Eating carrots

Vivian loves carrots. She prefers them cooked, the soft way, but she'll even knaw at raw ones too.

I cooked a whole batch of them for her today and she sat happily munching with Daddy.

Pip prefers his carrots with hummus, which means he can't have them on the couch ... (at least when we're watching ... the neverending stream of food stains on the sofa is pretty solid evidence that these rules are not followed when we walk away).

Rainy days

We had a spat of summer rain and Pip and Viv got all dressed up in their rain outfits. Viv sloshed into Pip's hat, last year's slicker and boots, and Pip proudly wore his fireman rain outfit. They were both quite excited to get out in the rain.



Once outside Pip insisted he carry the umbrella, and was a site to be seen bobbing down the street with it!

The mechanic

It was finally time for an oil change for the Pilot. Went over 7K without needing a change (it tells you and you aren't supposed to take it early). Pip was very excited to see Dan the Mechanic at the shop. He was such a cooperative fellow all morning. When we got there he warmed right up to Dan (who he's been seeing since he was born everytime we go for oil changes). He gave Dan about 25 high-fives -- very hard and Dan joked with Pip that he needed to get ice for his hand, which Pip loved.

Then they gave Pip a strip of bubble wrap for Pip to jump on and Pip went NUTS! Vivian even tried but she doesn't have jumping down yet and she didn't weigh enough to burst them just walking. But Pip made tons of fireworks noises for both of them. Pip was sad to leave, but we'll be back Wednesday with the other car and Pip is already to give Dan high-fives again!

Here they are waiting for it to finish up:



Later we went to Mom's group where Charlie had a new octagonal train table .. complete with Cranky the crane and a car wash. This required lots of playing with, but they did stop to pose for a quick shot.


Just as we were about to leave, Pip and friends ran upstairs to cavort without adults and found a dragon stuffed animal. Pip went berserk. All of a sudden all four boys are running down the stairs, Pip in the lead with the dragon above his head, in full our ROOOAAAARRRSSS!!!! They did about 50 dragon laps until I had to confiscate it because it was time to leave. Pip told me on the ride home that it was a bad dragon (because it was red) but it was lots of fun to play with. He's apparently an expert in such matters and can play with these dangerous beasts without getting hurt. I think Daddy's expertise in this area may be rubbing off. At any rate, Pip said there are no dragon's in Melrose so I don't have to worry.

Annika's Birthday Party

Pip and Vivie were both a bit sick this weekend, which made for a sad and generally cranky weekend. Pip was not as sick as Vivie, but he was congested and spent Saturday morning in a near perma-trantum/crying fit. He nearly didn't make it to Annika's birthday party, which would have been a travesty given what a blast he had.

He gave the girls rides on the motorcycle he found. This sweetie is Annika, the birthday girl:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUB3G_y6fL0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaMSFFgNqf4


He climbed a tree fort in her neighbor's back yard and played Pip the Pirate in it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vK9JXKm80I

He rode a water slide -- a HUGE water slide!


And he arranged for this Jeep to go into the repair shop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omL7hCGOGtA

Canobie with Aislinn and Tasha

On Wednesday we went to Canobie Lake park with Aislinn and Tasha. It was such a fun day at the amusement park. Pip loved the rides. Especially the horse carosel and fire engines.


They also ate cotton candy which made their tongues blue and bright pink.


Vivie declined to ride any rides, but had fun taking it all in and eventually passed out in her stroller.


I saw this ring toss game, which you only needed to get one ring on to win a huge prize. The rings were hard plastic and the bottles you were supposed to get them on were glass and in order to reach them the force of the through would generally bounce them off. So it was harder than it looked. Somehow, Aislinn was a dead-ringer for it (pun intended)! She won it twice in a row. Even the lady who ran the stand was in shock!


Click here for all the pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/NatalieBalas/200908AugustCanobieLakePark?authkey=Gv1sRgCLresPmu2f3fEQ&feat=directlink

Hood Pond

For Mom's group this week we took a trip to Hood Pond, which was a great spot. The pond had bouys marking where the water got a bit deeper, so Pip could play safely on the sand side of the bouys. Pip started off wearing his socks because of a nasty boo-boo on his one toe where he was continiuously stubbing it. After a while they were too much and came right off.




He also had a blast "whole-body swimming":




Here are 2 videos of the pround boy swimming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLxXHhe3Ork

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5dHcuFopGY

Stylin

One step away from Risky Business here!



And Vivian is cool as a cucumber with her summer hats:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw3Mt9w_-CM

Summer Block Party

This weekend was our summer block party. It was a very pleasant day. Not too hot, but hot enough for lots of water fun. I made a zillion water balloons which Pip and Brian made short work of (I missed seeing them pop a single one, so it must have taken a very short time to do!) and then played in the big tub where I had them floating.



Later Viv was very impressed with her Dad's Oingo Boingo skills.


And she made friends with Charlie. And all the other kids too ... this ones a flirt for sure. She actually got annoyed later in the day that some of the kids would not leave her alone. There's definitely a lesson in there for her teen years!


Pip found some pom poms and managed to look menacing even when cheer leading.


There are lots more pictures of all the fun here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/NatalieBalas/200908AugustBlockParty?authkey=Gv1sRgCPWB-7Hr16j8iQE&feat=directlink

Balancing Act

Vivie was engaged for quite a long time with these tennis balls. After she mastered getting them in and out of the tennis ball container, she decided to try to pick up three at a time. This required a lot of concentration and balance. Eventually she got it down and added walking to the mix so she could strut her skills.





After the 3 were mastered, she contemplated 4. There were several attempts, but at the end of the day maybe it was too much!

Pip reads his first book aloud

We got wind that Pip got picked to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to his class at school last week. Cynthia (his teacher) said he did an excellent job and was so proud of himself. We were duly impressed because we have never had that book at home and Phil and I have not read it ourselves.

So when we were at the library this week I figured I'd pick it up and see if Pip would read it to me. He jumped at the opportunity and luckily Phil grabbed the camera just in time. This is literally his first rendition reading a full book to us with no prompting what-so-ever. If you get the book he actually got the words nearly perfect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMhd2xRfmNg

If they made bumper stickers that said "My kid just read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to me", I think I'd put one on my car.

Tomatoes

Vivian is giving Pip a run for his money on the tomato crop. She goes into some sort of a tomato frenzy when she's outside, popping cherry tomatoes right and left. Here I gave her a big one just to see what she'd do with it. She ate the whole thing!

Camping

Saturday night Phil and Pip camped out for the first time. Pip totally went with the flow. I didn't think they'd make it past 9:30, but Pip fell fast asleep (after copious stories from Daddy) at 9:15 and slept until the noisy birds woke him at 6am.

Here's a pre-camp interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxwli8ss9eA





And definitely the quote of the week when I snuck up on him later in the evening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f8FdQcs2OI

Diggers!

Saturday we took a family walk to DD for coffee and donuts and then attempted to play tennis for the first time. Didn't exactly work. Pip wanted to hit the ball but connected only 10% of the time and then got distracted by some puddles on the courts. Soon he and Vivie were running all over the place. Phil and I tried to play ourselves, but of course that made them mad and we had to give it up.

We walked over to the City Yard to check out some digger action. Pip preferred to watch from afar but Vivie was happy to plop down for a photo.