Chairs!

The girls received a wonderful surprise from Grandma Judy last week- new chairs for their room! The girls love them. The chairs have their names on them, with a butterfly for Lucy and a flower for Clara.

Lucy helping to put her chair together.

The finished product- hooray!

A favorite place for reading.

We moved the glider chair to the other side of the room, so now the girls have a reading nook all to themselves. The chairs fit perfectly, and go well with the curtains too. :)

Lucy loves her chair so much that sometimes when we check on her at night, we find she's gone to sleep in it. This photo was taken at night (with a flash).

Here they are in Lucy's chair.

And there's a video of Lucy thanking Grandma Judy and generally being very excited.

A small town 4th of July

We celebrated the 4th with my aunt Lee, for what has become our 4th of July tradition (see my posts from '11, and '10). Her town puts on the quintessential small town celebration, and it's so fun to hang out with my aunt.

First, here are a few pre-4th pix.

Great-grandma and Great-grandpa gave Lucy a real bike with training wheels last week. She is SO excited about it and rides it all the time.

Here she is in action.

I love Clara's grin in this picture.

Lucy and I in the parade on the 4th- the kids all decorate their bikes and get to ride in the parade.

Clara watching the miniature ponies in the parade.

Are we patriotic or what?

Clara's really getting into saying "cheese!"

The girls were fascinated by the Morris dancers (traditional English folk dancing).

Clara in the sponge relay- she had a blast running back and forth (with a little guidance).

Here's a close-up. :)

Lucy rocked the sack race. She didn't fall down once!

Lucy on our firetruck ride.

Relaxing after all the races.

In the afternoon, Lee, Lucy and I went on a gorgeous walk, through a pine forest along a river.

We finished off the day with a delicious dinner, a swim, and homemade strawberry shortcake for dessert. A super relaxing and fun time.

Disney World!

So, last week we made the big trek to America's kid-mecca, Disney World! Matt had a conference there, so we decided to turn it into a family vacation. We stayed with friends for 3 days (who have two girls, 5 & 7), and then at the hotel for 3 days. It was surprisingly relaxing for Matt and I, and the girls had an awesome time.  

Lucy's highlights were the roller coaster (one for young kids), and the Viking boat ride. Clara loved the "It's a small world" ride, pointing and exclaiming at all the dolls and dancing figures. The splash park was also a big hit for her.  Matt and I had so much fun watching the girls experience it all.

The first few days were pretty hot, but then the tropical storm came in, and all day Sunday there was pouring rain and high winds. Thankfully the rain cleared up by mid-day Monday, so we could enjoy more rides.

Lucy dictated the captions for the pictures below.

This is me at the Pooh ride.

Hi, this is Clara and Mama at the carousel. Do you see the Cinderella castle behind the carousel? We are in the shade.

Do you know this next one? It's me and Clara and Papa on the carousel. Do you see the other people on the carousel?

Hello, this is Clara getting wet. There was a sprinkling park. This is Clara splashing in the water.

This is me. I got all wet in the sprinkler park. Those are the other kids getting wet. There is a whole train, and the animals are squirting out water. It makes the floor really wet and I almost slipped.

Here's me with my mickey ears. There's my dad behind me. Do you like my pretty dress? Do you like my mickey ears? They're so shiny with sequins. I would have got more for my sister.

Here's me asleep in my mickey ears. Do you like these? I'm kind of asleep.

There's Clara. She's showing me my stickers.

Clara is little. Now she is holding her stickers too. Now she shows them to everyone.

Here's Clara and me. We're at the table eating with mommy. Yes, the food was good.

Here's Clara. She's in her high chair eating chicken and smiling.

This is when we are at Epcot. We went into the big ball. Also, there was an aquarium ride- we saw fish and a big dolphin. There was a viking ride. We really liked it. We went 20 feet down in the boat, really fast!

I'm in a fountain! Can you guess where we are, Mimi and Papa Jack? We are in Morocco!

Sweet peas

We're all still healthy (hooray!) and have been enjoying the gorgeous early summer weather. After a number of days of rain, we've had a string of beautiful days, sunny, clear and warm. And everything is SO green.

Lucy was so excited to dress the same as Clara. When I said that they were like twins, she said, "but we weren't in your tummy at the same time!".

We've enjoyed getting out to the beach. Thankfully Clara overcame her resistance to getting sand on her feet. Lucy's looking forward to taking swimming lessons in July.

They are getting much better at posing for pictures- this is one of my recent favorites.

Somewhere I have a picture of Lucy doing the exact same thing, around the same age!

My mom has been saying for awhile that Clara looks like me- I can really see it in this and the next picture.

Clara's really getting into looking at books. She loves finding babies in the pictures, and exclaims, "baby!".

We had a fun time celebrating Matt's birthday a few weeks ago. Lucy made clues for him to follow, to find his presents, which were two travel mugs, with pictures drawn by Lucy and Clara on them. We topped off the celebration with an amazing ice cream cake from our local ice cream shop.

Gymnastics show

Lucy had her spring gymnastics show today, which was lots of fun! My grandparents came and we all marveled at her skills.

The excited audience.

Upside down on the parallel bars.

She did this forward roll on the balance beam all by herself, for the first time.

A flip on the rings.

Our gymnast!

Germs begone!

Okay, so we are finally mostly healthy around here (Matt is still battling his ever present cough, and Clara has a bit of a runny nose). After my bronchitis, Lucy ended up coming down with pneumonia (poor dear- she was so lethargic), and Clara got an ear infection. After those cleared up we had a bit of a breather, and then new colds, a stomach bug, and conjunctivitis for Clara and me. We seriously need a break, here!

We enjoyed some special times with my family during our healthy days, including a wonderful time up at a friend's cottage. We only see my sister and her crew once a year, so our time with them is especially precious. The 4 kids really got along well, and it was so much fun seeing them interact and play.

Mimi and Papa Jack with all 4 grandkids (Caitlin is due with #5 in late Oct- a girl!)

Everyone together! Matt drove up to join us for the day, even though he was still feeling pretty sick. Go family loyalty!

One of our canoe trips. Sam and Lucy each had a turn in kayaks by themselves too.

It's a little dark, but I love Clara's expression and Lucy's dance moves. It reflects a common dynamic for them (Lucy as entertainer and Clara as admirer).

Some sister love.

Clara is really coming into her own- it's amazing. She has tons of new words, understands most everything we say, and makes and executes plans. New words include: Mimi, Papa Jack ("patchk"), dress, book, phone ("boh"), yes, no, more (usually shouted, like "maahh!"), swings, underdog ("uh-duh"), grapes ("eps"), shoes, and many more. And she can point to all sorts of body parts, on her and on us. She loves to be held and stroked- our little kitty cat.

Lucy is so much fun too. She seems much older than 4. She likes knowing what will happen from day to day, and making plans, especially play dates with friends or family. She's really into drawing pictures of us and writing the names of everyone in our family.  She is so spirited and loves laughing and playing. She's also very logical, and thinks things through. She asks questions like, "when I'm 100, how old will Clara be?" and "why do the peepers only come out when it's dark", and many more.