A Few More of Grace

So we downloaded the pictures from our phones the other night and there were several more of Grace that I wanted to share. Since it took me so long to do a post about just her anyway, I figured two would be good. ;)
She loves small chairs just her size. You can tell by her smug face just how pleased she is. :)
The other morning she was carrying around my weights... yes, it was a little embarrassing that apparently my 1 year old uses the same weights as myself! ;)
Someone likes dressing up just as much as her older sister...
I'm not sure what it is, but Grace LOVES sippy cups. She is almost always thirsty and just loves water (way more so than her sister ever has).

Fun at the children's museum with mommy...

Loving her high school friends!! (both she and Evelyn think they're one of them ;))
Sweet Baby Grace!

Gracie's Summer

So there's a WAY longer between my last post about Evelyn and this post about Grace than I meant to have, but such is life with two and one on the way these days. :) Gracie does her best to keep up with her big sister, even way surpassing her in some areas such as sleeping and eating. Grace has been known to eat more than me at some meals. If you saw her eat you may think we starve her, but I assure you, we don't, she's just hungry ALL the time! :)

She shares some of her summer highlights with her sister, including Busch Gardens. The carousel is her all time favorite.

We often go to BG with our good friends the McHenrys. Gracie and Caroline are watching buddies most of the time while Margaret and Evie, more the daredevils, are the ride goers. :) Here are all the girls on the train (this was the best we could do picture-wise) headed home for naps.

Grace also loves going to the beach. She has two shovels, a blue one and a purple one, that are usually her trusty companions. She especially likes the beach when Grandma gets to come too!

We went blueberry picking multiple times this summer and this is usually what Gracie looked like:

She can eat them as fast as I can pick them! I'd usually end up letting her down to forge for herself when I got desperate to get some in my container. ;) This usually resulted in many green and overripe berries being consumed though. Oh well. She never seemed worse for it. :)

Gracie loves to enter fully whatever Evie and I are up to. Evelyn LOVES birthdays so one day we decided to have a party for her doll, Ruthie, complete with party hats and all. Grace loved the idea as much as E did!

Swings and trips to the park are also highlights. Here she and Catherine are lunch buddies while Timothy and Evie are off running around somewhere - far too busy to eat (a concept Gracie can't understand ;)).

We love our happy, easy-going, delightful little Gracie!

Evelyn's Summer

Evelyn has had a such a fun, full summer so far. Besides the pictures already posted, here are some from our phones. :) Dates with Dad have included Chick-fil-a, Home Depot, Williamsburg, and the playground.
 
She also learned about the joys of corn on the cob...
 
Grilled with Daddy...
 
Got her first pet...
 
Played some guitar...
 
Learned new chores...
 
Moved to her big girl bed!
 
Went on her first boat ride...she wasn't so sure at first, but loved it by the end.  
Went to the beach...
 
Became quite adept at tree climbing and enjoyed hanging out in CW with Lily....
 
Ice cream trips...
 
Numerous trips to BG...
 
Concerts in Merchant's Square...
 
And learned to make "E"s. We've got Es and Is down, we're working on Vs to get EVIE.

Second Goodbyes

Our good friends the VanStempvoorts are moving away this weekend, again. Steve and Nathan were good friends in law (and fellow survivors :)) and Liz was a key part of my law-wife support group. Going through something like law school with other couples kind of bonds you for life. We were so sad when they moved away after law school and elated when they moved back a year later! Now they are moving again, this time 15 hours away! We've loved having them in Richmond these last few years and will miss our sporadic play dates! We're not despairing though, we really think they can't stay away from VA for long and that they'll be back in another few years. ;)
A few weekends ago we had a VERY hot picnic with them and the Tennants. Despite melting, we all had a great time.

Danielle and I headed to Richmond for one final play date after this. This time we had sprinklers, a pool and water table to keep us all cool. :) Evelyn adores her friends Rachel and Annie and is going to miss them!
  
The boys, plus Gracie, harvested the VanStemps whole garden. Liz let them pull it all up since they're moving anyway. The boys loved being farmers. :)

Final picnic!

Come back and visit VA soon, VanStemps! We'll work on getting up to you too! :)

Good Friends

These pictures are over month old now, but I just had to share some from our play date with Kjerstin, Bridget and Linus. Kjerstin, my college roommate, and I sometimes meet up for play dates with our kids. In theory this should be about 1.5 hours for each of us. On this terrible day though, a haz-mat spill on 95 resulted in the highway shutting down and Kjerstin's last 10 miles taking 2.5 hours!! True friend that she is she (along with Nathan's navigation skills ;)) found a way to still make it! Thanks, Kjer! The kids were all amazing and the little ones seemed to understand the importance of our seeing each other and remained cheerful despite skipping naps. :)
The park we met at was lovely despite a complete infestation of cicadas. We hung out by the river while we waited and Evie learned how to use our camera. Thus the lovely picture of my knees. :)
So happy once our friends finally arrived!
Linus, we still have your tractor and will get it back to you at our next play date! :)