I'm an official Soccer Mom.

Molly has been wanting to play soccer for quite a while now.  With our move and age restrictions in Ames, this is the first chance Molly has gotten.  I don't think she really knows what soccer is yet, or understands the fundamentals of the game, but she's had her first practice, and already looks pretty good out on the field.  At least she's having fun.

1st Day of 1st Grade

Can't believe this cute girl is already in 1st grade.  She has been looking forward to this day for weeks now, and was so excited to get back to school.  Emma is already missing her sister, but continually talks about when she gets to go to school.  Too bad she has to wait about another 3 years!

Emma quotes continued...

Emma has said a few funny things recently.

She was playing with a Barbie and took off her dress.  Pointing at Barbie's chest she says, "Wow!  Those are really big elbows!"

While at the beach with the family, she was wearing a floaty tube around her waist.  Grandma told her that she looked like a ballerina.  Emma started twirling and dancing, and the floaty fell.  She exclaimed: "Aw!  Emma lost her gonorrhea!"

When we ask Emma what her favorite color or animal is, her answer is consistent.  "Elmo is red."

4th of July

Wednesday night we headed out to see fireworks.  Emma thought it was pretty cool for a total of about 30 seconds, then got bored, but Molly was captured the entire time.  Here we are waiting around for them to start.

Thursday we hit the parade.  I'm so glad it wasn't any hotter, after a little bit we were all dying.  But the girls enjoyed the show, and of course the candy.

Potty Training

I've known for a while now that we need to get Emma potty trained, especially before this baby comes.  I just kept putting it off...the thoughts of going through it were terrifying.  She has that care-free personality, where she just doesn't really care enough about most things to learn them. 

On Wednesday, I finally got her started.  We packed up her remaining diapers, which she was not at all pleased about, but once I told her we could give them to Cousin Abby, she was more excited.  Then we pulled out the panties.  She has worn pull-ups a couple of times while going out for 4th of July activities and for bed/nap time, but other than that, she's been in her underwear. 

It's been an interesting experience, to say the least.  Emma is such a strong personality.  I knew the major break-through would be when she realized she had to go, and could get herself to the potty before wetting her pants.  And it's happened before I ever thought it would.  She has been getting herself to the potty for most of the day today...and that's day number 3!!  I'm hopeful that this will go more quickly and smoothly than I would have thought.

Backbone cabin

My parents rented a cabin for this last week at Backbone state park.  It's a new family favorite, and we were fortunate enough to join them for a few days.  Though some had to come late/leave early during the week for work or other reasons, we had a couple of days where the entire family was together. 

One of the nights we took a little hike up to a cave.  Because we've had so much rain lately, the creek was running over the road more than usual.  The girls had fun splashing.

The girls at the mouth of the cave.  If you look really closely, you can see my brother Scott crouched in the back of the cave.

Just some other pics from our hike.

I'm so bummed this picture is blurry, it's adorable of Molly!!

One of the girls' favorite things to do while at the cabin was swing in the hammocks. 

David had to leave on Sunday night to get back so he could work on Monday.  But the girls and I stayed through Tuesday afternoon.  Molly had two big wishes...to eat the fish she caught with Grandpa, and to go to the beach.  On Monday we hit the beach.  The water was freezing, but of course that didn't slow Molly down much. 

Adorable Abby.

On Saturday, in the pouring rain, we went to a fish hatchery that had a little pond for kids.  Grandpa was excited to help the girls fish.  They both caught 2!  I'm sad I don't have any good pictures of them, I think David got some on his phone.  That's the fish that Molly really wanted to eat, and we ate those on Monday night.  Molly had so much fun, she wanted to go fishing again, so on Tuesday morning she joined the boys (Grandpa, Uncle Scott, and Uncle Aaron) on their daily fishing trip.  She told me she could have fished forever! 

Backyard Pool

We've had some hot days here lately...it's Iowa, so what can you expect?  We've been finding ways to keep cool, which for the most part entails staying inside in the air conditioning.  I'm sorely lacking in energy these days, but when I do get a burst, we hit our backyard for some pool time.  Molly used some birthday money to get a little pool and sprinkler (thanks, Gram!!).  The girls have had some fun already.