A week with Grandpa

Grandpa David came to visit for a week this summer.  We had almost nothing planned that week, so the girls got lots of good grandpa time.  It was almost like camp Grandpa!

A trip to Rancho for a walk and farm animals.

A trip to Happy Hollow for more animals and lots of rides.  Adele and Kate loved the goats.

Lots of playing!

Carousel fun.

Kind of...

Adele was excited about riding the cars for the first time.

Kate got mad at me taking pictures and decided to cover her face.

Adele's first time on the lady bugs too.

Kate is still mad, even though she's finally tall enough to ride the swings.

Fun on Danny the Dragon.

Kate was brave enough to ride the roller coaster.  She liked it!  Even Emeline hasn't wanted to try this yet.

But Emeline still loves the frog hopper.

Thanks for all the fun Grandpa!

4th of July

This year for the 4th of July, we continued our annual tradition of going to the Palo Alto Chili Cookoff to support our church.  And Grandma Chris was able to join us again this year since she was here to help while I was in Nicaragua.  We usually have to leave before the chili tasting begins to get home for naps, but it's a fun outing for the kids with great park play and festivities.  Here are some of our pics this year.

Adele all dressed in her church and patriotic garb.

Katie Sue on the new Magical Bridges playground.

Emeline fanning herself with her new fan from Grandma.

More playtime.

Walking over to the church booth.

Trying to get a group shot, but Joshie photo bombs.

Adele snuggling with Wendy.

Snow cones!

Later that evening, Wes biked the big girls over to shoreline to see the fireworks.

Snuggling up waiting for the show to start.

It was a long day, but the girls had fun!

Kate's bday hair cut

We have a tradition of taking the girls for haircuts on their birthday.  That's not the only time, but it makes for some special time with just one parent around their birthday.  Around Emeline's birthday, we took her for a hair cut.  Kate wanted one too, so we tried then also, but when it was her time to get in the chair, she refused.  There was no special need for a haircut, so we let it go.  Since then, Kate has been asking for a haircut and saying that this time she will do it.  So when her birthday came around again, we asked her if she wanted to get a haircut, and it was a resounding yes!

Since Grandma Chris was in town, I left Adele and Emeline with grandma and took Kate for some alone time.  She was very excited about her hair cut, but not so excited about a "before" picture.

When we got to the kids salon, they were booked up.  Mommy did not call ahead.  I tried another one with no luck.  I didn't want to leave this poor girl disappointed for her birthday, so we went to Supercuts, hoping it would be fun without the kid atmosphere.

There was no one there when we got there, and I had called ahead, so it was our turn straight away, but alas, Kate did not want to get in the chair.  I was not in a rush, and I had no other kids with me to fuss, so we said she could have a snack and then try again.  Meanwhile other customers came in, so we had to let them go ahead.  Each time one was done, we tried to see if Kate was ready, but always she gave us a "not yet".  After about an hour, I was ready to give up, but I thought I'd ask her one more time after the last customer finished.  (We saw a lot of men's haircuts that day.)  And to my surprise, she finally went for it.

She was a little shy, but went in the chair willingly and got a little haircut.  Yay Kate!

Here's the before and after!

Kate's birthday poster and Emeline's last day of preschool

Kate got to have her first birthday celebration at Pasitos this year.  We made a poster together about Kate over the years and got to sing happy birthday to her.

Since I was staying for a while, I got to hang out and take pictures of all the fun things the kids do in the summer at Pasitos.  Most of the day is spent outside, even circle time and snacks.

We brought some special birthday snacks for Kate's day.

Even though Emeline graduated a few weeks before, this turned out to be her last actual day of preschool ever.  The girls did a few weeks of summer session while I was traveling, and then we planned some camps and traveling for the summer.  Since this was a special day for both Kate and Emeline I hung out to take pictures of things we won't see anymore.  Like Emeline and Kate sharing the big trike at school.

And Emeline and her good buddy Wyatt.  These two both claim they will get married.

Sofia is also headed to kinder in the fall.

More friends!

And to close out the morning, the tradition for saying goodbye to friends is to gather together to say kind words about the friend who is leaving.  It was sweet to hear everyone share what they loved about Emeline.

And a group hug of course!