End of summer photos

It has been a busy summer, with activities and visits with friends. Still, with all the activity, Elizabeth decided in the photo above that despite it being way past her bedtime, sleeping was for suckers. We finally gave up, brought her downstairs to watch a little baseball with Daddy and play for a half-hour before trying again to get her to sleep.  Somehow, even when she stays up late, she is generally up bright and early, typically about 45 minutes before we would like her to be awake! Other random happenings from the last month are below.

Saw her tutu in her closet and insisted on putting it on over her pj's

I can't remember who gave her this crab & fish romper, but it's so cute!

Photos from a sleepover at Grandma's & Opa's. Elizabeth is trying to figure out the stethoscope.

Splashing in a fountain after a trip to our town's farmer's market

After a relatively mild summer, we had a small heat wave over the last 2 weeks. We broke out the beach ball sprinkler from cousins Ruth & Dick and the kids enjoyed it. We also had it out when the kids had friends sleep over and it was a big hit.

Ben tries to catch the water on his tongue

We had a picnic with friends at a local park that had picnic tables, a sand box, baseball field, great playground equipment and a little splashing waterfall/brook. The kids absolutely loved it and loudly protested when we had to leave.

Ben was SO excited to get to pitch on a real baseball diamond!

Splashing in the brook (cute Strawberry Shortcake shirt courtesy of Uncle Tony & Aunt Jen!)

Playing with toys by the waterfall

We babysat for the same friends' kids last weekend and broke out a bunch of ideas I found on Pinterest, including making homemade play dough and this game from the Hands On As We Grow blog. You put painter's tape sticky-side out like a spiderweb and throw newspaper balls at it. Once they got the hang of it, they had a lot of fun! Elizabeth also noticed that the painter's tape made great bracelets.

Elizabeth enjoyed stomping in the paper afterward.

We had a family photo taken for our church directory a few weeks ago. They also take a bunch of other photos in the hopes that you will buy a whole package. There was a lot of posing and requests to hold still and smile. Needless to say, with a four-year-old and an eighteen-month-old, that did not work so well. It was tough choosing one good photo for the directory!

However, we got some cute pictures of the kids when we got home.

Playing dress-up

A few weeks ago, the kids' daycare had Costume Day. One of Ben's birthday presents was a big bin of dress-up clothes and props since he was having such a good time dressing up with his friends at school. The bin got relegated to the basement for a few months during one of our toy shuffles, but we brought it back up so Ben could pick a costume to wear to school. Elizabeth has been having fun with it too.

Ben's costume choice for daycare, sans the saw and hammer

Scrutinizing the glitter wand

Exploring the echo microphones

We lost the other eyebrow somewhere along the way!

Checking out her wig in the mirror (it didn't stay on for too long!)

Michigan trip

We just got back home after a week visiting my family in Michigan. We had a great time with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and grandma. Ben and his cousin Gwen had a lot of fun chasing each other around and giggling hysterically. Here are a few pictures from my first skim through all the ones we took.

Four generations

Ben playing catch with Great-Grandma. He later convinced her to try hula hooping.

Elizabeth checking out flowers in Grammie's garden

Gwen & Elizabeth in the adorable Sesame Street dresses that Jen's mom Dena made. We tried to get a picture of the girls in an armchair by themselves but there were major tears!

Trying out the hula hoop

 

Yummy, Yucky got read approximately 50 times during the week. It was hilarious to all of the kids. 

Elizabeth convinced Papa to read it again later.

Elizabeth in the rocker her Great-Grandma had as a small girl. She also recommends Good Night, Gorilla for a good laugh.

Ben & Papa playing baseball.

Not pictured: the three minutes between the time that Buddy's Pizza arrived at the table and the time it was cool enough to be eaten, during which she screamed and pointed at the pizza in fury that it was not immediately placed in her mouth.

Relaxing at the Ranch

We spent Memorial Day down in Texas with some of Dave's college friends and their families. We had unusually gorgeous weather, much cooler than the last few trips to the ranch. The kids did pretty well on the drive, other than a brief episode of possible carsickness from Elizabeth. We had a great weekend relaxing, catching up, and eating way more than we should have!


Elizabeth decided this weekend was a great time to start taking multiple independent steps. She still crawls a lot, but can walk several steps when she feels like it. She liked walking around the hotel room and the ranch patio.

The older kids enjoyed looking for roly-polies and crickets. Several crickets imprisoned in a plastic container with air holes and a bottlecap of water miraculously made it alive through the weekend before they were set free as we were leaving. (Ben, unsurprisingly, is the one in the Hosmer baseball shirt in the photo below.)

Elizabeth comes face to face with a real cow. She was unsure what to think.

Ben spotted this group of cows in the meadow during our drive around the ranch.

Ben went fishing at the regular lake (roost lake) once and the small lake just down from the cabins once. He caught a fish at the roost lake and was very proud!

Heading down to the little lake with Elizabeth in our new baby carrier

Ben's fish:

Ben posing with the fish Calvin caught:

One of the other kids got out the chalk and Elizabeth was fascinated! She scribbled with it for almost an hour and got mad when we took her away so we could have dinner! Since we got home, she has been enjoying drawing on the driveway.

Magna Doodles are some of the best kids' toys! Both Ben & Elizabeth love spending time scribbling (E) & writing/drawing (B) on them. Elizabeth also loved that there were chairs just her size.