Our Island Princess

Natalie had her Island Princess dance camp last week. As in the past, she came home every day and showed us the new stuff she learned. She's really learning a lot! Friday was the "recital" at the studio and we enjoyed it. Ike & I took Natalie to lunch afterwards, then she opted to come home with me rather than go to school for the afternoon. Owen had a great week at school. The theme was camping, and they did all kinds of camping activities, including having hot dogs and smores and making fishing poles. He's been talking about going camping now, so I told him maybe next year when Henry is a little bigger. Saturday was a laid back day. The objective for the day was to get a new grill since the movers broke our other one. Henry started pulling up on Saturday and he continues dragging himself around - usually toward every toy and object he shouldn't get his hands on (small doll house pieces, crayons, markers, any kind of paper...). Natalie and Owen are learning to hurry and pick up their stuff when they see Henry coming. On Sunday, Karien, Kevin, and Allison came over for a cookout. Natalie, Owen, and Allison had a good time together, and Allison really enjoyed Henry, which is good since she will be a big sister in the next couple weeks. We're looking forward to a long holiday weekend, and watching fireworks on Friday night.

Summertime

Summer has officially started (based on the calendar), although it seems like it's been summer here for awhile. (Can't believe the year is half over already!) There hasn't been anything too exciting going on: some doctor's visits, a birthday party for Natalie's friend, and a visit to a new park, all summer activities, I guess. Last week, Ike, Natalie, and I had dental checkups & cleanings - good reports for all. Owen will join us on our next visit. Also, Henry had his 9-month well baby checkup last week. He's doing great. He's following in Owen's footsteps with what we'll call the "Gibbs Boy Build" - he is in the 85th percentile for height and the 35th percentile for weight - long & lean. On the crawling front, he's dragging himself everywhere (and pretty quickly I might add) - he has the red knees to prove it. He's still working on an official crawl - he gets up on his hands and knees, goes forward a few inches, then starts dragging. He's almost there.

My trip to New Orleans went well, although the trip home was a little extended due to weather issues and Bush airport closing (after we were already on the plane). Saturday we worked on cleaning out the garage. We want to make room for new bikes. Sat afternoon Natalie had a birthday party at the local gymnastics place. She had fun and wore herself out, which was nice. Sunday we went to the new park downtown. It was hot, but they had all kinds of water gizmos to cool off in. We'll take bathing suits next time - Owen was soaked. He had a lot of fun kicking the soccer ball. We're planning on signing him up for soccer soon.

This week Natalie has dance camp - Island Princess is the theme. Ike & I are looking forward to the recital on Friday.

Dad's Day Weekend

We had a nice weekend. It started off a little rocky - Natalie got sick on Thursday night (right in the middle of her story in her bed!) and she stayed home from school on Friday. But she had recovered by midday on Friday, and she tagged along with us to go shopping for office furniture. We decided that after 6 years of me working from home, it was time to make getting nice office furniture a priority. On Friday night we went to the zoo for Zoobilee - an after-hours party for members. Kevin, Karien, and Allison met us there. It was fun, but hot. I felt bad for Karien since she is 30 days away from her due date! It was great to get in the air conditioned car afterwards. Last night, Ike & I (and Henry!) enjoyed a dinner out while Nat and Owen went to Rainbow Kids. Today was a great Father's Day - we all relaxed and had some downtime. We did have to drive out to a wildlife rescue facility I found after Ike discovered an injured mockingbird in our front culvert area yesterday afternoon. Natalie and Owen were very excited that our car was an animal ambulance. This afternoon we went outside for some sprinkler time. Stella is always happy for us to be outside. I don't know what to do with her - she has picked one of the flowerbeds as her digging spot to lie in and cool off in the afternoons. After repairing it and trying to salvage the moss roses at least three times only for her to dig there again, we've decided to let her have that spot. There are only so many places she can go to cool off when it's 95. She's an old girl, what can we do? So this week we're looking forward to getting our office furniture delivered and I have to go to New Orleans for some meetings at the end of the week.

A Race & A Party

The events of the weekend were races for Ike, Natalie, & Owen followed by a birthday party on Saturday. Our neighborhood association hosted their annual fun run this weekend on Saturday morning. Ike ran the 5K and then Natalie & Owen ran the kids' 1K. It was nice because we just walked over from the house. We cheered Ike on as he went by, then Natalie & Owen got fired up for their race. They were excited because Owen's friend Jakob was running in it, and Natalie's friend Rescie was also running. Ike stayed with Henry, and I ran ahead to get pictures. Jakob's dad was with the boys (although Jakob fell back shortly after the start and I was proud to see Owen running on his own), and Rescie's mom, Jennifer, ran with the girls. Natalie easily ran the whole thing, and Owen only needed some extra encouragement a couple of times. I ended up running the last few blocks with him, and I think he got a kick out of all the people cheering at the finish line. They got ribbons for running and they were excited. Natalie kept talking about her strong legs and sweaty hair. Afterwards, we got ready for Allison's 2nd birthday party. They had a pool party (perfect after running the races), an Elmo pinata, and of course ice cream & cake. We had fun, and we were worn out on Saturday evening. Sunday was the usual running around and home maintenance (laundry, cleaning, weeding, yard work). Henry was pooped and he fell asleep in the wagon. It was really cute!