Summer is almost here!

Although it is still spring here it sure feels like summer.  The last two days here had temps in the 90's!   It felt like being back in the south.  We are so excited that summer is really just around the corner.  For us, summer means trips to the town beach, playing in the yard with the sprinkler, taking after dinner trips to the local ice cream store, Ericksons, getting the garden planted and maintained, sandals, and one of Adie's favorite thing, fresh berries and fruits!

 

They just love to swing!!!

The family.

It has been pretty eventful since my last posting in April.  Adie's cousins, Ryan and Kailey came from Tampa for a long weekend.  It was really great to see them interact together.  That was when Adie decided, by herself, to ride the tricycle.  She was trying to keep up with her cousins Ryan and Kailey zooming around the picnic table at Tony and Pauline's new home.  With that being said, Tony and Pauline moved down the street from their former house to a "Deck Home" with a totally different feel. Great choice!

We had such a great weekend when
Rebecca's brother and family came into town.





 
I know I say it every time, but it is so great watching these two girls of ours grow up together.  Junie is now pulling herself up and walking along anything she can grab.  She has started to walk solo with the walk behind toys that allow her to push them along.  Junie is so funny at imitating whatever Adie does.  Adie can get her to do all her tricks like reaching out and touching specific body parts, head, toes, nose, ears, etc.  One hilarious thing they do is the amazingly loud back and forth chorus of screeches, wobble wobble noises, and some very interesting guttural sounds.

Peek.....

Aboo!

Partners in crime.

They are so cute when they play the crawl around the house chasing game.  One thing I know that is in the near future is going to be Adie dressing up Junie.  Adie has plunged head first into this overwhelming phase of dress up, fairy/ princess world.  I had no clue a three-and-a-half year old could be so into clothes, jewelry, and makeup.  She even has her first pair of sparkly, jewel laden shoes.  AHHHHH, where is this going??? Makes me wonder what the teen years are going to be like.

Toothy Roothy.

Adie had her first dance recital last weekend.  She was the youngest performer in the whole show.  I have to say, she was awesome!!!  She was so expressive, moving her arms, watching them wave back and forth, wiggling her little hips, and prancing around the stage.  Just like a real performer, she wasn't overly aware of or distracted by the crowd.  Just like Angelina Ballerina gets flowers after a performance, she got lovely flowers too.  Now she wanders around the house mimicking the older girls dances that they did for other scenes.

Hammin' it up.

True star form!

Adie has moved into the next age group class of Pre-school, Pre-school 2. Now she is one of the young kids in her class.  She really loves the lessons they learn about.  One time it was dinosaurs.  When we would go to the library to get books she would want books on dinosaurs.  But these weren't the usual cartoon or silly dinosaur books.  She would want books that were very technical, dealing with different periods of geologic history and millions of years, very abstract for a 3 1/2 year old.   The funny thing though is that she really wanted to hear about it and she would sit with us listening carefully while we read these books.  She loves her books!  At pre-school they had an art open house to show off the different projects that the kids made at pre-school.  Adie and her best pre-school friend Kelly play so well together.  I think they are both going through the great dress up phase together.  They even have the same shoes!

Adie and Kelly.

Showing off her art.

Check out Adie's caption on where the dinosaurs went.

Our garden is really looking good now.  The weeds are pretty tame, being so early in the season definitely helps.  This year we added 4-5" of compost/soil mix  to our beds to help out and see how the plants do.  Adie has really been such a fun helper in the garden. Unless she is set on swinging, then there is no changing her mind.  Thank goodness for the swingset.  We planted a lot more flowers this year than last.  One of our beds we have made into a wildflower bed; we'll see how that goes.  I have an fake owl perched on a post in the garden now because the chipmunks and red squirrels were being very brave.  I have to say, I have not seen one back in there.  I simply move the owl every week or so.   The next step would be a  fake coyote with an owl on its back!

Well, check back in again.  Soon Junie will crest the 1 year mark.  Time sure goes fast.
Until next time, enjoy the sun!