You Can Just Call This Week "Photo Extravaganza"

Bear with me - just a few more photos. My brother and sister-in-law brought these cute outfits back from China for the girls, and they arrived in the mail yesterday. Fashion show!


Kate looks very regal, don't you think?! (We did not pose her with that umbrella. She's just been carrying it around the last couple of days for her own inexplicable reasons.)


Maggie was being extremely silly and it was hard to get a good photo of her. Kate is loving on her silky drawers!


Another regal pose from Princess Katherine

Maggie makes a valiant effort to sit nicely for a photo.

Kate's not buying it.

Sweet

Thanks Uncle Alex and Aunt Jasmin!

Maggie Sez... "It's Raining! I Love It!"

What's that you say?! You want to see more photos of my kids?! It's my job to fulfill your every wish, and I take that responsibility seriously, so here you go.

It was really super hot a few days ago and I promised the girls to blow up the kiddie pool, but I remembered too late that I had borrowed an electric pump from Mike's parents last year and there was no way I could blow it up on my own without having a stroke. So in order to quell the uprising, I took the rebels to Home Depot and bought them a couple of sprinklers. Mike enjoys feeling like the girls are doing some of his chores for him. Win-win!

(NB: That fence technically belongs to the neighbors and their two young sons are systematically destroying it picket by picket. We're trying to decide what we can and should do about it. Try not to look directly at it. Thanks.)

A Girls Day Out

As I said in my last post, Cousin Ana was in NH last week so we spent a lot of time up there having adventures and eating ice cream cones dipped in sprinkles. On Tuesday, Jane and I packed up the girls and a ton of gear and headed out for the seacoast at Rye, NH. First we took the girls to the Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne Point State Park to stick their hands in the tide pool tank and check out the blue lobsters. They have a beautiful seaside picnic area there, in addition to a pebble beach and a great playground. We took advantage of all of it!

You would think the girls would be weary after all that, but they were gung ho to hit the sandy beach at Wallis Sands. We rented a beach umbrella and set up camp, but the girls quickly began to scatter. Ana wanted to swim in the surf (they did not have bathing suits on!), Maggie wanted to dig in the dry sand, and Kate wanted to stomp in the puddles of warm water left by the retreating tide and steal other kids' beach toys. We had an exhausting time trying to keep up with all three of them, especially after Kate finally realized that the ocean was right there! She looked up, her eyes lit up, she started screeching and clapping, and then she ran directly into the waves and had to be pulled out by her anxious mother! Luckily, they eventually all settled into a big puddle under the umbrella with their collection of purloined toys, and no one even suffered more burn than just a little bit of pink cheeks.

Kate barely made it out of the beach parking lot before she was fast asleep, but the two older girls chattered like monkeys and gobbled up every last crumb of the lunch leftovers all the way home.


Curious George

Sea Urchin


Ana in the whale costume

A rare blue lobster!


On the other side of this wall is the sea


Not a bad spot for a picnic lunch


A lot of bloggers brag about their photography skills and tell you all the technical details of how they got each shot. Here on my blog, I will tell you that I took this photo because I thought it was incredible to be gazing out at the blue ocean right behind the playground where Kate was swinging. But somehow I managed to set the camera on black and white and now you can hardly even tell that the ocean is back there at all. Hey, I'm a word person, OK?!


Industriousness


Who needs the ocean when you can jump in a sandy puddle?


Kate liked to stick the top of her head in the water. Weirdo.


Slick

Girls Gone Wild

Cousin Ana spent last week in NH with Gram and Grandpa, so we went up the two weekends and most of the week in between so the girls could all have fun together. And boy did they. I think Gram and Grandpa are enjoying their peace and quiet this week! There really wasn't too much fighting and other nonsense, although Kate was a little bit left behind sometimes. She'll get 'em next year! I think it won't be long before she and "Little" E will be terrorizing the big girls anyway.

Here is a round of pics from the weekend (all taken by Uncle Jeff on his really cool camera) and I'll add some more tomorrow of our big "Girls Day Out" as Maggie called it.

Flashback Fingers: Beijing Edition

I know I'm way behind over here. Our niece was in town for a week and this blog isn't the only thing that went undone during that time. You should see what gets stuck to the bottoms of my feet every time I walk across the kitchen floor! On second thought, you don't want to see that, trust me.

So while I scrub the floors and wash the dirty sheets, here are some photos to look at. A little info: my parents, uncle, brother, and sister-in-law recently returned from a fabulous trip to China where my brother married his wife all over again, Chinese style! I'm miserable that I missed it but determined to go along on their next trip. They sent tons of pictures and some little gifts for us and the girls. I won't show you all their travel pics - if you know them, you'll have to hit them up for the link - but I will share a few and some shots of the girls opening up their loot.


The whole gang in Beijing, including Jasmin's parents and brother


There were lots of photos of food!


My sister-in-law looking gorgeous before the wedding

Alex and Jasmin in traditional Song Dynasty wedding attire


Earl is very interested in Maggie's teapot.

Bracelets and teapots - Everything came in very pretty boxes.


Katie likes this red silk purse.

Maggie decided the red teapot was Kate's and the gold teapot was hers.

Some coin banks shaped like a Chinese prince and princess

Conversations With Strangers

We're at the library and a woman asks Maggie what her little sister's name is...

"Her name is Katie but we call her Stitch."

"Skits?"

"No, Stitch, from Lilo and Stitch."

"Stitch?!"

"Yeah, because she wrecks everything."

Lovely.

Kate Gets Her Licks In

Don't worry about Kate. She holds her own. Don't worry about Maggie either. She's usually the perpetrator.

**Where was their mother?! Taking these pictures. Why wasn't she stopping this outrage?! Because I was laughing too hard. I know, I'm going to hell.**