Our Vacation Music Video!

We took vacation.  A pretty cool one at that.

12 states

2 countries

2 silly little girls

2 fun-loving parents

1 AWESOME vacation!!!

So, to remember our fun-filled time, we created a music video of our journey.

This is our Holiday Road!

~~ Bailey

Fun with Water!

The Ladybug and Daddy spent the day at the county fair. So, that left the Butterfly and I to enjoy a Mommy-Daughter day together. When I asked her last night what she wanted to do, without hesitation she replied, "Swim!" I was actually a bit surprised with her response since we hadn't talked about swimming for a few days, but apparently she had been wanting play in the water again for quite some time.



As you can imagine, she had a BLAST! Watching her in the water you would think that she knows how to swim, but believe it or not, she has not been taught yet. Hmmmm... That does not keep her from bounding forward and pushing herself to the limit. Trust me, I get a little nervous watching her, but I am always very close, and I know that letting her explore is great for her confidence. I did work with her a bit on floating, kicking, and arm work, but in the end she is a kid... she just wanted to play! Below are a couple pics and some videos of the Baby Bug "getting her water on!"

Time for lots of fun on the dinosaur slide.

Without any prompting from me, and believe it or not no other kids were doing this either, she decided to go down the slide head first! The Butterfly totally caught me off guard with this move, but she LOVED it!

Lots of fun, fun, fun!

~~Aloha!

Staying Cool!... UPDATE!!!

UPDATE:

The Butterfly awoke from her nap and low-and-behold, she wanted to get back into the water... surprise, surprise! The butterfly put on her hat and raced outside for more fun. New photos of the fun from the rest of the day follow at the end of the post.

In case you didn't know, there is a heat wave moving across this continent. We have had temperatures in the low 100's for the past few days. We are doing everything we can to stay cool, which usually means we are staying inside in the nice air conditioned house. However, today I decided to do something else with the girls.

We have a nice little kiddie pool, as well as a water-squirting hop-scotch toy. Unfortunately, we don't have a yard quite yet to put those things out on. But, we pulled out some tarps, the hose, and our new water toys, put them on our deck, and let the water flow! The girls had a blast staying nice and cool in the blistering heat. The baby is now taking a nap... she tired herself out from all the fun. Who knows... the girls just may jump back into the water in a few hours. It doesn't get dark here until after nine so we'll have to wait and see.

My little bathing beauty!

"Cheese!"

The Butterfly playing in the water.

No exactly sure what she was looking at in particular, but she sure does seem intrigued with her belly.

Running through the water... what joy!

Sisters.  Hopping, skipping, and jumping together through the water.  Having fun!

Fun in the pool.

A thirst quencher.  Yup, mommy broke down and gave her a soda.  Enjoy it kiddo!

Summer fun and memories!

Now, just imagine how much more fun we will have when we finally get our lawn!

Update photos from after the Butterfly's nap!

A well-rested, happy little girl!

Trying to catch the water droplets.

The Butterfly loves water, and playing with it out in the sun is one of her greatest joys!

This is one happy, little Butterfly.

A giggly Ladybug is hanging out in the pool (which was, with the extreme heat, quite warm).

Silly, little girl.

Trying to catch the water droplets.

Lots of fun in the sun (... and no, for those of you who are wondering, my eldest did not suddenly grow breasts.  She and her sister found the little water discs that go with the hop-scotch game, filled them with water, and decided that they wanted to put them in their tops.  Silly girls!).

~~Aloha!

Rainy Day Model

The weather has been... well, weird. I know, almost everyone across the nation has been experiencing some strange weather lately, us included. Our weather has been unseasonably cool this year, though we do have some hot days coming soon.  We have experienced a lot of rain and some very damaging hail, as well as some incredible lightning.

A couple days ago it started to rain, and continued to rain and rain and rain. The poor Ladybug just wanted to go outside and play, but the weather was not cooperating. After playing a couple games in the morning, I started to think about what would be fun for my eldest, who happens to be 5 going on 15, and then it hit me. I looked at the Bug during lunch and asked, "What would you think about playing with makeup, and even putting makeup on mommy when the Butterfly goes to bed for her nap?" As you can imagine, she squealed with excitement and could not wait to get her little sister to bed.

I knew that I was setting myself up for a fun time with the Bug, and she definitely delivered. The Ladybug started by carefully placed blush on my cheeks... several times in several different shades. She then moved on to my eyes and again started layering several different shades, all in hopes of complimenting my blue eyes. She was so gentle in her application, much to my surprise. I sat ever-so-still for her throughout the entire application. Watching her concentrate so deeply was mesmerizing and made me smile inside the entire time.

After finishing my eyes she hesitantly asked, "Do you want me to put on the liner?" She was terrified to even try for fear of poking my eye and hurting me in the process. I eagerly told her that it was OK, I didn't need her to apply any liner this time.

With my makeup now finished, I asked her if she wanted to now do her own face. She again squealed and eagerly said, "Yes!" I watched her as she very delicately applied her own makeup this time. Surprisingly, she did not apply too much. I think I had it in my mind (probably after seeing too many episodes of American's Funniest Home Videos) that when a young child "plays" with makeup, they tend to apply it much like a clown would. However, the Ladybug seems to already have the knack for subtlety, which astonished me.

Following her makeup application, I offered to take some "model" photos of the Bug, who was very excited to be my muse (by the way, I did not take any photos of myself... just trust me, she did a great job!). The following photos are from that afternoon of fun and laughter with my little Ladybug!

She started by looking rather girly, her hair pulled back with a clip on top of her head.

We then decided to let her hair down, and that was when all of the Ladybug's sass started to shine through.

Don't you just love the "painted" finger nails?

This is my favorite photo from the set. I just love her laugh!

Practicing her kissy lips.

My beautiful kissy-lipped girl. Seriously, she really is 5 going on 15!

We enjoyed such a wonderful time together, what a great day. Oh, by the way, the night ended up providing us with a beautiful electric light display. Quite a day!

~~Aloha!