as much when I comb it. She has some short layers that still need to grow out some. It's pretty cute.
Leaves. The real reason why he wanted the camera "to take pictures of leaves" and there were a lot of them.
Eli lost a leg in the mine-field that is our back yard.
We went to a birthday party today and the girls were supposed to dress like a princess. This was the best I could do:.jpg)
A little more Sadie-like:
I'm going to let her get it out of her system so she's not doing it when she's 18!
She's slimmed down quite a bit don't you think? Anyways, naked horseracing is always fun!
Notice Monkey. He never leaves Sadie's side. This is a recent phenomenon within the last several weeks. Monkey goes everywhere Sadie goes.
Some more Monkey:
The latest Mommy-feat: getting Sadie into pig tails. This is how she smiles now. She squints her eyes really small. We're going to have to work on that:
I finally remembered to bring the camera to gymnastics. Here's some of the highlights:
Eli on the bars. He can flip himself around, he just didn't want to do it for the camera. It's good of him to not be cocky:
Sadie and friends on the bars:
Eli's cartwheel into the pit:
Where in the world is Eli?
Eli took his first bike trip out in public. He rode on the Olentangy River Trail. It was hard for him to remember to stay on the right side of the yellow line, but he did well! Sadie just waved to every biker that went by. She's such a princess on parade.
Throwing rocks or maybe watching ducks.
We had a dance party in the kitchen (dancing in the kitchen ROCKS! The Urbatsch's taught me that.) Dancing on the table is only allowed during the dance party.
Sadie having a look at the turtles.
The first time Sadie has ever fallen asleep in the back-pack. She must have been exhausted. (Betty, you'll be happy to know that we went to 8am mass and then went hiking!) Oh, and Dennis locked the keys in the car. Good times...
We have a sweet little neighbor girl named Sofia. Eli and Sadie both love her and Dennis and I do too. She is very good at playing creative games and is very gentle and patient with both kids. Plus, she's teaching Eli Spanish, well, sort of. Eli's Spanish is not so good.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
I know this picture has nothing to do with spring or summer and it isn't the best photo, but I'm including it so you can have a look at Eli's favorite outfit. Eli's been into picking out his own clothes and this just happens to be his favorite shirt (well, this and his short sleeved tie-dye) and favorite shorts. On this particular day (and today) both the shirt and the shorts happened to be clean at the same time. The only thing this outfit is missing are the green and blue striped socks (or bright red socks that he's wearing today) that he usually wears with it along with his sandals (see trike photo above). He says that he is very "colorful." I can't argue with him there. He is very colorful. :)
Normally, Dennis isn't into monster trucks or cars in general, afterall he thinks my Honda Civic is a good ride, but when you have a two year old who thinks monster trucks are the cats meow, you cough up the $5 and go! And Eli had about the best time a two year old could possibly have. 
Grandpa bought Eli (and Sadie) five new monster trucks and that's about all he plays with. He rolls them over the cars so it looks a lot like this:
He likes to watch monster truck videos on youtube and now his favorite song is Bad to the Bone followed closely by Welcome to the Jungle. We had to download them from itunes for him! Seriously.
My favorite picture of Sadie of all time because it shows her foot-loose-and-fancy-free side:
This is usually the side I see of Sadie:
The best thing about this picture is that the floor is actually picked up. And look at that book shelf. The books are actually neat and orderly. Eli picked out that outfit too-- all blue! He's really into stripes now, like his mother. The only underwear he'll wear that doesn't have Diego or a car on them has stripes. You should see his new Monster Truck underwear that grandma and grandpa Z. gave him. Have I told you about his new monster truck obsession. I didn't? I'll post about that next! He's officially been white-trashified!!
Did I post this one last week? I can't remember. Well, if I did, here it is again..jpg){kind=spacer}
