Various Summer Photos

At a kite festival in Centennial Olympic Park back in May.  They had about 4 or 5 bounce houses set up for free...for anyone to enjoy!  And boy did our girls enjoy them. 

Stopping for water....it was HOT and HUMID that day.  In Atlanta?  No way.  :-)

Another exciting day in May.  Eating fruit.  Why is that exciting?  Well, up until this BREAKTHROUGH day, our girls would only eat bananas and apples.  We had tried sporadically with other fruits.  Always with no luck.  Well, one day before dinner, they're begging me for any and every unhealthy treat.  I kept saying no and they would keep trying.  So, finally, I grabbed a "bucket" of fruit from the fridge and told them they could eat anything out of that bucket they wanted.  Anything at all.  To my surprise, they both started picking up fruit and eating it.  I was so excited that I grabbed the camera and called daddy.  What a day.  I truly think calling it a "bucket" and just letting them fish whatever they wanted out of there with their hands had a lot to do with it.  And that was it...now they love watermelon.  Cantelope and honeydew are still sometimes a challenge.  And recently, we got Kaitlyn to eat grapes.  Halleluia!

At the lake for their birthday weekend. 

Also at the lake for their birthday weekend...we went to see Toy Story 3.  That was their first movie in a real theater for full price.  Up until then, we had done dollar movies and generally would only make it for an hour or so.  They LOVE Toy Story and Toy Story 2, so we thought that this might be the real first opportunity for them to sit though an entire movie in a theater because they had a vested interest in the characters already.  Well, Nicole did pretty well.  Mike had to wrestle to keep Kaitlyn still for the last 30 minutes or so, but we all made it.

And finally, the actual night of their birthday back in Atlanta.  We went out to eat to celebrate and brought our own cake. 

Some Funny Stories and Phrases

Well, the girls are little chatter boxes.  And they make complete sentences all the time and often make sense.  But other times, it's funny to hear how literal a kid can be.  Here are a few of my funny stories about them lately, partly for your enjoyment but partly so I can remember them later in life to tell the girls when they're older.  :-)

Kaitlyn:
The other night, we went to a movie in the park.  We made it about an hour through the Wizard of Oz which was great.  When we finally called it quits, Kaitlyn needed to use the potty.  (Our potty training is going REALLY well....guess that's to be expected when they're THREE!!!  Why they're so late in potty training is another story for another day, and it's a long one.)  Anyway, I rush ahead with Kaitlyn while Mike and Nicole stay behind to pick up the blankets, etc.  So, I'm carrying Kaitlyn quickly to the restrooms and she says, "Bye bye moon."  She keeps looking up into the sky and waving goodbye to the moon.  It was so cute.  Then, she looks at me and says, "Mommy, can the moon come with us?"  I just remember smiling when she said that, and I can't recall my exact response, but I probably said something like, "Sure" or "OK" or "We'll see."  Five or ten seconds pass and Kaitlyn looks at me again and says, "I don't think it's coming."  TOO CUTE!!!!  I laughed.

Nicole:
We used valet service for our car one day, and without thinking, I gave the guy the keys and he drove off in our car.  Five or ten minutes pass (which is why this seemed out of the blue and took a minute for me to connect the dots) and Nicole starts talking about some mean man taking our gold car.  I was thinking, huh?  What is she talking about?  No one took our car.  Then, ha!  It dawned on me.  She has never seen us valet a car before, and of course that's confusing to her to see someone else "take" our car.  She just kept questioning the concept and wanted to know why we weren't chasing the mean man who took our gold car.  It's so funny what adults take for granted and how literal it is seen through a child's eyes.

Nicole:
She has several Word World friends.  They are all about 3 inches high and are anywhere between 9 inches to a foot long.  So, individually they are not big.  She does have about 7 or 8 though.  One morning (on a weekend), she comes down the hall into our room, probably around 8am.  (I know we're fortunate to get to sleep until 8 according to some parents, so we're not complaining, but even later than 8am on a weekend would be great!)  She heads to Mike's side of the bed.  Whew.  Then, she asks him to get her Word World friends which are all back down in her room.  Mike continues to try to talk her into doing it herself and tells her she's a big girl and she can do it, etc....anything really to avoid getting up.  She keeps begging.  Please daddy, etc.  Finally, Nicole just looks at him and says, "I'm too small for it."  Too funny!  Mike and I both chuckled and he had no choice but to give in and go get the Word World friends.

Hmmm...what else.  I'm sure I've got more to share.  I just need to think for another day or so.  Enjoy those though, and if you don't....oh well.  Like I said, these are also memories for me to share with them when they get older.