Birthday girls!

Two years old! "Bunny ears" and "rock on" - they each preferred showing their two fingers differently. In fact, being "different" has been a running theme lately for them. They have become very distinct, unique little personalities. And believe me, they each have their own two-year-old behaviors that we love and behaviors that we DO NOT LOVE. But, maybe more about that on a future blog.

Presley loved her birthday crown and earrings and has really not taken it off since her birthday. Avery wore her crown for a minute or two and then promptly wanted it "off" and hasn't asked about it since. I also got them some dress-up shoes. Presley wanted to walk around in them and Avery tried to run in them.

Another thing that has been so entertaining the last couple months is to watch them interact with each other. They can carry on a conversation with one another for quite a long time. I can usually catch one or two things they are saying, but most of it is two-year-old jargon that only they can understand. Today Avery ate an afternoon snack without Presley because she woke up earlier from her nap. I got Avery down from her chair after eating and told her to go play. She took off into the other room but then after a few steps she turned around and said "Presley awake?" At two years old they are definitely each other's world. I hope that lasts a while.

We finally made it to the beach!

Every Saturday for the last month I have been checking the forecast for the coast, and every Saturday looked like rain - a good chance of it. Well, I finally made up my mind (for all of us) that even if it looked like rain, we would brave our chances. I really wanted my kids to experience the beach, and we'd been telling Caleb for so long that we would go, I think he stopped believing us a while ago.
So, it did prove to be far from a "perfect weather" day at the beach. It was windy and in the 70's and there was definitely some chattering of teeth. However, it didn't start pouring rain until AFTER we were under a little gazebo thing changing our wet clothes.

Two out of three enjoyed the water. Avery was unsure of it coming at her and covering her toes. Sand activities proved to be okay, but not for long. She spent most her time in the chair or on the towel.

Presley loved the water and hung out with dad and Caleb most of the time.

And Caleb just loved it all - birds, seashells, sand, waves...everything.

Some memorable moments I didn't get to document: dad squirting the sand off of a very naked Caleb (one of the advantages of going to the beach at the end of September on a rainy day - not very many people around!) and eating the picnic lunch I packed at a table in a McDonalds on the way home, because it was pouring rain outside.

Some sunshine in July

And no, I'm not referring to the weather. So far, the month of July for us has been a little out of the ordinary, and a bit challenging. However, amidst the rockiness came grandma, and like this picture illustrates, she made it a lot more sunny around here. We love you grandma and are so glad you came to stay!

Taking turns

"What day is it tomorrow mom?"

I took this picture at Caleb's end-of- the-year gathering for his preschool class. He's standing with his two great teachers, Mrs. Dunston and Mrs. Johnson, his best friend Kate and her little sister Lizzie.

For the last nine months Tuesday and Thursday mornings for Caleb have been filled to the brim with fun activities! His preschool experience has been so positive for him and now as we head into summer, it will be strange to not hear his favorite question "What day is it tomorrow mom?" He has mastered the days of the week, but loses track of where we're at. So the regularity of the Tuesday, Thursday school schedule has helped him out. He has also really enjoyed having a calendar of his "days" at school to look at on the fridge, so he could anticipate the changing themes as the week went by.

Some '08-'09 preschool memories worth making a note of:

Most favorite, frequent, brief and to the point response, when asked what he did that day at preschool - "played".

Aaron vividly recollects the first time he dropped Caleb off and watched him walk right in and on to his classroom by himself. The kind of thing that really makes you wonder how four years can fly by so fast!

He always told us who wasn't there that particular day, and for a while he even got into a habit of praying (or having us pray) for the missing one(s).

Caleb definitely had a favorite friend - Kate is his #1.

Holding his artwork up for Avery and Presley to see and saying "Look girly girlies!"

Getting to know the class mascot, Purple Bear, when he stayed with us over the weekend. Then hearing from Caleb that while at a fellow classmates home, the stuffed animal got caught in a house fire, and had gotten singed on the backside! (Mom and dad had a hard time keeping straight faces).

At the beginning of the year we got a note from his teachers telling us that show-and-tell should correspond with the calendar and what they were going to talk about for the day. So, we always made a point to come up with something clever and fitting. (For example, one day Aaron even brought Jack, our dog in to show the kids because they were talking about the 5 senses - soft fur, barking, etc.) However, it seemed that whenever Caleb told us what the other kids brought for show and tell, it was merely their favorite toy. Our efforts didn't go unnoticed though; at the end of the year Caleb received a reward for "having awesome show-and-tell items and a kind heart." And who cares about the show-and-tell part, when the other part says so much about how your child has been enjoyed by other people!

One FULL day

Last Friday morning we were in the car by 8:10 (hard to do) and off to the zoo. The hour and a half drive flew by for Caleb, who enjoyed the dvd player in the car for the first time since we bought the van. (Yes, we kept it a secret for a year and a half!) Toy Story and eating breakfast kept the girls busy for a while, but at about and hour and 10 minutes they had had enough. I know, pretty sad - we really are not a car trip kind of family quite yet.

It was a pretty humid day and mom and dad got a workout pushing the strollers (double jogger and umbrella) around, plus the hotdogs were the worst. However, things like seeing the girls faces light up when they recognized the elephants and getting to see Caleb experience the gorilla right on the other side of the glass made EVERYTHING worth it.

Yes, by this point we were tired and ready to climb into an air-conditioned car (especially when it entailed getting to hold onto blanky's and binks).

What do you do when it hits 90 degrees in May?

This: