More Tickoos

The other night Jess called us all out front to check out the double rainbow.  Not that you can tell there were two from this picture.

Neely came out but then ran back in.   She came back a minute later, with the Captain America(or Caca as she calls him) costume, wanting us to put it on her.

She always smiles like this with her arms in the air when she first gets it on. 

Paige is so excited for school.  She checks off each day on her calendar, telling me how many are left until her first day.  She has a separate countdown going for meeting her teacher, since she got a letter in the mail about it.  Her excitement is the only thing keeping me from getting depressed over it.  

She checks other things on her calendar too, like the Holidays and the phases of the moon.  One day were were out on a family walk and she got excited and said "SUNDOWN!  It's Ramadan!"  Neighbors probably think we're muslim.  Ha.  

She was pretty funny the other night, making a chore list for herself.  A lot of it was school stuff, but she included special time with each family member.  It was cute, because she really put thought into it, and chose things that each of us really like.  It's under the "My Family and Me" section.  Coloring with me, wrestling with daddy, Candy Land with Caso, and tickling Neely.  Neely IS crazy, she loves to be tickled.  She'll fight it and scream after a minute, but then when you stop she signs "more" and says "More?  Tickoo?"

 

The Joys of Living with Caso...

There are many.  But here are a couple from today: 

A bandaid to fix my sprain.

 Surprises in the veggie drawer.

Woops

Hate how I keep getting behind.  Then there's so much I missed that I can't really do a full post about it like I would have liked to. 

So, here are some pictures from the last week or so, with maybe a caption for each pic.  Maybe.

The kids have gone on "journeys" right before bedtime.

Neely danced around in Paige's dress from her ballet recital.

Caso had his first sleepover!  Cason stayed the night.  (So did Bayleigh with Paige, but they wouldn't pose for a picture, and it wasn't Paige's first sleepover, so not as exciting as it was for Cason)

They have fun together.

We've gotten treats from the ice cream man.

Taken a road trip to Seligman for my softball tournament.

Where I played the worst I ever have.  We won our first game, at 10:30 am, and found out our next game was THE NEXT DAY at 9 am.  :(  

 

We decided to drive to Flag for some fun before heading home for the night.  On our way out of town we saw the Seligman parade.  It was so tiny and cute. 3 or 4 cars, a jogging lady and a little boy on a bike, and a lady dancing around in a puffy pig costume.  :)

In Flagstaff we shopped for some school clothes for Paige, drove around picking out which old houses we'd buy, and let the kids run around at the NAU campus.

Then we headed home.

I went back alone in the morning, immediately lost 2 games, and drove home.

                             This week Caso had a date to go hiking with daddy.

Neely played with her Little People, coupling them up into hugging pairs, as usual.

She also made the mama kiss and coo at the baby a lot.

She's spent a LOT of time in costume lately, either flying all over the house(or napping) in Caso's Buzz wings or in the Captain America costume.  She brought it to me, with the shield and everything, wanting me to help her put it on.

We also went to the Academy to do some of our volunteer time for Paige, who starts school 2 weeks from tomorrow.  :(  We were sorting through library books, and the library had a ball pit, which kept the kids happy!

The Last Few Days

This week we played outside, the girls with bubbles...

the boy with dirt.

                       Drew pictures, like the following one Paige did of a "leopard family".  I love it.

                                                                               Dressed up...

...as some kind of weirdo...

                                                                               ...a "bobot"...

                                                            ...and a baby Captain America again.

Paige has been feeling super grown up, hanging out alone in her room, listening to her radio(I let her have my old alarm clock/radio), and writing/drawing in her diary.

Until today, it had still been nice and cool for July, so we've gone for a few evening walks.

Paige had to wear her headphones and listen to Colby Collait(who she tells me is her "hero")

Today I got asked to play in a softball tournament in Seligman tomorrow (and the next day if our team does well).  So we'll be gone a couple days!  Jess is super excited to entertain the kids and himself all day and possibly the next day while I play softball!

Mean Faces and a Sick Boy

My sweet baby girl, much like my sweet older girl, also has her feisty, stubborn side.  For a while she's been saying things like "STOP IT!" and "DON'T!" and "LET GO ME!" when I make her do anything she doesn't like, like get buckled into her car seat or have her teeth brushed.  She says it with such attitude too.  I need to get it on video. 

She also started giving us CRAZY dirty looks when we tell her "no" or anything similar.  We laughed so hard the first few times that she gave up doing them in a serious way, but she's been doing them out of nowhere to make me laugh.  She's usually on the verge of a smile anyway, so when I grab the camera and ask her to do it she can't seem to make the REAL mean face.  Here's the closest thing I've captured to her real dirty look, so far.

 

Far from the real thing, but hopefully I'll get it soon.  

It cracks me up.  Although I do prefer her sweet face.

 Caso was sick today, throwing up every 20 minutes or so, for the first 3 and a half hours after he woke up.  Luckily he was fine after that.  Paige did the same thing just over a week ago, and it only lasted a few hours for her too.  Neely helped me take care of him while he was sick.  

 

Hot Cocoa in July

The floors make such a difference.

I've been loving this monsoon season, lots of actual rain instead of just hot muggy days.  We babysat Lily and Aivree for a bit Saturday afternoon, and it was really rainy.  

They loved it.  It was even pretty cool out, so they came in and asked me to make some hot cocoa.  Ha.  So I obliged.

They also caught the snails that came out.

Neely chose her outfit that day.  I can usually dress her in whatever I want her to wear, but that day I put a red tshirt dress on her.  She pulled my hand and led me back to her closet, and stood on her tiptoes, reaching up to the dresses and trying to jump.  So I picked her up and she grabbed the one she wanted, that black, white, and pink polkadotted dress from Grama.

Our Little Ballerina

Our little ballerina girl has really liked dancing lately.  With music or without, doesn't matter to her.  She does this windup with her arm,

 and then spins around,

and then the finale is a really cute pose with her leg lifted up behind her, or sometimes out to the side, and she usually tries to balance on one leg like that.  (although in the first pic she's trying out the hands on the step version)

She has watched Angelina Ballerina with Paige a couple of times.  We might have to sign her up for Princess Ballet one of these days.