Hello month of July! Where did the first half of this year go? Hmmm... Katy's long awaited birthday is finally almost here. We have celebrated the big day for everyone else in our immediate family, and most of my side of the fam. She has patiently awaited the magical day and is counting down officially each day at this point. We are quizzing her on her age and she holds up her hand with her wedding ring finger touching her thumb to say "three". She's a non-conformist already!

Some of our recent adventures can be seen here in these photos. That's really the hardest part for me with blogging...finding, editing, saving and posting....but what's a blog without cute pics?

We went to Amy's new place and ate and played and ate some more! Her apartment is adorable! The pool was sparkling and cool and we loved every bit of it! Amy's kitties were a big hit, but one of them stayed hidden under the bed the entire time. Katy was very concerned, "Kitty can't come out. Kitty scared" but with "w" for her "r" sounds.

Speaking of swimming, we finished up our two weeks of swim lessons and the kids are headed off to try out their new skills on the English Chanel. Wahoo! Ok, really I haven't seen any stellar improvements but they were super cute trying! Mom came twice to take photos for me and Peter came on the last day to witness the swimming prowess of the wee ones. Allen actually puts his face in the water more than Katy does. Her big break-through was that she actually got her hair wet on the last day. We paired up with my friends Matt & Rebekah plus their two lovely ladies so it was an awesome time!

Hmmm....I was out the door for all of 10 seconds taking out the trash yesterday, and when I came back in I found that an entire (new) bag of goldfish had exploded all over my living room and entry way. No witnesses to the spontaneous combustion were found but Allen was happy to help clean up. He loves brooms.

On the medical front, since Katy has been pinching the heck out of my mole...I mean my beauty mark...on my left forearm, I finally had a doctor remove it from temptation. Farewell to the mole that I've had since at least elementary school.

In other news, Katy had her first hair styling with hot rollers this week. It was not a hit. They were hot and they pulled her hair so she only kept them in for about three minutes. Plus her new growth is still too short for rollers so only the hair on top got curled. Oh well! It was fun playing girly stuff with the Bird.

Big Juice is officially trying to talk more. Marjean has been quoting different little words here and there, and Mom has claimed a few, as well. I only blog them if I hear them. Allen officially says "Wow", "Ruff Ruff", "Dog" on top of his previously limited vocab of just "Dada" and "Mama". In fact, Peter asks Allen what a puppy dog says and Allen answers with a big grin and a "Ruff Ruff". He has also learned to give a Hi Five. And he gives me the "eat" sign, which is the only sign language that I've shown him so far. It seems like just yesterday Allen was a little lump in a Number One diaper. Now he's busting out of his size Fives and headed straight for Six, or maybe we'll skip over into adult diapers.

The watermelon was such a hit with my nuggets that I just had to take pictures to document the fun!

And we played in the sprinkler last night, which is one of Katy's favorite things to do. We turn it on so that it hits the swing set and slide, and those babies just fly down the slide!! I hold onto Juicy Galore but Katybird is too independent for any help and she was flying two feet out before she would land in the grass, and not always on her bum. They loved it! On a side note, me thinks that Katy's swim suit cuts in a bit too much on the back side. Hmmm.....
We're headed to Sarah's this weekend for a fabulous Fourth of July! I think Dad is in Iowa and Laura has to work, but Uncle John and Amy are joining us for some fun! Wahoo!!! Plus, I'm sure we'll be celebrating Phase I of Katy's birthday party week!!