Traveling with two

As Bobby mentioned in his Sunday Summary, our family traveled to St. Louis this last weekend. It's funny to watch how slowly, but surely, Alice and Robert's lives become more entwined as they learn to play with each other and enjoy activities together. Here they are standing on side-by-side chairs brushing their teeth (please excuse the awkward picture-of-a-mirror-image thing going on...I'll take a photography course one of these days and learn better strategies for awkward spaces and terrible lighting):

Then later, when all the playing was done and we were finally heading home, they were both exhausted. Robert literally couldn't keep his eyes open. He blew weaker and weaker notes until his head drooped and the harmonica slowly slipped from his hands. Sweet, sweet sleep.

Alice wasn't far behind him. She stayed awake long enough to enjoy some of our traditional temple-trip-gas-station-slushie drink, but soon she was having trouble keeping her eyes open, too. She took a couple more bites of cheesy popcorn with her eyes closed, then let one cheese-coated hand fall to the side while the other rested comfortably in the popcorn bowl.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Well, this week has been some what normal. About the only thing that was out of the ordinary is that we went to the temple on Saturday. Driving for 3 hours with the kids is never a lot of fun, but Alice and Robert seemed to have a good time. We stayed in a hotel friday night, something that Alice always loves. Because she and Robert share a room when we stay in a hotel, and Alice does not want the light off and Robert cannot have it on we let Alice stay up a little and watch TV while Robert falls asleep. She mentioned the following to us on Saturday "I watched TV yesterday and I watched TV today. We could buy a TV and then have one at our house." Its not like the girl doesn't watch a lot of stuff. It is just all on the computer.

On a side note the raspberries are ready.

YUM!!!!

Swimsuit (and pink balloon)

I did it! With the generous guidance (and expert serger tools) of Marianne, I fashioned a snazzy new swimsuit for Alice in a matter of hours. An hour to cut (I'm paranoid, okay?), three hours to sew. Lots of new skills gained. Here it is!

 

You may be wondering about the thing on her head. Well, that was Alice's idea. She saw the extra swimsuit fabric lying there and thought it would make lovely "swimming hair." She showed me where to sew it so she could have two long ponytail-like strips running down her back, draped over her shoulders, or flying in the breeze however she likes.When she discovered the headband could also be used to make an enormous, wavy poof in the front, she was hooked. She wore it off and on the rest of the day...including 3 hours in the car on our way to St. Louis and right up to the hotel front desk. The woman behind us in line commented on Alice's outfit and asked about the "scarf". Alice politely informed her it was hair for swimming. The woman smiled and nodded, unsure how to respond.

Anyway, Alice likes it as an outfit. Will she swim in it? That has yet to be tested. The shirt is a little too short (I should have predicted that!), so I'll be fashioning a little ruffle to go along the bottom. Alice likes the ruffle idea and asked about adding ruffles to the pants to make them more beautiful, too. Um.

Harmonica Playin' Fool

Remember when I told you Robert likes to work on things until he gets it right? Well, I brought him a harmonica from my trip to North Carolina a couple weeks ago. He still experiences a lot of frustration trying to put the harmonica into its box and shutting the lid (in and out, in and out), but he finally figured out how to play it! One day, he just breathed out a few wispy notes and surprised himself silly. Big, open-mouthed grin. No stopping him since. He's grown louder and more varied, sometimes belting out surprisingly bluesy chords. That's the surprising benefit of a harmonica: no matter how you make the notes, they're roughly harmonic and almost musical. Not nearly as jarring or tinny as the xylophone we gave him for Christmas.

Anyway, he waddles around the living room holding the harmonica to his mouth with one hand while breathing chords in and out, in and out, in and out. The noise doesn't bother me because it's almost musical and he's just so darn cute playing it. I took a video. Alice and Bobby are playing with a bubble house in the background. Remember making bubble houses during our childhood summers? They rock, even for noise-averse wind-haters like my kids :)

Neighborhood Barbeque

Our neighbors and friends host a little neighborhood BBQ every summer. We attended it this weekend and let a couple of preschoolers (Alice and Spencer) man the camera for a while. I think they captured the spirit of this casual, friendly, and fun gathering quite nicely, even if they didn't exactly document the attendees or the sequence of events...or even a pleasant expression on my face (to be fair, it took Alice a million years to take that photo!):