Fourth of July Weekend

We went to my Aunt Sherry and Uncle Scott's house on July 2nd to celebrate Sherry's birthday. Good food, good drinks, and good fun was had by all!

Kyri with the birthday girl and Uncle Scott

Tessa loves her big cousin Aubry, who always makes her laugh!

Aubs was very particular about wearing her hair down that day, so we can't see her silly grin under there. They were so cute, though!

Playing bags in the backyard.

She and Aubry preferred to walk on top of the boards and drop the bags in.

It was easier that way.

Tessa and Auntie Kay

Sandy and her special shoes!

Kyri and Aunt Susie

Opening presents...love how the hat still has the price tag on it!

The Burritts minus one

On the actual Fourth of July, we went to the Villa Park parade and then back to the Boston's for their annual BBQ.

Kyri took her usual seat on Uncle B's lap with Aubry for the parade.

Mia and Tessa preferred the shady seats.

If you look closely, Aubry is giving me a pretty clear signal to show how she feels about me taking her picture while she's trying to enjoy her sucker. Aubry Rae!!

These two were performing in the center of the circle.

Love this shot!

Auntie Kay went and got Granmda Karen's awesome exersaucer for Tess to play in.

She loved it!

Pool Time

The Fam hanging out

Tessa and Grandma Nancy

They were cracking each other up about something.

Secret cousin language I think.

Pretty Mia

Uncle B, The Bubble Master

He may have had more fun than the kids with these giant bubbles!

A Busy Week

Although Kyle has been going into work quite a bit since school let out, he officially starts his new position this Tuesday. So, since this was his last week before he becomes a 12 month employee for the rest of his life, he took a couple of days off to do some fun things with us.

Monday: We went to Brookfield Zoo.

Using her binoculars to get a closer look at the lions.

I took Kyri into the butterfly exhibit for the first time. This is her happy place. I've never seen her so excited. I think she thought she was in a Tinkerbell movie with all of the butterflies floating around her. I could barely get her out of there.

She walked around the whole time with her arm out.

She wanted one to land on her so badly!! (It never happened.)

Tuesday: Ballet Class and Story time at the park with volunteers from the library. Ballet went better this week. She didn't get as frustrated and had more fun with it. By story time, however, both girls were running a low fever and had a bad head cold. Poor girls.

Wednesday: They felt much better so Kay and I took the girls to Pirate's Cove.

Kyri and Aubry got to ride in their own paddle boats.

We were so impressed with how well they were able to paddle!

Kyri road on her first Merry-Go-Round all by herself.

This was by far her favorite ride!

This train was her least favorite ride. She couldn't get her arms to move fast enough to keep up. Notice her black eye. It was from a mosquito bite that she got Monday night. For some reason it puffed up and turned all black and blue!

This was a train that went through a jungle of stuffed animals. : )

Tessa was such a trouper.

She spent the whole day in the stroller and was a happy camper the whole time.

The second time Kyri rode this boat it was getting close to nap time.

She preferred to play in the water rather than paddle.

Before we left, Kyri begged me to let her go back on the Merry-Go-Round again. Each time I went to get her off, she said she wasn't done yet. I could see her talking to her horses, which she named. She must have ridden 7 times in a row before I got dizzy watching and decided it was time to go.

Once we got home, Kyri went right to sleep and Tessa was happy to be out of her stroller and under the cool fan!

Thursday: Kyle and I took our girls to Cosley Zoo.

Kyri LOVED to watch the ducks in their peaceful habitat.

Tessa LOVED to watch all the people!

Petting the sheep

My TB and me

This llama kept posing for the pictures I was taking. So funny!

My silly girls!

Friday: Swimming at Grandma B and Grandpa Larry's Pool and Taste of Lombard

Grandma Nancy gave Kyri this cool floaty when she was first born,

and this year it finally fits her!

It worked out great.

Kyri loved having the freedom to swim on her own.

She seemed like such a big girl in the pool!

Then we went up to the Taste of Lombard for dinner.

Of course we had to try out some of the rides...

We're going to miss having Kyle off during the summers!

Updates from the Past Week

We went out to visit Grandma Nancy before they left for their trip. The girls wore their matching shirts that a family friend gave them, so we had to get a picture.

Kyle's Grandma turned 94!

Tessa's starting to get fussy when others hold her, but she was all smiles with Aunt Bobbi.

Kyri started her first ballet class!! I have to admit, I got a little emotional about this.

She was sooo excited to go to class.

Here she is at the bar before class started. She really wanted to have fun at class, but I'm not sure she did. I learned that Kyri is a bit of a perfectionist. She's really hard on herself, and when she couldn't do some of the moves exactly right, she actually started crying. She's the youngest one in the class, and while she can talk better than most of the other girls in it, her motor skills just aren't as great yet. Poor girl wants to do everything that the other girls are doing, but doesn't understand why she can't quite get it right. We tried to practice during the week, but she usually would just get frustrated and start doing something else. We may have started a year too early... Hopefully the next couple of classes are more fun!

At home, she continues to use her imagination more and more. She is really into telling stories right now. I've tried to capture some on tape to remember this adorable stage. She actually creates better plots than some of my third graders do, and she includes a beginning, middle, and ending. There are transition words like 'suddenly' and 'finally', and what cracks me up is that she includes language like "said the girl" after she gives her characters dialogue! I want to try and turn some of these into books this summer.

She also plays pretend all the time. Everything she comes across gets turned into a family, "This is the mommy grape, this is the daddy grape, and this is the baby grape." Her bean bag chair is her "nest" and she is a baby bird. Aubry is the mommy bird, but yesterday I actually got to be the mommy bird!!

These next two pictures show her playing "bretend mommy". She treats her babies just like we treat Tessa, and we hear her saying the same phrases we use to calm the babies down. (That crown came from Aunt Sherry who stopped by for a visit last week. It is on ninety percent of the day. She even wore it to Jewel this morning. When she wears it, she is a princess, I am the queen, and Kyle is the King. He is loving that!)

On to my Big Girl Tessa B. I keep the camera on the table so I can grab it quick because every time I walk by Tessa, I swear she looks bigger. It amazes me how much she is growing and getting stronger. I want to capture all of the new things she is doing.

She still LOVES to eat. During the day, she'll eat every 2.5 - 3 hours. She becomes a bear when she is ready for her bottle, but afterwards she is back to her smiley self. She is starting to hold her bottle on her own, which I'm loving because it frees me up a bit!

Tessa does not like to lay on her back on the floor to play anymore. As soon as I lay her down, she instantly flips herself over to her belly. This is fine for about 1-2 minutes. Then she gets mad and starts to cry until someone picks her up. This is a little frustrating, because that basically means that we can't lay her down for more than 2 minutes anymore! She is getting much stronger on her belly now, though.

Here she is sitting in front of her gym since she refuses to lay under it like a baby anymore. She is clearly a big girl!

And this week we got the exersaucer out of our storage room. She is LOVING it! Since she loves standing, this is perfect for her right now. I just keep changing up the hanging toys to try and keep her interested.

Tessa has a pretty short attention span these days, so I find myself holding her quite a bit while she gums up a toy. EVERYTHING goes into her mouth, and she pretty much is a slimy, spit-up stained mess all day long (as are we). She's the cutest mess I've ever seen, though! I remember this stage from Kyri. Time to pull out the bibs!

Love spending all this time with my girls. Now, hopefully we'll actually have some summer weather next week so we can get outside and play!