Yesterday afternoon Gramme watched the girls and Aaron and I went to see the Salem Red Sox play. It was a slow, enjoyable few hours with the hubby. Everyone should go at least once this season!

Last Thursday Sierra and I took the girls to Splash Valley, which is a water park at Green Ridge Recreation Center. I highly recommend it to everyone in the area! They have lots of rules, but the fun that they had made it worth the few hassles. For the first hour, Vivian was hesitant to get on the slides or run through the sprinklers, but after lunch she was all over the place and did everything. She had a blast. Kate had fun, too, the toddler way...just playing in the shallow water and jumping off the side. She took a decent nap in my arms while Vivian played with Sierra...a perfect summer day!

The girls were very excited about eating peanut butter and jelly for lunch today...wow!!



If you're confused about what their saying...it's just "peanut butter, jelly!" over and over. And if the camera was shaking too much, it was because I was genuinely laughing at them and couldn't hold steady.
One more note: yes, we were still in our pajamas at lunchtime. Gotta love these kinds of days!

Am I the only one who is sad that the Salem Fair is over?!

We went on Saturday afternoon and I enjoyed it so much! The reason I loved it was because I had a chance to see my little girl have the time of her life. Vivian rode every single ride that she could, smiling and laughing the whole time. It was a joy.
Uncle Stephen thankfully went with us. I have lots of pictures, but I will share them (in an album probably) later. I hope everyone else had as much fun as we (or I, maybe I shouldn't speak for Aaron and Stephen) did!

We've been going to Moyer Park every Monday morning for the past several weeks and have loved it. The girls get a chance to run around and play with their friends, and I get a chance to sit down and talk with my friends and godly women of our church for encouragement and advice. It's been a great constant of our summer so far!

We have had lots of fun summer events happening recently! Here are some pictures of last week's water night at church for several of the younger classes. I was in the service and very curious about what the kiddos were doing, so I was thankful that someone (Tracey?!) used my camera to take pictures. There are great shots of all the kids having a blast!

Vivian has been trying more recently to put her clothes on by herself. On this occasion, she put her underwear on backwards, over her shorts. She didn't even notice! It certainly requires lots of patience on my part...takes us three times as long to get ready in the mornings, but I know we have to practice!

On Saturday we had the pleasure of attending Jeremy and Arin's wedding in the morning! It was a beautiful ceremony and reception...everything went so smoothly and it was very enjoyable for all the guests. Arin was a gorgeous bride! We have known Jeremy's family since we were born (this is Carissa's brother). They will be living in Chicago after they get back from their surprise honeymoon.

On Sunday after church we headed to the lake to meet up with my parents and brothers to hang out. We had a nice little vacation! Vivian skipped her nap both days to play on the water...she loved every part of it. She was a little fish! Kate, not so much:She was pretty unhappy about most things, especially the boat. She's very timid about trying new things and gets scared easily. But, after a few minutes and some strategic distractions, wah-lah:

We are having a lot of fun at my parent's pool this summer. On Saturday Aaron suggested that we spend the day there, and I thought it was a superb idea. We got there around 10 and left at 6! It was a relaxing family day for us...thank you, Lord! We needed it.

Aaron set Vivian up to rest for a few minutes. Quite the life, don't you think?

Uncle Stephen was able to hang out with us, too. Vivian promised that she would jump off the diving board if he got in the pool to catch her, but of course she chickened out and he got in the pool for nothing.
Aaron grilled bbq chicken wings for lunch. While they napped in the house, we stayed out and did nothing but lay in the sun! I hope all of you can have a day like that soon :)

Wow. We had an amazing week at VBS!! The talent at our church is phenomenal...the staff and volunteers wrote their own curriculum and music...everything...for what they called, "Armor Up!" They taught the children the gospel from Paul's description of the armor of God in Ephesians 6. We did it each night of the week, and thankfully they served dinner to all the helpers before it started. There were so many people involved from our church body which made it really fun. There were lots of visiting children from the community. I helped teach the Kindergarten group and had a great time playing around with them and seeing them learn new truths.
It was even more encouraging for me to see how much Vivian loved participating. She was crazy about her class and all the music! Starting on Tuesday night, she would cry when it was time to leave, until I told her we were going to come back the next night. Her joy was evident! This video shows just how much fun she was having.
We had late nights, and lazy mornings. It was a memorable week! We thank God for bringing us to this church that believes in the importance of training the next generation in the Truth.

The Salem library has a great summer reading program for us to do this year! They have something scheduled about once or twice a week, and you show up when you can. We are also working on reading the required amount at home so she can get a prize at the end.

Last week there was a woman there doing face painting.

Reading books in the floor while waiting their turn.

Beautiful butterfly!

They've also done a petting zoo, and this week they'll have a magic show...so thankful for free summer fun :)

We do not take these lunches for granted! We love to see Aaron during the day.I can't explain this Vivian expression, but it's a common one and it cracks me up.
And if you haven't tried the new Cuban restaurant down the street from Andrew Lewis MS, you're missing out...it's really awesome!

We've had some big changes happening around here when it comes to sleep. Two weeks ago we moved Kate to a bed. No more cribs in our house!!! We rearranged her nursery: took the crib apart and stored it in the basement, and put up a queen size bed to serve as a guest room (we had the bed in storage at my parent's house since we moved). Kate did so well with the transition. She got out of the bed twice, once on the first night within the first 5 minutes of bedtime, and once on the second night. But after receiving very firm correction about it, she hasn't tried to get out since. In fact, almost every time I go to get her up in the morning or after nap, she says, "I no get out of bed, Mommy." She's proud of herself :)Vivian has done well with it, too. She likes having a room partner, I think. She takes her naps in the new guest room bed. The first week we had some issues with them staying up too late talking and playing, but it has settled down considerably since then. The other problem the first week was that Kate was waking up too early in the morning and with her new environment, she wasn't going back to sleep and waking Vivian up. Hopefully she will start to sleep a little later so that her sister can sleep in a little.

In case you're wondering about the sleeping arrangements in their room, since it's a small room: we kept the daybed. We simply bought a trundle that rolls under the daybed. When it's time for bed, we roll it out for Vivian. It is able to raise up like a cot to be the same level as the daybed, but for simplicity's sake we just leave it closer to the ground. In the morning we slide it back under so that it stays out of the way. It's a very easy solution for a small space! We put Vivian on the lower bed because we knew she would have more self-control to not get out.
The other big change was something that I dreaded for a loonnngg time but Aaron made me go through with it finally: taking Vivian's pacifier away. We warned her weeks in advance that once she turned 3, she had to give it up. I thought for sure we would have weeks of sleepless nights, with her waking up not being able to find it and crying, etc. But no! She didn't give us a hard time at all! It has been so much easier than I thought, that in fact I am considering doing the same thing for Kate. What a pleasant surprise. I can tell she definitely has a harder time falling asleep for naptime (and she wasn't napping a lot before anyway), but other than that it hasn't been a struggle.

Sorry for all the long paragraphs...I just wanted to share all that has been changing. We are very excited to have them in the same room now. They are so sweet together. I'm very thankful for their sisterhood and fun memories ahead.

Vivian's Backyard Splash Bash was so much fun! The Lord gave us a dry day so that these kids could play outside with all kinds of water games and toys. There are lots of pictures, thanks to Carissa! I am indebted to her for capturing the entire party. She also showed up early to help me set up last-minute things. There are several shots of the decorations, but they are mostly of the children and their play, so ENJOY! It will take a few minutes to go through them all, but don't be too intimidated when you see how many there are, because I just went through them all and it didn't take long. #361 to 364 are priceless...can't miss those.

Our friends have been so gracious to bless our 3-year-old with some new toys, craft supplies, and outfits!

She opened presents in shifts, spreading out over the weekend, so as to avoid being overwhelmed or indifferent to the things she was opening.

She opened 2 or 3 right after everyone left on Saturday, before she took a nap.

And then again when she woke up later that afternoon:

Grandma and Papi (Mike and Peggy) got her this new bike! Kate thinks she can do anything :)