Sound the Octo-alert!

The girls had an Octonauts adventure this week at the Sealife Aquarium and boy did they have fun!  There were little information centers throughout the aquarium and they even got to meet Captain Barnacle and Kwazii.  

 Miles was a fan of the actual fish more than the Octonauts.   To be honest , he really just wanted to crawl around but with so many people there, it was not really possible.  It ended up being a slight wrestling match in the end with him.

 Hadley loves a good bubble view

 Look at these cute turtles coming out of their shell.  I'll take all of them, please!

Miles 9 Months

Miles is now 9 months old. To celebrate we decided to snap a few pictures (he was not feeling it too much this time so we didn't get very many pictures).

Miles' 9 month stats:

Height: 30.75 in (99th %)

Weight: 23 lbs 2 oz (93%)

Head Circumference: 48 cm (99%)

He is perfectly....big.  We have a nice big baby boy on our hands, and he is quite a handful lately.  He is at the stage where heknows what he wants, but can't tell us so he just yells until we figure it out.  We are trying to teach him baby sign language, but not there yet.  

Miles has been sleeping through the night, until 5 am when he decides that he wants to be up for good.  It is light outside by 5, so he thinks he should be up.  Not cool.

He still is taking 2 naps a day and is into everything.  His favorite place is in the shower while we are showering.  Anytime he hears the water running, he bee-lines it for the shower and will try and push his way into the shower while we are trying to keep the door closed. 

He is such a fun guy and we love him to pieces.  

This is the best shot we got.

He wanted to crawl around since he always likes to be moving.

This is a semi common face for him now days as well. This is the general response when either of his sisters try to move him around (they keep trying to "help" him but don't understand that he would prefer less help).

Hot fun in the summertime...

Since it is soooooooo hot here in the summer, we always are looking for fun things to do to beat the heat. This summer we have played a few games with some of our neighbors in the park behind our house. This time we played slip n'slide baseball. We had slip n'slides for each base and the kids ran around and down all the slides. It was great fun for all.

The girls needed a little help batting

 (neither one is going to be Babe Ruth based on the efforts of today). 

Hadley even needed a little help running the bases.

In the end, the kiddie pool was just as popular as the baseball. 

Allie and her friends all splashed around in the pool for quite a while.

Swim Lessons

To kick off the summer, Allie and Hadley took 4 weeks of swim lessons with Kristen Sweeney and boy did they have fun!  Hadley started off a bit apprehensive about it, not wanting to put her head in the water but by the end, she was swimming like a little fish.  We had 2 different sessions with different groups, but the girls were so excited about it every day.  Allie is now totally able to swim by herself without any assistance at all, swimming to retrieve things from the bottom of the pool, jumping off, etc.  Hadley can swim across the pool, and has started  to learn how to take a breath in the water, but is still working on that.  

Miles and I got to hang out in the heat every day for 4 weeks.  Miles mostly liked to follow around their little dog and tried to dive into the pool a time or two.  Next year he will be ready for his turn too!

The girls were so brave and went down her big slide and swam to the side in the deep part.  Hooray for summer!

Dancing Queen

This year Allie has been taking dance class to experience her ballerina dreams. Her hard work and effort have finally paid off with a marquee performance on the big stage! Here is a rundown of the jam packed day.

All prima ballerinas need a rockin' outfit and a killer do.

Today it was sequins and curls.

A private photo shoot at an exotic location (like the flower jungle in our back yard).

Did I mention she was asked to model for Maybeline (that is real bonafide makeup she is wearing).

Front and center of the dance number.

The best always get to be right in the middle.

She not only dances, but sings as well (or yells really, per the directors instructions).

The entire dance studio together for the finale.

Allie got to sit in front with the blue pom pom.

Her command performance was greeted with lengthy applause and she was showered with flowers as the performance came to a close.

Like any big star, she was happy to oblige her fans with a quick picture after the show.

A great night for dancing!