No, We're not Harry Potter Crazy

Megan and Russell went to Borders last night for the Deathly Hallows Release party. It was crazy; they didn't get home with the book until 1 a.m! They saw several members of the ward there, browsed the bookshelves (and accidently brought one home without paying for it; it went back this morning!), and had a blast. Megan won silly stuff for answering trivia questions right (though she said the guy asking couldn't answer any of her questions!) and had fun hanging out with friends.


She isn't reading the copy they bought last night, though. Russell read pretty much straight through the night (finished it at about 10 this morning), and I'm reading it next. However, we wisely reserved a copy of it at the library and so when the call came at 10:14 saying it was in, we rushed over to pick it up. She was sooooooo excited (the guy checking us out had a very bemused look on his face. When I asked, "Can you tell she's excited?", he gave a wry grin and said,"No.") and came home and has holed herself up in her room to read it.

I think I may have to remind her to eat.

Alison's Swimming Lessons

Video by Caitlyn

It's Portrait Time

So, we went and got the girls' pictures taken, as well as Megan's 11 year old ones (even though she's not quite 11). They turned out well, don't you think?

This was the one we chose to get prints of. It just had the best smiles.




But this one was a close runner-up.


Megan being "sassy"


This is the one we got the prints of (though she also really liked the one on the sidebar)


But this one was my favorite.

Care for a Spot of Tea?

Megan and Caitlyn decided that they wanted to invite their friends Katherine and Rachel (and their dolls) over for a bona fide tea party. I had made some yummy lemon and chocolate cream cupcakes for dessert on Sunday, and so they used those, some cantaloupe, and bread (cut in fancy shapes) and butter as the menu. They got all dressed up, but in real clothes (not dress-up ones) pulled from hand-me-down boxes (Megan was put out when she found a skirt she liked that actually fit: I was holding out on her!). And they had a lovely time.

Alison was feeling a bit left out, since they decided that the tea party was going to be a "big girls" only thing. So, we set up an "alternative" tea party for us non-invitees downstairs. The menu wasn't quite so grand: salami and popcorn, but hey, we were there for the company. :) Alison was "Rose" and I was "Jane". Kristen was just Kristen until she went down for a nap. It was fun.

Look, Grandma

What Daddy and his "adult helper" (Brother Haslam, though it could be debated who was the "adult" and who was the "helper") put together for us yesterday:


We love it! Thank you!

SUN!

It's been sunny and warm all week, and we've been outside as much as possible soaking it up. Thursday, we went to Riverside Park to play in the fountains and on their really cool playground. (We didn't bring swimsuits; maybe it was more fun that way!)

In the fountains:


Alison didn't like it too much, and Kristen didn't want to go near them at all, so we ate snack, instead.

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great day yesterday. We went to the breakfast at the church, Caitlyn had make-up swimming lessons (it wasn't raining!), we bought a flag and some flowers, we ate lunch, we went to the pool, we went out to eat (didn't feel like making burgers by ourselves, and you HAVE to have burgers for Independence Day), and then it started raining. Bleh. No fireworks. So, to make ourselves feel better, we recounted all the times it's rained over the years. Every three years since 2000, which is kind of interesting. Anyway. It was a fun day, nonetheless.

Here are some pictures from the pool. More are over at Flickr.

Friend Day

Caitlyn had invited a friend -- Madison -- from school over on Monday for a play date


and Megan, not wanting to be left out, invited not one, but two friends -- Elizabeth and Ari -- over, too.


Amazingly, everyone had a great afternoon, and it DIDN'T RAIN (yay!), though it was stuffy and humid. Even Alison had fun (Caitlyn and Madison were nice enough to let her play, too).


Though Kristen just watched.