A Full House

Lily and Sophia doing some cooking

they made a party and were gracious enough to invite their brothers

Cheese!

Lily, William, Sophia, and Leo all dine on some veggies

Our all American girls posing in front of the new American Girl store!

Sophia fell in love with the American Girl Biddy Babies

Lily and Sophia doing a literal dance for joy after their giddy adventure through the store

Hey...how come he gets all the food?

two sweet girls

We were lucky enough to have the Deetz Family stop by on their way home from Colorado. Sophia was so excited and she and Lily had a grand old time...we finally had to separate them at 10:30pm when neither of them seemed to think sleep was that great of an idea! It was nice to see that Sophia isn't the only big sister that mauls her little brother and tries to control his every move around the house! ;) We even ventured to the new American Girl store on Friday morning and the girls were in heaven! Sophia doesn't really know about the AG craze just yet, and I am so fine with that, but she did fall right into love with those Bitty Babies. I think it's really more about the accessories, like the very real looking crib and changing table with mini box of wipes, but I couldn't tear her away from that display. I would consider buying those accessories as I think she'd be just as happy to put any baby in them, but comparatively speaking the Bitties are a steal! We hope to see Lily and William (and their parents too) in the very near future! Thanks for visiting guys, you're welcome any time!

Gardening Class

The class leader was showing off some Native American bead work
The kids were very fascinated by the jewelry and loved trying it on

this is what Leo thought of the class

making her tee pee

Sophia getting to share her favorite parts of the story

skip, skip, skip to my lou

figuring she was wearing a rainbow shirt, she needed some rain to complete the picture! She and Isabelle got soaked, but they had fun!! Since I'm still carrying around a change of clothes and extra panties, it was all good.

Sadly we didn't get in on the fun until the last class of the season, but a local plant nursery sponsors a "gardening" class every Wednesday during the summer. I thought there would be more gardening involved, but it was a very nice story time and craft period. Strangely the class is geared towards 3-7 year olds, which I find to be a rather large span, but whatever. The "teacher" wasn't quite as used to dealing with the 3 year old end of the spectrum and was constantly on Sophia to sit on her bottom and be quiet! Oh well! She did actually glean a bit of information from the class and enjoyed making her tee pee. The best part was when she got to pick out a small Native American figurine to live in the tee pee. She chose a mom with a baby strapped to her back and she loved that thing so much. It traveled everywhere with her for the next two days!

Tennis Star

Leo got tired of tennis and started playing football!

proud papa

I just can't believe that Shelby is a freshmen in high school this year!! Gasp! Incidentally she goes to Shawnee Mission South, the alma mater of both her father and me, and joined the tennis team this year. She has never played before but really seems to be doing a great job with practicing and has had 2 matches already! We are all really proud of her and can't wait to see her progress through the season!

Welcome, Baby!

A very special congratulations to my cousin David and his beautiful wife Jenny! Jenny gave birth to this stud muffin yesterday, Andrew Gillespie Wiens. He weighed 9lbs 3oz, just 2 oz short of big cousin, Leo! They live all the way up in Wisconsin but we hope to get to meet him in the near future! Welcome to the world, Andrew and congrats Dave and Jenny---he's beautiful!!

Clifford Exhibit

Juan, Sophia and Isabelle playing in the train car
using the belt for Clifford's food

Just like at home, Leo wanted to play in the dog bowls

Juan sliding down Clifford's back

Sophia and Isabelle used the conveyor for each other too

Clifford the Big Red Dog had a little exhibit going on at Crown Center. We love to visit those free exhibits and even though they're small they provide tons of entertainment. Plus, we usually eat at Fritz's the train restaurant and hit up the candy store for a special treat. We met our new friends, Juan and Andres, there and everyone had a good time! Clifford closes this weekend and we look forward to what's next!

Splishy Splashy Play Date

A determined Lauren

Leo scoping the scene

Sophia and Aubrey having a splash fest!

Lauren wants to splash too!

the odd man out, Leo played with toys

Lauren and Sophia enjoying teeter-gator

pushing her brother

(incidentally I think he looks so much like my dad's kid pictures in this pic!!)

Jill and the girls had us over for a fun play date last week. She busted out the pool and outdoor toys and all the girls (and Leo) had a great time! Sophia loves the pool, and she was able to wear her fancy new 2 piece swim suit! Woo Hoo! I bought this ages ago thinking that when we potty trained it might be nice to have and although Sophia didn't need to potty at all while wearing it, I'm sure it will prove to come in handy! ;)

Later that night Wendy and her super cute new beau, Chris, came over for a kabob dinner prepared by yours truly! I just had to include these pictures of Wendy and me roasting marshmallows over the "fire"! It was fun to "double" with Wendy and we love Chris and can't wait to have more dates together in the future!

Muffin Mayhem!

two sweet helpers
Angie getting her mix on!

thanks to Aunt Cathy for our adorable muffin cups in the shape of butterflies, dragonflies and ladybugs!

Aunt Chris "holding" Leo! She learned how quickly it is that Leo is wanting to be back on the go!

adorable and tasty muffins!

almost too pretty to eat!

Angie was here last week and the girls had a great time. She joined us on a play date and after naps, they were thrilled to help me make blueberry muffins from scratch! Yummy! They both enjoyed our "new" (okay, maybe not so new, but I forgot I had it!!, thanks, Cathy!) muffin tin. Sophia was sad that we ran out of room and to resort to the regular muffins!