Moving On Up!

     Ever since Emily's Cousin, Eliza, got a "Big Girl Bike with training wheels for her birthday in March that is all Emily has wanted! But we have been able to miraculously hold her off a bit. And for those of you who don't know this about us, WE LOVE THE GOODWILL, and our kids love it too! We go there about once every week or two just to look around and the girls can't get enough of it!! And so one of those days in June we were looking around and Daddy lucked up and found this cute little pink and purple tricycle!! Emily was in LOVE!! Of course, before she could ride it needed quite a bit of TLC:) So we brought it home, washed it, shined it, changed a tire and got some training wheels!! Emily was thrilled, and I think it made it even better that she was able to help with each stage of getting her bike ready!! Our neighborhood was going to be having a bike parade on the morning of July 4th so our goal was to have it ready by then!! We worked and worked and finally it was ready!! And Emily was so excited, and proud as a little peacock, that she got to ride in the Bike parade with her new bike and helmet!! 

     

       And, you know us, we took pictures each step of the way, for memories sake, ya know?:)

BEFORE we started to work on the bike:)

 

After One Cleaning!!

After a thorough handle bar and wheel scrub:)

Working on the training wheels!!

Another Group Shot!

And FINALLY we made it to the parade!!!

Haley in her decorated tricycle:)

And here is Emily, Decorated with her helmet and all!!

It's SO NICE when......

....it's not A MILLION DEGREES outside and you can actually get outside and have some fun!! And then on those million degree days it's nice to have a covered porch to bring your outside fun into the shade, or simply an air conditioned home where we can play comfortably inside!!!  

    For those of you not in VA right now, we have been experiencing a crazy heat wave for about the last 2 weeks! But over the last 2 days it has actually cooled down quite a bit!! And when I say cooled down, I mean that it is 90 degrees outside instead of 109!! And believe it or not that makes ALL the difference:)

     So over these last few weeks we have been doing everything we can to not burn up and not go stir crazy in the house either! And sometimes I even remembered to bring the camera along:)

     We have been reading a lot, watching a few movies, doing lots of school time and art time and of course play time all together! And just recently Dooders reminded us about a GREAT idea, bringing our kiddie pool to our covered porch and letting the kiddos swim in it!! And it has worked out WONDERFULLY!! We are ALL enjoying that too:)  Anyway, such is life in July in Charlottesville, VA! We are surviving it and doing our best to enjoy the journey!!

Good Times, well....Mostly:)

Ethan is still a little unsettled with all of this sibling play time:)

Kisses make it all better!

Emily was being such a GREAT big helper and feeding Ethan while I was cleaning up a little after dinner!

Porch Pool Time!

And Putting the Slide, Table and Chairs in the Pool was a DOUBLE BONUS!

Ethan, surviving his FIRST July in Charlottesville!

We don't have an official "water table" so the girls made their own!

And it brought on some GOOD TIMES!

And then there was the slide, that also brought on some fun times!

Emily, just chillin' in the pool!

Another activity that we have been enjoying are Picnics on the Porch!!

Bring out the blankets, the kiddos, the food and it's a Good Time!

Cheese!

Ha! Great Shot!!

And then there were the FLIES and the Secada Killers! They made for a short picnic on the porch today, that is for sure!

Ethan and Haley were definitely side tracked by the insect infestation, but Emily was just as excited as ever to be outside!

Gone Peach Pickin' Once Again!

     Our Family LOVES Peaches SOOO MUCH that we have already gone peach picking twice this season!! In my opinion there is not much better than walking through an orchard with a peach in hand searching for the best peach tree to pick your next one from!! I LOVE peaches and I am so happy that that loves has been passed on to our girls! 

     Even though we had a MAJOR STORM Friday night and the weather was due to be EXTREMELY HOT on Saturday I am glad that we got out to Chiles Orchard in Crozet to pick peaches on Saturday morning after a yummy pancake breakfast that Micah prepared! The girls lucked up and due to the storm we found a downed peach tree with LOTS of peaches to pick! However they got a little "peach happy" and we will have to wait a few days to eat or make jam out of the ones that are left! But it was a fun time and it was a perfect Saturday morning family activity before it got to hot and we spent the rest of the day inside!

Emily and the Strawberry!

Haley getting her photo with the strawberry!

Me and Ethan learning about the "Life of a Pumpkin"!

Our Precious Boy!

Emily, happy to have found this downed peach tree!

Haley takes her peach picking responsibility seriously!

Another small one for the bag!

And he's ready to go now!

Peaches have been picked and they are off!

Me and My Peach Pickers!

A family shot, while the girls enjoyed their last few bites!

SECOND Busch Gardens Trip of the Summer of 2012!!

     Originally we decided to head out to Busch Gardens for our second trip of the Summer this past Friday, but Thanks to some coaxing from Mimmi and Dooders and hearing the weather report from them we decided that it would be better to make a few schedule changes and make the trip this past Wednesday instead!! And what a WISE CHOICE it was!! Wednesday we got to enjoy beautiful weather, and wonderful temperatures in the low to mid 80s, whereas Friday it was 100+ degrees!! We would have cooked for sure!!

      It was a really wonderful day! And it was so fun to all be together! We are grateful that Mimmi and Dooders decided to make the trip with us again and it was even an "experience" that we ALL rode together in our van! It was quite the trip! We left about 8am and returned home about 10pm Wednesday night! It was a LONG Day! But, boy was it FUN! We all really enjoyed ourselves!!

        We got to spend some time together, some time apart, eat a picnic lunch, have Hardees biscuits for breakfast, grab McDonalds for dinner and BONUS, Ethan even enjoyed being in the stroller this time too, which really made it a happier trip for EVERY ONE (especially him and I) all the way around!! We got to ride rides, see lots of animals, take a trip on the Busch Gardens train, see a river dance show, and even eat an ice cream cone!! It was a Happy Day and we are looking forward to our next trip already!!!

Micah thought it would be a good idea, in case we lost anyone, to take pictures of us before leaving so that we would have current shots of what we looked like and what we wore!! Here is Micah and the kiddos!

Here I am with the kiddos!

Micah eating his very FIRST breakfast biscuit from Hardees!! I can't believe it took him almost 37 years to have this experience! This is what I grew up with, every amusement park trip always started with breakfast biscuits from Hardees! Not too healthy, but quick, easy and yummy!

The girls enjoyed looking at all of the horses in the stables when we first got to the park!

There is our happy boy chillin' in his stroller!

The girls on the Horses!! One of their all time favorite rides!!

Family Shot, by "The Tree!"

Liberty, the Bald Eagle!

Emily and I posing for a picture in front of some "Gray Wolves"!!

We went into a Bird Sanctuary and here are a few of the birds we saw!

An up close shot!

A Colorful Parrot!

These birds looked so bright and tropical!

Enjoying a little ride on the bench with the Hobby Horses!

Daddy and the Sit and Stand Stroller!!!

Emily being Silly!

And Haley following close behind!

Emily Marie posing after she ate her lunch!

Enjoying some relaxation in the shade before heading back into the park!

Micah and I got to ride a few rides together too this time, which was super nice!!  Here we are on the ROMAN RAPIDS!

Just finished a heart racing ride on Apollo's Chariot!

Slowing things down a bit on a train ride!

And a little kiss too!

Can't leave out a ride on the log flume!

And then of course there was the Le Catapult! Where I find I actually enjoyed it and didn't get sick at all when I focused and verbalized what I was focusing on as we spun around!

Haley riding high atop Dooders' shoulders for a brief moment!

Silly Times with Mimmi!

And last but certainly not least was Escape from Pompeii!!

Emily was so excited to ride this ride and since Haley didn't share the same excitement she found another little curly haired friend to ride with!! And they had so much fun!!

It was really cute to watch them! Once they got up, they couldn't figure out how to come back down!! 

Dooders and Mimmi on DaVinci's Cradle!! 

Busch Gardens is such a great place to take our family! And one of the things they are known for is all of their pretty gardens and flowers!! We sure LOVE it there!!