Sunday Dinners in Stonewall

It has come to be a tradition in our family that most Sundays (save summers, winter vacation...) we pack the kids up and rumble down Highway 210 to Ray and Myrna's house in Stonewall for dinner. I really enjoy visiting with the in-laws as it reminds me of my grandfather coming to our house for family dinners, a treasured memory. I chose a few pictures from one of our recent dinners to share with you the girls' general insanity...

I am not sure what is happening here, although I think it may involve window licking...  Myrna is the only person I know who is as concerned with finger prints as my father.  I regularly tell the girls "Whatever you do, don't lick ______" and then they do it almost immediately after.  I can't believe their level of disrespect for my authority ;)

Running around the back yard playing with the princess soccer ball.  Teresa has enjoyed soccer (although she isn't always enamoured with the soccer part), and her last game is Tuesday.

Grandpa pulled out the croquet set.

How you know you've fallen behind on your blogging...

...you post Easter pictures in June. Cut me some slack here people, it was a very lte Easter this year. The girls loved the hunt of course as it involved chocolate. All we did was hide the chocolates around the living room, and the girls searched. Of course this can't be that late as the girls still haven't consumed all their candy. This may be due to the fact that they received an inordinate amount of candy, likely their weight worth...

Easter #1 at Oma's.  Here is the girls loot.  I like this Easter best as I get a loot bag too.

Egg decorating at the Friesen's

Easter morning.  Finding candy!

SCORE!!!

Teresa is looking for more candy...

Easter dress time...

Dog Park Woes

The girls and Rowdy love going to the dog park.  Both girls are very good with dogs around, although the girls are a little trepidatious when dogs are overly aggressive in their desire to say hello.  Generally to make things go smoother I bring the girls in the wagon and let them play at particular locations they want to stop at, the 'hill', the tree, the other hill...

Of late though the dog park is a mucky sloppy and disgusting mess of muck, puddles, and more muck.  Of course this suits our girls just fine, expect for when the inevitable fall in the puddle happens. This can happen moments into the visit (and has) or it can not happen at all (actually I am not sure if this has ever happened).  Last month I had the girls playing at one tree, away from the thick muck and eventually the mud puddle beckoned.  Teresa decided to go to the mud puddle first and I warned her not to get her feet stuck, as she has lost boots in the very same puddle before.  Frances eventually wandered over too...  I was of course taking pictures, and got the end of our visit in picture form.  Of course, Teresa in her helpfulness did not want to leave.

Ah, the halcyon days before the advent of the MUCKENING!

Moments after the MUCKENING. Yes, I did take a picture before I came to the aid of Frances...

One boot down, and a heavy layer of mud of the hands.

Learning to Bike & Trike

Well, Frances and Teresa are of the right ages to start to learn how to move on their own.  Teresa tried her bike out last summer, and continues to have the same problems as she did then, that is to say she has trouble keeping her feet moving forward.  When you have coaster brakes, any slight backwards motion is incredibly frustrating.  Frances enjoys being pushed on her trike, but she has yet to really get is together and figure out how to move on her own.  All we can do now is practice.

In other news, this is potty training weekend. We are batting .250 right now.

Frances has inherited Teresa's helmet and trike.  Here Alisa, our neighbour who loves playing with the girls, is helping out.

Teresa doing her best to move forward.  The bike is a little tippy as the training wheels are just off the ground, but I figure that will make the transition even easier to 2 wheels once she figure this out.

And now a video of Teresa moving all on her own!