Lots of Outside Fun

 The gate has a hook on it so Tor got one of his tools to try to unlock it.  He worked and worked.

 Since that tool didn't do the job he changed it for a pair of pliers and tried and tried again.  With the third tool he finally got the gate open so I had to make the hook tighter.  Of course, he tried again.

 Next I saw him climbing up the back of this lattice so got the camera.  At this point I put the camera down to race over and keep him from sitting on the top which was what he was trying to do.  No fear.

 Rielee, Harper, Ava, Jillian, Bridget, and Tor with their swimsuits on waiting for Papa to set up the slip-n-slide.  They had a ball with that.  Then Jillian and Bridget got to go to Aunt's where they had more water fun on the fort slide.  Should all be very tired tonight.

These girls love to make a muddy mess by mixing dirt, sand, water, rocks and whatever they can find.  I think at times this is more fun for them than dolls.

First Starbucks

While visiting Pike Place Market, we visited the first Starbucks store. It was a long wait!

Rock It Out!

Up in Seattle at Heather's friends'  (Nicki and John) house, Jillian got together all the kids and formed a band in the basement using John's instruments. Tor and Jillian went wild on drums while Bridget played keyboards (with John's help). They invited all the adults for a concert. It was impressive.

Bridget's Photo

Tierney sent me this picture that Bridget took with Tierney's phone. Her phone wasn't set to black and white but somehow that's what how it came out.  Excellent picture for a 4 year old.

So Hot!

The kids spent most of the day today inside the cool air-conditioned house, since it was over 90° outside.  We got a little stir crazy, so we went in the backyard, and Jillian begged for the sprinkler. Jillian got totally soaked, while Bridget and Tor were a little more reserved.

Slip-n-Slide

They couldn't wait to get it out when it was so hot outside.  They went so many times it wore them out.  It didn't take long for Tor to get the hang of it.  We even added more plastic at the end so they could go even farther.  It looks like this will be a popular activity this summer.

Sunny Beach Days

Today was one of the nicest days at the beach. We stayed for almost 3 hours, split between flying kites in the dry sand and digging in a small stream near the ocean. We tried jumping waves a couple times (Tor was fearless, as usual) but it got too cold. Here's a photo of the kids in the pool we made.

Long Bike Ride

While Tor took a nap, Daddy and Jillian and Bridget went for a long bike ride all the way around Ocean Park. The girls did pretty good.  Here's a photo of them taking a break.

Bailey's Bakery

It was Monday, and both Adelaide's and Full Circle were closed, so we went to Bailey's Bakery in Nahcotta. The coffee was good, but the kids were too restless to stay long. On our way out, the kids checked out the oyster shell mountain.

Art, Playmates, & Inky

 Tor was thrilled to have Tierney home.  She is painting Tor's hand for an art project.  He kept saying it tickles.

 It was so much fun for Jillian, Bridget and Tor to have Rielee, Ava, and Harper come to play.  Among the many things they did was get all fancy with the dress-up box.  I think Jillian was the witch as she kept putting spells on everyone.  Bridget was a cheer leader (hopefully not thinking of the future) and I'm not sure about the rest.  After a tea party with lots of snacks their playmates had to leave.

Jillian with our cat that scares everyone, including the dogs.  The cat went over to Jillian and I  told her to pet the cat, Inky.  She did so very hesitantly and Inky loved it and kept going around Jillian for more petting.  Inky is getting old so is a little more patient but not with Tor.  When Tor tried to grab the cat he got his scratch and he makes a wide circle around the cat when she's laying on the floor.  Tor wouldn't even let me change his diaper on the sofa while Inky was sleeping on one end, far away.  Jillian is very gentle with all the animals and they can sense that.

Little Dribbler

Jillian went to the Mark Morris Little Dribblers Hoop Camp the past few days. She was able to hone her skills a bit more with the help of Coach Backamus and his players. There were only a handful of girls there, but Jillian hooked up with another little girl and they hung out and played together the whole time.

As usual, Jillian was praised for her tough defense that she learned from cousins Ty and Brock. She was also very excited by all the freebies, including a t-shirt, travel bag, basketball and gift cards to Taco Time and Sweet Spot.

Sunday in Summer

Here's the kids all dressed up in their colorful Sunday best for church this morning. They're full of energy after eating ice cream in the fellowship hall.

New Jams

Jillian has decided that her new jammies are going be Daddy's t-shirts. She has been wearing them to bed every night for the past week.

Graduates of 2015

Bridget and Torion have been attending Jillian's school for the past year, and today they finally graduated. In a small ceremony in her bedroom, Jillian introduced and talked about each student, saying how much she enjoyed having them in class and telling about some of the things they learned. When she was done, she asked the audience (Mommy and Daddy) to give them a hand. Then she put their graduation caps on them.

Right after the ceremony, Jillian made the announcement that Summer School was starting today!

Wild Animals (no, not the kids)

 Tor walked into the kitchen wearing these sun glasses and he was ready for me to take a picture.  He wanted to look at it as soon as I took it.

 It's cute how much the girls like to play with Tor's workbench and tools.  They'll work for awhile on something and then go to the workbench to do something and then back to their job.  Tor loves this time when they're playing with him.

I love it when Jillian and Bridget get creative when they're outside playing.  Earlier they had one frog set up in the bushes and Papa saw it and thought it was real, so took a picture of it to look up to see what kind of unusual frog it was.  He felt kind of silly when he found out it was one of the girl's frogs.

I was driving out the driveway when Bridget spotted these two deer eating at one of our apple trees.  She was so excited about seeing a wild animal.  She said she had never seen one before.  We see them all the time but they are too smart to come around when the kids are outside.  Bridget wanted me to put it on the blog to show Mommy and Daddy what she saw.

Pool Time

 Bridget loves to play the Mommy part and have Tor be the baby.  But he is not a very cooperative baby to say the least.  He'll go along with the game for about 5 minutes and then Mommy gets very frustrated.  She is learning to offer distractions to Tor.

 With the weather in the 90's it was time to get out the play pool.  They had a great time. Tor got chilled finally since he was continually splashing so I wrapped him in a towel and tried to get a picture.  He said "cheese" for the first two but when I tried the third shot he yelled "CHEESE!"  I will learn not to get so picky.

Bridget loves strawberries but Jillian not so much so here she is pointing them out for Bridget.  

Papa took Bridget and Tor on a lawn tractor ride first and had them sit in the wagon.  Then he needed to pick up a table and chairs so he took them on the tractor with him.  They could do this all day.

Friday

 The girls were so excited to get the hammock out that they went down to the shop with me and then help hook it to the trees.  Then I had to push them really high so they almost turned over.  Tor went right along for the ride and he was smiling the whole time.

That evening was Ty's graduation.  The girls had a video and wrote notes during the ceremony and Tor watched everything happen and was so good until Mommy took him for a walk and he went in a puddle and got all wet.  The weather and the ceremony were very nice.

Thursday

 Tor usually climbs to the top of the bank and walks around the top without any trouble.  But this time he got his foot stuck and so his nice sister Jillian came to the rescue.  He talks so well now that he had no trouble at all shouting, "I stuck."

Erika brought her niece to play while the adults were playing in the JAL tournament.  The girls had so much fun taking Hannah all around to play on everything.

Fun at Ty's Party

After playing downstairs for quite awhile while the parents were all upstairs at Ty's party, the cousins decided to play Pirates at the tree fort.  They had a great time and they were all sweaty afterwards.  Harper isn't slowed down by her cast at all and Tor did his best to keep up with everyone.  It's been awhile since they could all play together.