The Purdy's are Gone

I miss this cute girl and this cute boy:

And this cute mom:

And this cute dad:

And this cute brother and sister-in-law:

We had way too much fun!  We are officially partied out!!  Right after we said our goodbyes to Mom and Dad and Kenda and Dade, Raleigh said, "Okay.  Now we can go pack our suitcases to go to Jess and Dannii's house."  She's ready!  And when we got Choobs up after they left, the first thing she said was, "Dade?"  She's been looking for him ever since!  Maybe so she can give him one of these:

We love you guys and miss you!  

We're a Little Busy . . .

But we're having lots of fun.  More to come.

My Wake-Up Call This Morning

I feel this tapping on my arm, and Raleigh says, "I think Grammy and Grandpa Bear are REALLY getting ready to come right now.  See, the clock says, 'FIVE-FIVE-SIX!'"  Later, when I got up to go work out, I was putting on my sock when I felt a wad of something in the toe of my sock.  I was like, "What the . . . ?" and pulled out Madeline's pink butterfly underwear.  Those little practical jokesters!  They like to do things like that.  They often like to fold Dallas' shirts inside out or put the wrong socks together.  Here are the little goofsters themselves:

Notes to Dallas

Here are some little bits of preciousness from Raleigh and Madeline to Dallas:

Dear Dad,

I love you.  I know you are working hard and smiling.  You are the right dad I should have!  I hope you had a good day and learned something.  Have a good sleep.

Love, Raleigh

I love Dad

(from Madeline)

Yes, Dallas, we sure do love you!

Bubbles, Road Rash, and Trader Joe Goodness

I'm a big fan of blowing bubbles if I'm not the one doing it.  And tonight for FHE we held one of our favorite balcony activities: Bubble Blowing.  I got to watch!  This is the first time Kensington has blown bubbles for herself.  It was a proud moment.  Look for the bubble beard!

If you watch the video until the end, it shows our view to the East and North.  

In other news Madeline totally biffed it in the parking lot at Trader Joe's on Friday.  She was running in her flip flops, and one of them curled under, and her whole body kind of rolled up onto her face with her entire body in the air except her left cheek.  I saw the whole thing in slow motion (at least it seemed like slow motion) with this look on my face like, "What the . . . ?"  It happened so fast yet so slowly at the same time.  I'm one of those people who just kind of FREEZES when something bad is happening.  I'm pretty much useless in emergencies.

And speaking of emergencies, while we were in Trader Joe's, Raleigh and Kensington had their own little disaster.  I was pushing Choobs in one of those little buggies, and I was looking for a certain cut of meat in the meat section.  (Which, by the way, I always feel a little self-conscious looking at the meat there or using the actual shopping bags provided by the store.  I feel a little carnivorous/anti-green.  Back to the topic at hand.)  So when I looked back to the girls, the shopping cart was in this (again, slow motion) sideways plunge with Raleigh squashed underneath, and two shoppers and one store worker were attempting to catch it while I looked on with another "What the . . . ?" look on my face.  Luckily, the store worker caught the buggy, and Raleigh and Choobs escaped unscathed.  Besides Raleigh's pride, of course.  Poor kid.  But I would like to thank Trader Joe's for the following DREAMY recipe.  It was such a good sample, I bought the ingredients right then and there.

Trader Joe Smoothie Goodness:

1 can light coconut milk (14 oz?)

1 pint mango-tangerine sorbet

1/2 bag frozen mango/blueberry/raspberry blend (1 cup?)

Dump.  Blend.  Share.

Our 4th of July Bash

Our 4th of July was a Par-TAY!!  Since Dallas had to work during the day, us girls decided to make the best of it and go all out.  In the morning I painted the girls' faces like I used to do in the good old days for the kids at the PTC parade.  

Raleigh had USA on one cheek and a firecracker on the other.

Kensington's star looked more like a starfish.  And she ended up peeling it off anyway.

Madeline had a flag on one cheek with red, white, and blue in it, and we think it looked like an actual flag for a different country.  

We went to Harbor Fest in Norfolk, Va, (about 10 minutes away), and here are some of the pictures:

This is Madeline with Carlee, our cute, cute new friend from Utah.  She is only here in Virginia for a few weeks, but we've had a fun time getting to know her.  She totally reminds me of my BFF Jenny!  The festival was on the harbor at the newly-renovated Towne Point Park in downtown Norfolk at the waterfront.  There were tons of boats in the marina and a few that we got to tour.

That big gray-looking building in the back is actually a gigantic Naval boat.  We didn't go inside, but there is one you can tour for free at the Nauticus Museum, which is right next to the park we went to.

What is this, a tug boat?  It reminds me of a cartoon.

This boat looked like a pirate ship.  While we were on it, the ladder holding it to the dock fell off somehow, and we started floating away.  I was hoping we could go for a little voyage, but unfortunately, the crew fixed the ladder.



Between boats, the girls decorated cupcakes to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Norfolk mermaid, which is basically the city symbol.  And it's OOOOGLY!  Just believe me.  Just not very Ariel-ish, which is what I would want to look like if I were a mermaid.

The girls were so nice to share their cupcakes with Choobs.  By this time we were all sweaty, sticky, and sunburned.

Awesome, huh?  I love beaches and boats.  Here is our favorite boat: the Cisne Branco.  It was a Brazilian Navy ship with an all-Portuguese crew.  I wish Dallas had been with us!  I tried speaking to them in Portuguese but didn't get very far.  It was fun.  I loved the contrast of the stark white, navy blue, Brazilian green, and wood grain.  It was very classy.  "Order and Progress!"

Raleigh and Madeline at the helm, steering.

We saw these guys getting ready for an "Anything that Floats Race," but by the time it started, we were too far away to see who was winning.  It looked pretty clever.

Our patriotic girl watching the boat race.

The boardwalk.

We came home in time to get a little R&R for the rest of the day.  The girls appropriately watched an American Girl movie, and we got ready to go to our work BBQ.  Here's Raleigh and Madeline spacing out watching the movie:

We were so excited to be able to spend time with Dallas RELAXING!!  (We haven't done very much of that this past year.)  Everyone met at a park where we enjoyed catered Quizno's, watched the boys compete in a giant tug-of-war (Dallas' team won both times-yeah!), dodged water balloons, and played in the grass while the dads played kickball.  We painted the kids' faces, watched lightning bugs, and played around with badminton racquets and balls.  

Probably the best part of the evening was racing home to catch the fireworks from our apartment building.  We counted several shows just on the drive home (since we left the park at 9:15 pm), and we made it just in time to see a GRAND show from the eleventh floor!  We crammed a bunch of work friends into the single guys' apartment and enjoyed the Spirit of America!  I must admit, I was more mesmerized by the girls' faces than by the fireworks - it was priceless!  They were so animated and talkative!  We counted seventeen other firework shows that we could see all along the oceanfront from the balcony window - it was AWESOME!  Then we had root beer floats, stayed up way too late, and I completely missed church the next day because of a killer migraine.  But HAPPY 4th of JULY!!

Remember This Little Baby Girl??

She just turned SEVEN!!  Details to come.  Too much partying=not much blogging.  But we'll have lots of pictures soon of our 4th of July bash, our Princess Ballerina Tea Party (which, incidentally, was not Raleigh's birthday party), and our Beautiful Butterfly Birthday (which WAS Miss Raleigh's party).  I know you can't wait!!  

In other great news: Madeline says, "I can't stop a have-it of picking my nose!  It's just a-hardest!"  And in another revelatory quandary: "Mom . . . why do we have bum cheeks?"

Tea Party

Next week I am hosting a tea party here at our place.  I think we should do this activity to make it a tee party.  

How Much do You Love Chick-Fil-A?

This much?  I think we do.

Today's Quotes

Madeline: "I like to walk better than run because it wore's out my energy to run."

Raleigh: "Can I have a hairy-less peach?"  

Dionne: "No, the nectarines are all gone."

Raleigh: "Well, then can I have a hairy peach?"

Tonight Madeline has been up with a fever of 101.  (I really hope our 4th of July plans stay intact!)  She was delirious for a few minutes after getting up, and then she decided that she needed to go to the bathroom.  Then she came out and started looking all over the place for her "polygramate soap"  so that she could wash her hands.  (Pomegranate soap)  What a gal!

Today

Thanks to my fabulous new couponing skills, we enjoyed mini-Drumsticks at Chic Beach today.  I guess that's the "local" name for East Beach.  It was named after a girl named Chic Something-or-Other who ran a little food stand down by the beach.  I know this because I read it in the newspaper today.  I love the newspaper.

How can you get a face like this within the first few licks of your ice cream cone?  Well, I guess it was a little melty.  Nothing like cleaning your face with saltwater from the ocean . . . or should I say the Chesapeake Bay.

MMMMmmmm.  We went with a fun group of girls/moms and their kids.  Madeline was having a little trouble with people stepping on her towel.  She said later, "I was angry in my heart, but I didn't let the angry come out of my heart."  I asked her, "How did you not let the angry come out of your heart?"  And she said, "Cuz I new that I shouldn't let the madness come out.  It's really bad manners."  I was like, "Yeah, you're right, Madeline.  That's called patience."

And here's the bearded woman herself.

It's been a great day to kick off our 4th of July weekend, one of my all-time favorite holidays.  This is where we'll be on the 4th.  Now is that something to get excited about, or what???

Tonight the girls lay wide-eyed in bed while I captivated them with my profoundly inaccurate, but well-intended telling of the American Revolution.  Their bedroom became a holy place as we talked of pride for our forbears and gratitude for our freedoms.  We put our hands to our hearts as I taught them how to show respect for our flag.  Madeline was bursting with questions: 

In reference to the War: "Did they get to go to church on Sunday?"  "Where did the kids go when [Martha] went to go visit her husband in the war?"  "Did they see the flag when all of the dust came falling to the ground?"

In reference to festivities: "Do fireworks burn your hands?"

Then I sang all of the patriotic songs in our hymnbook to them, and I hope all of our neighbors heard us.  I want to make sure EVERYONE around here is ready for the 4th.