Blakers "Trick"

A while ago Tony and Blake perfected their 'trick'. Tony has done this with each of our kiddos and has yet to drop one! He loves doing it. It is funny to see peoples reaction. Older people usually get really nervous. The girls clap and jump up and down and cheer. Usually Blake gets a big smile because he knows he's doing something fun. What a fun Daddy!

Our Ducks

We've made a tradition of going to feed the ducks each Sunday after church. There is a fun little lake about 1/2 mile away that is filled with HUGE koi fish and home to lots of ducks, geese and birds. Its been great to take a family walk and the girls really enjoy feeding the animals. This Sunday we got to take Uncle Jeff with us. He took some really fun pictures of the kids. I love their expressions and uniqueness. I was excited to get a family picture as well. It is our first in a couple months.

Splash Park

The one thing Uncle Jeff wanted to do with the girls is take them swimming. Since it is still too cold none of the public pools are opened yet (today was 99 degrees). We found a fun splash park nearby. The girls didn't really play in the water as much as run around it. Kind of disappointing but luckily Jeff is easy going.

I was excited to find this splash park because it is something I can actually do with all three kids this summer. Tony's been saying I should take them swimming but how do you take a baby, a 3 year old non-swimmer and a 5 year old who does okay swimming? This way we can all get cooled off but I don't have to worry about someone drowning!

Nuncle Jeff

Tony's brother Jeff came into town on Friday afternoon and the girls have loved having him. We went to Chuck E Cheese and the girls were in heaven. As you can tell from the pictures Jeff is a really good sport. He and Tony had almost as much fun playing the games as the girls. Even Blake got to ride a ride or two. We are so excited to have Jeff here and cant wait to have more fun.

For those of you who know Jeff, notice how I never referred to him as Uncle Jiffy (like we usually do)? We are making an effort to treat him as the adult that he is, not little Jiffy! We realized we needed to stop when Aliya started to call him Uncle Deffy (she still cant pronounce her J's). Isn't it crazy how you can be an adult but once you get around family you are immediately returned to your birth order? When do we officially grow up? I am still waiting to feel like an adult and I am the mother of three and drive a freakin' minivan!

Ballerina Girl

Aliya just started Ballet and it is so stinkin cute. She has wanted to go to dance class for so long and she loves it. She was so excited to get to wear her "ballerinatard" to class (this white one she basically wore almost every day for 4 months -- she now just wears it every couple days!). I was worried that she wouldn't listen and would just twirl the whole time. I ended up being pleasantly surprised that she actually does what she is told (now why she wont do that for me is another story). After her last class I had another Mom come up and tell me that she loves to watch Aliya because she is so animated. Where she gets that from I'll never know : )! They are going to do a little recital at the end of there 8 week session. I am so excited to see how she does on stage. She will either ham it up or play shy. We shall see!

If you give a mouse a cookie . . .

Last night for Nation Turn Off your TV week, the Kindergarten teachers had a special storytime session at the library.  All of the stories were about mice then the last story they read was "If you give a mouse a cookie".  The storytime lady would make the BEST nursery leader. She was so animated and fun. The kids loved her and she kept me quite entertained.

Tae has a fun group of kids in her class. The group picture is of Taeya and some of her fellow classmates with their teacher, Mrs. Brown. The last one is of Taeya and her friend Kiley. I was really impressed with all the activities this library has available. 

Taeya lost her first tooth last night and I am kind of sad. Having her go to all day Kindergarten was a piece of cake but this first lost tooth has hit me. She is getting too big! It has been loose for a week or two and Tony has been threatening to pull it out for a couple days. I kept saying it wasn't ready (I think it was me who wasn't ready). Last night she really wanted to get it out so I said fine, lets do it!

Tony originally tied a piece of floss around her tooth. Aliya, being her usual mischievous self, somehow got a hold of the string and gave it a nice little tug. After that Tony was smart enough to tie it to the door (I had to keep her away from the door because she kept trying to shut it). Then he told Tae she could shut the door when she was ready. Little tyke kept walking forward as she'd shut the door. Poor Tony kept telling her it was going to hurt and that she didn't need to do it if she wasn't ready (can you tell he had some major issues with his teeth as a kid?). All of a sudden she shut the door and out it popped. We were all shocked, including Taeya. The little sucker was just dangling from the floss! Aliya's face was one of pure disgust when she saw the gaping hole in Taeya's mouth.

Taeya was so thrilled!  In fact, she didn't want the Tooth Fairy to come last night because she wanted to look at it more today. Thanks to her Grandpa Bruce, she 'somehow' got the idea that a good Tooth Fairy would bring her $10 for her first tooth. I think the Grandpa Tooth Fairy might have to cough up the $10 cuz this Tooth Fairy is way too cheap!

Go-Carts n More

 On Saturday we went to Cracker-Jax for a little healthy competition. Tony loves talking smack and what better way to have a little competition then on a minuscule boat! Aliya rode with Tony and had a blast crashing into everybody. Tae and Debbie got into the bumpin' boat action too. Poor Matt was all alone but seemed to have fun. 

The adults also got to race go-carts (which Tony wants me to add he won). Tae wanted to try driving her own car. She was excited to get the purple car. After a lap or two she started to get cocky and drive like her Dad swerving back and forth. Guess they do pay attention to the way we drive (I kept expecting to see her flip the kid off behind her! Not that she'd pick that up from me or anything!). 

We loved having them here for the short time. The kids love getting books read to them by Grandma, getting their nails done and building a fort with 'nuncle Matt. I've got a couple days to get them back on a schedule before Uncle Jeff comes to play on Friday. Who knows what fun adventures we can have with him!

Grandma and 'nuncle Matt

Tony's Mom and brother Matt came into town on Thursday so we decided to take a trip to the Wildlife World Zoo on Friday. The girls loved it of course!  Blake was pretty chill except at the petting zoo. He wasn't a big fan of the little goats. 

Aliya was in her glory with all the little animals in the petting area! She loved getting to feed them out of her hand. She enjoyed getting to hold them until we got yelled at to not pick up the animals.   

Tae got to feed a Giraffe which made her happy (see the video)! She wasn't too sure about it when she saw this monstrous tongue heading towards her. Of course we got yelled at again because we had our poor kid danglin' from a log trying to feed it. We were told the barriers are there for a reason (obviously they haven't been anywhere with a Dickamore boy - um, I mean man).

Uncle Matt tried to get a little smootch from an Ostrich. Guess it has been a while Matt!

Its only just begun . . .

We are lucky Blake is such a laid back baby. He is going to have to be to survive his sisters. They absolutely adore him and are constantly in his face and touching him. The other day Aliya thought it would be fun to dress him up. Luckily she could understand that all her dresses would be too big but the smart little tyke found something else that would work! We figure this will be a good blackmail picture for when he grows up. I am constantly telling Aliya that no, Blake cannot wear any of your lipstick or make-up. I figure its only a matter of time before I am posting a picture of my son in full drag!