Oh yes, I'm still here.

There is simply too much to say about the past few months, so I'm going to postpone it a little longer.  Instead, I'd like to share this lovely little story:

I woke up at 4 am this morning and started to pack up my kitchen (we are moving this week).  I heard little feet on the stairs and thought, "What on earth...?"  It was Angela.  But when I went to her, she was obviously deeply upset.  I scooped her up and took her back to her bed and cuddled up beside her.

"Did you have a bad dream?"
"Yeah.  I dreamt that I drowned in the duck pond."
"Oh, that's a very scary dream!"
* lots of snuggles *
"I dreamt that you drove into the duck pond and I drowned.  And when I woke up I was holding my breath."
"Oh, honey..."
"Before that the dream was cool.  Those black ducks were as big as I was, and they were running next to the car, trying to fly south for the winter."
"Well, Angela, did you know that the duck pond is actually very shallow?  If you stood up to it, the water would probably only come up to here on you" * pointing to her abdomen *.
"I didn't know that!"
* silence while she took this in *
"Should we wake up Elizabeth?"
"No, honey, it's only 4 in the morning."
"Oh!"
"Are you ready to go back to sleep?"
"Yes!"
"What about your bad dream?"
"If I have another bad dream, then I'll just remember that the water isn't very deep, and then I'll roll my window down and pretend that the black ducks are my pets, and they'll fly in through the windows and over my head, like at the bird show!"

After that, she was downright anxious to sleep again, and shooed me away so she could get to it.

I love that girl.  I have a lot to learn from her.

Elizabeth's summer...

...has been spent largely like this:

Angela's haircut

Some not-great pictures of her dramatic new haircut:

Karate!

Angela's favorite thing:

Alton Days

We visited Alton for the day.

We rode trains...






...picnicked with lots of watermelon (Holland calls it "lado-lemon")...


...and saw lots of family.

We can't wait to go back to Alton.

Caught up!

Ahh!  All caught up now, at least in pictures.

Enjoy!

A day on the farm

A friend of one of my dear friends owns a farm, and we were invited to spend some time up there with her family, to milk cows, chase chickens, and breathe in the fresh country air.





Elizabeth milked a cow!


Angela was wary, and did it so quickly that all I managed to get was this blurry picture:


A tiny cow:


Befriending the animals:






Cows are very patient.

And, it turns out, so are chickens:






The kids got to ride around on this little car:


I didn't realize it at the time, but this picture records the beginning of the end:
Elizabeth fell for that dog, Lucky.

Gathering eggs:








I should've realized a little sooner that the Lucky bug had bitten:


Under the trampoline:





...and they're both hooked. They didn't want to leave Lucky.

When I finally, forcefully, dragged them away from the dog, they were utterly forlorn. Elizabeth found a popsicle stick and wrote "Lucky" all over it.

Luckily for me, she doesn't want just any dog--she wants Lucky. And that dog already has an owner.

Las Vegas trip

A mere hour after school let out for the summer, the kids and I left to visit my mom and her dear friend Sharon in Las Vegas.

The kids enjoyed the biggest bubble bath in history (keep your eye on Eliz here):








We spent hours by the pool:




And when the kids weren't in the water, they were wishing that they were:




It was wonderfully relaxing. And it was great to spend a little time with Grandma!

End of the school year!

Elizabeth's class party

The end-of-year class party was a huge undertaking! But it was a blast!



I made a paper waterfall and had the kids use their feet to get marbles out of ice water.  With their toes.

They also made grass skirts and cardboard swords.

Angela was out early, so she got to attend for part of it too:



You can't have a luau without limbo:

The newest member of our family

Ohh yeah.