Summer's last days

Sorry for the delay.  It turns out writing the blog is not as fun for Maddie as I'd hoped.  Summer is almost over and she has asked to be removed from blog duty.  Permanently.  Marina is waiting in the wings though, and will be very ready to take over next summer! We had a great second to last week of summer.  School starts back a week from tomorrow on August 10th! Everyone is oh so excited! To keep them school-ready, the big girls have been reading and writing for one hour a day nearly every day, and they have both made significant gains. Marina was starting with fewer skills than Maddie, obviously, so she's seen the biggest growth this summer.  Here is a before and after from Marina. The first paper is from mid-May. The second is from mid-July.  She's catching up fast!

Of course all work and no play makes us all very dull girls, so here's the rest of the story:
Last week, we kicked off the Olympics festivities with a party at a friend's house. The kids practiced their skills and took home medals and treats. 

We rarely leave home without Abby and the kids, and judging by Ms. Abby's look at the party (on right), you can see why.  The folks are crazy fun.

      
I'm working part time now in a Kids' Rights Program (temporarily covering a maternity leave), but I try to keep Fridays off for just us.  Last Friday, we took a day at Lucky Ladd Farms. It was pretty deserted, so we enjoyed full freedom to play with no waiting!

On Saturday, we checked out Ice Day at the Nashville Zoo. We enjoyed free ice cream and Shreck and Fiona, and all sorts of other things.  We love having a zoo within 15 minutes!

And on Saturday, we were with our dearest Tennessee friends again to celebrate Grant's 5th birthday.

We had a blast! Our friends recently installed a zipline in their yard which zips perfectly at a speed fun enough for the big kids, but safe enough for Jess.  How fun is that?

A slower week

It has been a slower week this week, since we haven't gone on any trips.  Mom started work, so we have a sitter named Ms. Lauren who watches us.  We also went to another VBS, this time at Marina and Jessa's preschool. We like to singing to our VBS songs. 
We also like playing around the house.

On Tuesday, we got to visit Pop Pop! It was right before his birthday, so we had chocolate circus cake. It was delicious.









On Sunday, we went to a long church at Marina and Jessa's pre-school. We sang our VBS songs from the week to the people there.

On Sunday night, we found out that we had an apple tree in our back yard. Well, we knew it was there, but we didn't know it had apples.  They are lots and lots of granny smith apples.  Mom made an apple pie, but I didn't like it.  I also tried to eat an apple, but I like the red ones better.  Mommy was happy that Marina likes them!

Beach Week

Here are pictures from beach week! We go to the beach at Atlantic Beach in North Carolina. Me and my sisters went to swim in the mickey mouse pool with dad.  A few days later, we played put put at the playground.  One time Marina got a hole in one!

We also went on a boat to Bird Shoal Island. Bird Shoal Island is a barrier island near Atlantic Beach. I used my sea scope there.  Jessa put water in my sea scope and the lens fell out so now it is broken.  We found sand dollars that were alive.  We left them where we found them, which is in the water! We also found fishies, both big and little. We saw a whole world of hermit crabs! Daddy saw a shark, but he didn't tell us until later.

Back at the resort where we stay, there was a hoola hoop competition.  It was for four minutes.  I won it!  I was tied with a teenager.

Here are some July 4th pictures! We watched fireworks with Miss Emily, one of our old neighbors from Raleigh and her family. There were more fireworks this year then there were last year.  Jessa was very scared. Miss Emily's dog ran away because she was scared of the fireworks but they found her.  She went across the road to their neighbor's house.

On Thursday, Grandma visited us at the beach! We went to Dairy Queen.  We love their ice cream as much as we love our grandma!

After grandma's visit was over,we went to the aquarium.  They have a new exhibit with penguins.

On the beach, we rode our new boogie boards on the waves.

Finally, our vacation was over and we had to go home. On the way home, we  
visited baby Ethan and his big brother Eli.  We got to eat pizza while watching Nemo. No more blogs 'till next week because this blog is over.

Grandma

Sorry we were gone so long.  Our internet didn't work at the beach. 
Two weeks ago, I went to a camp called Barefoot.  My sisters weren't old enough so only I could go.  My favorite part there was art class.  I drew a picture of Yogi bear, my dog.






I skipped the last day at Barefoot so we could go to Chattanooga with Dad.  We got to go to Chattanooga with  Dad because he had to work there.  After dad got off work, we went to go to Grandma Q's house.  Here are pictures from the hotel pool!

On the way to Grandma's!

After spending the night at grandma's house, we went to visit Hannah's house.  We had a water ballon fight.  We also played on her trampoline.  There was a sprinkler under it so I got wet.  Good thing I had my bathing suit on!

 When the party was over with our old neighbors, we went to the beach. Tell you more on the next blog! Here we are with one of Grandma Q's books on the way there.