Outtake-tastic

I took some pictures of one of my friend’s children, and had my own children in tow.  Here are some of the outtakes, both posed (when I was trying to find a good light) and some random ones. N. and her buddy C.  I think we hope they will go to prom together someday so we can whip these pictures out to embarrass them.

Pretend Princesses

The girls were invited to their friend’s princess-themed birthday party.  Here are just a couple of the highlights.  The girls had a blast, and even the littlest one was into it.

K. and her friend, who realized their first names begin with the same letter.  Oh, the things that are exciting when you are 5!

K. leading her turn of “Simon Says.”  It was supposed to be “Princess Says,” but since K has played Simon Says before, she kept saying “Princess Simon Says…” and it was pretty funny.

Pebble Beach

A great feature of the place up north we stayed was the huge, rocky beach.  There was no shortage of digging and rock hunting, and even some brave splashing in the cool water.

Up North

We got to take a wonderful trip up north to spend some time with my dad’s side of the family.  It was beautiful, both in having nice scenery and in having great quality time with family.K. was particularly interested in her great aunts’ knitting (or “needling,” as she called it) and I can’t wait until she is old enough to learn some stitches!The weather was gorgeous (especially as I belatedly type this, when we’ve had weeks of weather being in the upper 90s).There was a great beach (very cold water, but fun if you are not swimming).  The kiddos spent a lot of time exploring.

We were also able to meet up with our cousins (my dad’s first cousin’s kids, who are my second cousins and whose kids are my daughters’ third cousins.  Confused?  We just call them cousins).  The girls were elated to have some other kids to play with, and their cousins were so sweet with them!The whole gang.K. and her cousin K., who are about 7 months apart in age.  Oh, how I wish we lived closer and could spend more time together!

The family!  Great-grandma is in the middle, surrounded by her family.  Such a fantastic time!

May Fun

One of the things the girls both look forward to is spending time at their grandparents’ houses.  At the end of May, we took a trip to see Grandma and Grandpa A.  Besides getting to spend some good quality time with them, the girls also spent a lot of time enjoying being outside—and driving toy cars.They drove both cars; N. was usually the passenger, but a happy and willing one at that.

There were many urgent tasks to attend to.

And great monsters that sometimes chased them.

But always time to stop and pose.

N: “Stop and wait right there!”

And I’ll see the sunglasses-bespectacled girls driving together again in high school (though N. might be closer in height to K by then?)

And some quality time was spent with cousin W. So fun!

Even the little N. took a turn driving.  Can you tell she has a wild streak?But the funniest part was that she’d get to a turn and not really be able to turn the steering wheel enough to make her happy, so she would stop, get out of the car, and turn the entire car to point in the correct direction.Here comes trouble.More cousin happiness!

We also got to go around the lake in the boat.  Here is the first passenger, ready to go!

K. was a good driver.  Cautious, but good.

N. took a turn driving.  Pretty much the first thing she did was to locate the accelerator.And once she discovered the button for the horn, that’s all she did the rest of the time.  The girl likes loud things.The girls took turns kayaking with Grandma.And even helped paddle.Froggy K. jumped in the lake.And N. just hung out.  Can you tell her teasing face is a response to Grandpa and Mom telling her that she had honked the horn enough?  She doesn’t honk it again, but sure makes us think she might.And the girls swam in the lake with Dad.  K. was quite brave.And both girls eventually floated on the float in the lake.  Surprisingly, N. was the more cautious of the girls.