4th of July

The 4th of July was pretty laid back this year.  We started off with a mini disaster when Ira shut her finger in a car door.  Completely shut it in.  As in had to reopen the door to get it out.  Poor girl.  It sliced her nail pretty good and was bleeding all over.

After we got her all cleaned up and some Tylenol in her she was feeling up to fireworks.  We'd never actually been to our city's fireworks but because of some new restrictions this year we couldn't do our own.  We had a place saved and it ended up being perfect.  It was a really nice night and we were even able to get in and out quickly.  Bonus! :)

The next morning we went to the parade.  We had chairs set out but it was at the very beginning and we weren't sure how that was going to work.  It ended up being awesome.  We could see everything really well.

Here we are with our matching flag shirts as we wait for the parade to start.

Loved the R2D2 chair.

This is for our friend Jan who dresses up as a clown and visits kids in hospitals in Ukraine.

I so want an Iron Man suit....

Summer Lemonade/Tang Stands

Little One has been into lemonade/tang stands this summer and it's been so cute.  Mom and I have been her biggest customers and it's been fun.  Here she is with her friend, Ashley doing a lemonade stand.  It wasn't on a very busy street and in the middle of the week, but they still got a couple dollars each.

Swimming!

Little One has done 4 weeks of swimming lessons since she doesn't now how to swim.  I started her out in level 2 and that worked great for her.  She was getting better all the time.  You could see her progress by the day.

I didn't get her signed up in time to get her into level 3 for the next session but was hoping maybe one of the level 3 kids would move up or down and she could slide in.  When they started though, a lot of the kids in her new level 2 class were a bit more advanced than her previous one so the teacher did some of the level 3 stuff with them.  It was kind of a 2.5 class. :)  I left her in, hoping that by the time she does level 3 she can just pass everything off and not have to retake it.  She's getting a bit tired of swimming everyday though (and so is her poor hair) so we're going to take some time off before getting her going again.

Here she is on the last day of her first session.

This was her teacher, Shandi.  She LOVED her.

This was her teacher for the second class, Kristen.  She really liked her too.

By this time her poor bathing suit was really getting loose on her.  I'm not really sure why since OshKosh is usually really good.  However, it was going to fall off of her so we went and got her a new one.  Not as good at keeping the sun off of her, but very, very cute. :)

Ballet and Karate

The girls each got to choose something they wanted to do.  Ira picked ballet.  She started up not long after school got out and has been LOVING it.  She looks absolutely adorable in her leotard, doesn't she? :)  They don't like the parents to be in the studios with the kids so if I want to watch I have to do it through a window.  I'm going to ask her if she minds me taking a couple of shots of her while she's practicing and then (provided she's okay with that) post them. :)  She tells me every week what she learned and how they're doing.  It's so fun!

Little One, my one I just KNEW was going to be a cute little ballerina, decided she wanted to do karate.  This is my girl that around 4 years old saw some leotards in Target and went, "Mom!  WHAT are those?"  I explained and then in a dreamy sort of voice she said, "I want to do ballet...." LOL  Earlier this year though, she went to a friends birthday party at a karate dojo and LOVED it.  She's been talking about how that's what she wants to do ever since.  I made sure she really wasn't going to change her mind when Ira got her leotard and then signed her up.  She's been having a blast and even I have signed up and started.  It's been something I've always wanted to do anyway and it's fun to do it with her.  We have different classes, but can "practice" together.  These guys are amazing with the kids.  So kind and encouraging.  I've been beyond impressed.  They have places to sit and watch so I did get some pictures of her.

She's gotten to do demonstrate some.

Then she got to hold the thing so he could show how the other team member should do it.

Creativity

Little One and a friend were playing in the basement a couple of weeks ago.  They were quite busy and then came and asked me to go through their maze.  This is what I found.  It's quite elaborate.  Even more so than it looks in the pictures.  As I went through I had to do various things to the toys that made up the walls.  Push a button on a teapot to make it sing, tap a stuffed animal on the head 5 times, spin in circles when I got to another, etc....  Cleaning it up wasn't quite as much fun though. :)

Then, Ira wanted to make a tent in the backyard.  She said she wanted to use sticks so off she went.  This is what she came up with. (The picture is through the window which is why you can see the screen.  Sorry.)  She tried putting blankets over it to enclose it but they were too heavy.  I think some baby blankets ended up working okay, but they didn't stay outside.  Pretty nifty.

Homeschool Project - Paper bead necklaces

This was kind of a fun project.  Somewhat of a pain to cut out the paper for the beads, but the girls enjoyed it. :)

Hawkeye

Not long after Avengers came out, my sweet brother invited us all to go see it with him...his treat.  He knew that the girls, Little One especially have really loved some of the superhero movies (Captain America specifically) and would really like it.  I may not always agree with his idea of a good/bad movie, but I totally trust his opinion of if I'd like something and if there is anything I would object to in it.  A day or two later Ira came in the house having made a bow/arrow, complete with quiver.  Way cool!  Little One, of course, wanted one too and for days they went around being Hawkeye.  Can't say as I blame them.  His IS awfully nice to look at. :)

P.S. There is a link to a video at the bottom where Little One even shows off her "shooting-behind-her-just-like-Hawkeye trick."

Love the quivers :)

FYI - Little One dressed herself....

http://youtu.be/M3iZEnDvRvg