Yojo

Every time I attempt to take a picture with my phone in one hand and Ella in the other, it comes out all blurry.  So, now you always know when I'm holding Ella!  That little stinker went running off screaming about 1000 times today!

Anyway, today I took the kids (plus two neighbor kids) to see Yojo.  And our neighbor Sophia was chosen as the main volunteer during the show.  That was our favorite part!

Who is Yojo you ask?  Well, he's basically a 7 foot living cartoon character who was invented in 2000 to do motivational and educational comedy shows for children.  Today's show was on the joys and importance of reading.  Perfect way to spend an afternoon of our summer break!

Tennis for Three

D is for Daddy Date Night!

Martina Hingis, who has spent 209 weeks as World #1 and has won 5 Grand Slam Singles titles.

Sam Querry, who has reached World #17.

Waiting in line to meet the players and get autographs!

Martina ready to sign!

Done!  They each got a ball full of autographs. 

Most people are familiar with Living Social, Groupon, etc.  Well, there is a similar site called Certifikid which offers similar deals, but is specifically targeted toward children and families.  I saw a deal a couple weeks ago for the Washington Kastles, a professional tennis team that would be playing in DC.  The deal was for $13/ticket and it included admission into the tournament, a popcorn for each person, drink for each person, a free tennis racket for children under age 12 AND for all kids to be able to meet and get autographs of the players afterward.  I couldn't pass it up.  I snagged three tickets and arranged for Dave (die hard tennis fan) to take his tennis hopefuls on a Daddy Date to tennis.  They didn't get home until nearly 11pm, so this morning was a bit painful, but they all had a GREAT time!  And the kids were so excited to show me their tennis balls full of autographs.

A is for Archery

Yesterday, we had an Activity Days Day Camp (a day camp that our church put on for girls ages 8-11).  I created this event from scratch last year, so I was thrilled to see it continue this year!  And I volunteered to chaperone the event so I could spend the day with my Lacey bug. While I was there, I was talking to one of the other girls and she mentioned that her family was having an "Alphabet Summer" where every day they went through the alphabet and did an activity based around that letter.  I love that idea!  I don't want to hold myself to necessarily doing that for the rest of the summer but I can at least start it even if I only get through one letter ;)  So..... A is for Archery!

And B is for BB guns (is that cheating doing two in one day?)  Oh well, I can make my own rules :)

And C is for Cooking.  Bam!  Did 3 in one day!

It was a really fun day with all these cute girls.  They rotated around in groups doing soccer, archery BB guns and a cooking class.  And it was all centered around doing service.  There was a little devotional of sorts at the beginning and end discussing the importance of service.

Dave was at a swim meet with Tanner, so we each brought along an extra kid to our events.  He brought Riley to T's swim meet and I brought Ella Grace along to this event.  It was no easy task keeping track of this non-stop crazy woman amongst BB guns and archery arrows, but alas, she survived unscathed.  It also happened to be her 2 1/2 year mark yesterday.  I cannot believe it.  My biggest age gap is between Tanner and Riley and that is almost 2 yrs 5 months.  So, I have never had my baby turn this "old" without having another baby.  It takes some getting used to for me since I adore the baby stage.  

I can't believe how much this girl has grown in the last 6 months!  At her 2 yr mark, she was only saying a few words.  Now, she has a huge vocabulary and talks in phrases and sentences.  Granted, much of it is still a bit garbled and she remains in speech therapy, but it's night and day from where she was 6 months ago.  She still takes a good nap for me every afternoon and she's still attached at the hip to her blankie.  Her favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and whenever the show goes "Oh Toodles!" She goes "Mom! Mom! and waits for me to say "Oh Toodles!" along with her saying it.  And after we say it together exactly how the show says it, she gets a big grin on her cute face.  And then she promptly puts her left thumb back in her mouth and grabs her blankie and watches the rest of the show.  She is FULL THROTTLE playing with her older siblings now.  She is right in the thick of it with them and wants to do absolutely everything they do.  She loves to be outside, loves to play at the pool, loves yogurt with sprinkles and loves her mama.  And believe me, the feeling is mutual.

Lacey Day

"Lacey Day" is July 22nd of every year, Lacey's half-birthday.  One of my friends has a winter birthday and so she always celebrated her half birthday in the summer when she could go outside and enjoy the weather and declared it "Mindy Day."  We loved that idea for our January baby, so we have been doing it for years now.  For Lacey Day this year, we got her a new bike!  Normally our "Lacey Day" gifts aren't quite so extravagant, but hey, the girl was in desperate need of a new bike, so since we needed to get her one anyway, we let her pick out one she wanted for her special day.  She picked this one because she liked "the green on the wheels."  You know.... the important things ;)

My original idea was to go and check out a State Park about half an hour away and do a hike to a waterfall that someone had told me about.  I even cancelled Riley's speech therapy appt so we could do that.  But once Lacey had her new bike, she was bound and determined to get back to the BMX track that we discovered last week....

So....

We spent our morning here instead.

But I still wanted to check out that waterfall, so after Ella's nap, we ventured back out and discovered beautiful Patapsco State Park.

Apparently I have lived just half an hour away from this gorgeous State Park for 10 years, but never knew about it until today!  It extends along 32 miles of the Patapsco River and encompasses 16, 043 acres with 170 miles of trails.

Today, we did the Cascade Trail in the Orange Grove area and hiked until we found this.

Once our hiking adventure was complete, the half-birthday girl requested Fro-yo.

And then her dad finally got home at 9:30 tonight with a dozen roses in hand.  Happy Lacey Day to our 8.5 year old first born.  

Now, here's hoping that Ella (whose birthday is just 3 days later) never catches on to this....

My 2 Favorite Dolphins

Round Two..... This is the second year that both Lacey and Tanner have done swim team.  They swam for the Shipley's Choice Dolphins.

Practice was four days a week after school starting a couple weeks before school let out and then became 5 days a week in the morning once school was out plus a meet every Saturday, so this has pretty much been our life the last couple of months.

Today was our last meet of the season.  Here's Tan lining up....

On your marks....

(I love this picture because Dave ran off with my camera and I couldn't find him.  I didn't realize he was taking pictures and so I wanted to take some with my phone, but the storage was all full, so I'm madly trying to delete stuff off my phone with one hand, with Ella in the other all before the race starts.  I was happy to see that Dave did take some pics after all ;))

Get Set..... Go!

Lacey's turn!

This is the face of a girl that just won her heet :)

And because it was their last meet of the season, each kid that got a PR at this meet got a candy bar.  Lacey was just a little bit excited about that!

Tanner ready to go for his relay

After being at the pool all morning for the meet, we headed back there this evening for the award ceremony and banquet.

Lacey showing off her medal

I love dolphins.  Especially these two dolphins.

Just for records sake, I wanted to record their PR's from last year compared to this year:

2014:  T 25 Free 46:40              2015:  32.16

           T 25 Back 1:01:68                     39:75

          L 25 Free 36:91               2015: 34:97

          L 25 Back  39:00                       40:09 (So this stroke she didn't improve in, but oh well!)

          L 25 Breast  41:76                     33.9

And now we have exactly 5 weeks left of summer...........

Terrapin Adventures

This morning, Aunt Hihi and Cousin Becky called and asked if Lacey wanted to come with them to Terrapin Adventures to do some rock wall climbing, zip lining and such.  Uhhh..... yeah!

So off they went and they updated me throughout the day with pictures like this.

And this

And this.

Go, Lacey, go!

And the best part of the day?  Cousin time!

Eat More Chikin

Tuesday was "Dress like a cow and get a free meal" at Chick Fil A.  And I never turn down a free meal!  The problem was, I had to work and didn't get home until 7pm and the second I walked in the door, Dave ran out the door to go to tennis.  But that was not about to stop me from getting my free chicken sandwich ;)  So...... We all dressed up in black and white and taped cow spots all over from head to toe and headed out!  You gotta Love T's face.  Riley was there too, but b-lined it to the play area before we got our picture.

Here's proof of her presence :)

Okay, funny story.  I live over 30 miles from where I work, so I never worry about running into my patients. (For the record, I work with morbidly obese people getting them ready for bariatric patients and spend a good deal of time lecturing them on the woes of fast food, fried food, etc).  I also need to throw out the disclaimer that we rarely go out for fast food.  And what I normally would have ordered would have been a grilled chicken sandwich and a water.  BUT on "Dress like a cow, get a free meal" day, they give you an ENTIRE meal for free.  Why would I not get a drink if it's free?  Why would I not get fries if they're free?  Why would I not get the club sandwich with bacon and cheese if it's free?  You get the picture.  So, no sooner had we gotten all settled with our fries and chicken nuggets spread all over the table that a familiar looking woman approaches me and asked me if I worked at Franklin Square and then went on to say that she remembered me being her dietitian before she had surgery.  Busted!