Mocha's Birthday

 The day before, Jillian and Bridget had a puzzle party and put together all the puzzles I have.  They were all over tabletops and the floor.  This day they decided to have a Play-doh party but this time they didn't finish all of the Play-doh sets.  Here they are making silly men or animals.  Tor was all over this too.

It was Mocha's 9th birthday so the girls and I went to the store and got Mocha a giant bone and Sophie a little one-Bridget was worried that Sophie would feel left out.  They sang to Mocha and then gave her the bone.  Mocha got lots of hugs and attention all day.  Here they are laughing at Sophie-very easily distracted and hard to get a good picture.

Karlie's Pool Party

All off us went to Cousin Lisa's house to celebrate Cousin Karlie's 5th birthday. The kids ended up swimming for several hours straight, taking a break only for cupcakes and other snacks and drinks.

Jeep and Quad Fun

 They figured out how to get all three happy at once.  Jillian is usually the driver since she has the most control.  When Bridget drives, it's an adventure.

 Tor is usually happy to ride his quad all over.  He learned to steer and when he runs into something, he hops off and turns the quad around.  Sometimes he stands up to drive and today he took both hands of the steering and held them up in the air and smiled.  Good thing the quad has only one speed-slow.

This was Jillian's outfit all day yesterday.  We said she looked like the character in Harry Potter, Hermoine.  Sometimes she has the magnifying glass instead of the flashlight.

Soccer Practice

Jillian had her first soccer practice of the season, and this year, Grannie is her coach! This photo shows Grannie giving instructions to Jillian and her teammates. This U-8 group is like a brand-new team, since none of Jillian's former teammates are with her. They practiced a lot of skills today, along with a game at the end. Jillian is pumped to get going!

Dress Up

 The kids had to keep busy while everyone was setting up the garage sale so they went to the dress up box.  Tor even got involved and he left it on!  In fact, he was pretty proud and showed everyone his outfit, especially the glitter beret.

Then on garage sale day Rielee joined the crew in dressing up.  She looked pretty studious, while Bridget went for the glamour and Jillian went for the red-head look again.  Tor again had on his favorite hat, cowboy vest and boa.  It was all quite interesting. Jillian even had a table at the garage sale where she sold some things she had made, earning some money.  Bridget added a few things too.

More Beach Trip

We made another appearance at the beach for a 3-day trip. It ended up being beautifully sunny and warm, and the ocean was even warm, too. That meant that we were able to spend most of our time playing in the sand and the waves (usually about 3 hours or so), since when the kids got wet, they weren't freezing and asking to go back to the cabin. It was always high tide when we went, and by waiting a little bit, we'd get some tide pools to show up that warmed up like bath water. One particular place we always went to had a large sand bar and some very deep tide pools behind it ... the kids liked to run and jump into them, kind of like going off the diving board (that's what Tor is doing in the photo).

Aspiring Photographer

 Jillian wanted to take pictures so I let her use my small point and shoot.  Here is her first "selfie".  She must have taken a hundred or more pictures so here is a sampling.

 Another "selfie".

 She didn't get much cooperation from these two.

 Bridget being a ham sometimes.

 Sometimes she had neat pictures.

Bridget yelling to stop taking my picture.

The Train Set

 Tor had played with his Thomas train set the week before when the girls were gone.  When I got it out for Tor, the girls were all over playing with it but Tor wasn't having any of that.  The train was his and his only to play with.  After a few minutes of that, he decided to share one engine with the girls and smiled when he got all the praise for being nice and sharing.  Then he got bored and went on to other things but the girls played with his set a lot the rest of the day.

They hadn't finger painted in a long time so I got it out and they all weren't sure what to do.  At first Tor would use one finger but then got into it when the girls started smearing it around.  Quite the novelty at first.  Of course he said blue when I asked him what color he wanted.  That's the only color he says.

Kids Days at the Beach

Jillian and Bridget were running up the dunes and Tor was doing his best to keep up.  This is how far he got while yelling, "Wait for me."  and they turned around to come back.

 Day one porch picture:  The others were coming after work.  They are enjoying their ice cream cones they get while walking back from the beach.  Bubble gum and cotton candy are the two favorites of the little kids.

 Jillian and Rielee are practicing their moves on the skim boards for later at the beach.  The practicing didn't help a lot, since each time they tried at the waves, they crashed.  The older boys were quite good at it.

 All the kids older than Bridget and Tor played a lot of UNO so Bridget busied herself reading the history of Astoria.  She read a lot aloud.

 At one point it was too quiet (think the older ones were taking a nap) so the girls put on some music and entertained us with dance.

 A very spirited and competitive game of UNO.  Even Tor got in on it by holding Daddy's cards for him.

 The whole group porch picture.  A very fun group of cousins to take to the beach.

Jillian celebrating after finally winning a game of UNO.  It was a fun trip.

 Tor is the only one that still fits in the bucket to wash off sand from the beach.  Nice warm water feels good!