Summer Fun

Summer vacation has begun.  We are going into the 3rd week of summer break, and the girls are having a blast.

To catch up, we had Alli's dance recital and year end class party.  1st Grade has proved to be her favorite so far, but mostly because of her teacher Ms. Fisher.  Alli did great, winning some year-end awards at the party.

Alli's dance recital sparked some interest in Natalie.  First, here's Alli in her recital.  She is such a beautiful ballerina!

But seeing Alli all dressed up made Natalie feel like she should have a costume too.  So that started a full week of being a bee, including going to the park several times as a bee, and going for a family walk as a bee:

After the bee costume went through the wash, it was not longer a draw.  Whew!  I was afraid I was going to have a bee all summer!

Soon we will be going camping, so we decided to "practice".  I mean, we have a 2-1/2 year and a new dog.  Practice seemed like a good idea.  And it was!  We learned alot and are making adjustments before our trip.  Here was our "practice":

And of course, one picture of the morning it rained.  Not sure why the girls couldn't grab their own shoes, but that was obviously not in the plan.  This was 6:30am, hence the PJs.  Rain and umbrellas is always a fun thing in Arizona!

Update

Over the past several months, I've thought of lots of topics to post about, but I just haven't done it.  Now I have no choice but to post a big update...

Let's see....  Alli has lost her 2nd tooth.  The big tooth had already showed up, so she looked like a shark with her 2 rows of teeth.  But now that the baby tooth is out, her tongue is very slowly pushing the big tooth forward.  Not that it has a good place to go cause it's way bigger than the opening that's there.  I feel there will be braces in our future.

Natalie decided in February that she didn't wear diapers anymore, and so potty training began immediately.  She actually does pretty well, most days.  Right now she's on a streak where she doesn't want to take a break from playing and sit on the toilet.  Can't blame her.  Thank goodness she will wear pull-ups cause for a while it was underwear only and we were getting exhausted with all the cleanup.  Following in her sister's footsteps, she likes the characters on the boys underwear better than the girls, so right now she's in her blue colored pull-ups with Jake, Buzz, and Lightning as the choices of characters.

The elementary school did a gifted testing this spring so we asked if we could get Alli tested.  They said that there is nothing special they do for the kids until 3rd grade, but if we wanted, we could get her tested.  So we did.  And she tested gifted (97% or higher) in one of the 3 categories.  So she is now listed as gifted and apparently that tag follows her all over the nation.  Interesting.

And we went to the elementary school and got Natalie enrolled for preschool next year.  She can't start until she actually turns 3, but they said if there is room, they call us a week before and she can start on the day of her birthday and show up with a birthday party in the class.  We shall see if we actually start her like that.

The girls have been great playing together lately, and it has been very helpful for Kim and myself to be able to let them play alone for periods of time while we do our own thing (for Kim, usually something on the computer, and for me, usually something around the house like dishes, or mopping, or laundry.)