Happy Fourth of July!

We spent the day of the fourth of July at the Denver zoo with cousins and friends. We had a great time, all the older siblings helped entertain the little siblings.











One particular highlight was Aspen and cousin H's first experience with Dipping Dots. Heaven!



It resulted in some very happy, and very worn-out cousins.



We had dinner at Aunt Dani and Nana's house, and then some friends joined us for the evening.



Aspen and I said goodbye to everyone, and she went down for a normal bedtime. Fireworks are probably still another year or two away for her and cousin H.



But Sabine and Daddy stayed up with the rest of the crew, Sabine even got to try sparklers for the first time, (with mixed results). But the fireworks were still a blast, and it was fun to spend a late night with friends and cousins!



On Sunday we went back to Aunt Dani and Nana's to celebrate cousin E's birthday.





The kids had a wonderful time running around outside and playing together.











Complete with cake and presents.









They even gave baseball a try, with some help from daddy and Uncle Jay.







(And then ran around some more.)







They were all worn out, in the best way possible, by the end of the day.

Happy Father's Day!

Now that we are nearing the halfway point of July, we need to quick acknowledge our favorite fathers, before we get even farther away from the actual celebration!

We spent the morning of actual Father's Day at home, with a few gifts:




(Inlcuding a very special one made at Lego camp and kept secretly wrapped up in Sabine's room for WEEKS)




And the best present, back scratches!

Then we went out to breakfast, and then over to Aunt Dani and Nana's for a fun afternoon with family and sushi for dinner!

Then we celebrated with Grandpa on Friday, with some good wine and steaks.



And that kind of wrapped up June! It was a good, blissfully healthy month.

Busy Summer!

We have fit a lot into this summer, already.

Sabine did soccer through both the rec center and the YMCA in May:



And then we've also been to the park:



The farm:


(Sabine planting some sunflower seeds she brought Farmer Bren and Farmer John as a gift, they let her plant them right by the entrance sign.)




(With Ms. Carol, her very first teacher there, over three years ago!)





The zoo:







Touch-A-Truck:



Which included fire hose demonstrations:



and helicopters:



A local art walk, where Sabine got to watch our friend Melissa throw pottery at a demonstration:



The Friday night Street Faire, with friends and Grandmom and Grandpa:






(Aspen was entranced with the jumping "ride." She kept trying to sneak in!)





The Farmer's Market:



Sabine had her first true camp experience through the YMCA, and got to ride a school bus for the first time, which she thought was awfully cool:



A cooking party:





A visit to Aunt Dani and Nana's soon-to-be new house:



And, as always, lots of play time at the old house. Fortunately, the youngest cousins are going through their shoe phase together.





And, of course, lots of play dates with friends.










And sometimes little sister is even included.



Sabine and her friend were gathering ladybugs, and Aspen was very curious.

And, of course, silly sister time!

16 Months

This sweet face turned sixteen months old yesterday:



Aspen has had a growth spurt, she fits well into 12-month size clothes now. She has 7 teeth, and at least three more on their way, including one molar. These sometimes wake her up at night, and cause some grumpiness, but mostly she fights through to stay asleep and cheery when she can.

Aspen's language is really starting to take off. She has mastered, "no," and usually has a very stern scowl to convey her seriousness. "All done" "oh-oh" "hi" and "again" are becoming more enunciated, and she's adding more animal sounds, including horses say "nah" sheep say "baba" and trains go "ooh ooh." She's also making a strong effort to pronounce w's, thanks to watermelons coming in to season. Sometimes, it just takes the right motivation!



Aspen still likes helping around the house, and wants to be a part of whatever is going on.



She does not like putting on shoes, although she's perfectly happy to walk around in them once they are on, and the car seat continues to be a source of frustration. It's better when sister is there to distract her, but she still gets cranky when she sees it's time to go in the car.



The girls are as close as ever, they play together more and more, and Aspen always prefers to have Sabine sit with her at dinner, or read a book together.

And in the biggest of developmental milestone news:



Aspen pee-peed on the potty last Thursday! It was a fluke, but she's been interested in sitting on the potty, recently, so we've been letting her from time to time, and Thursday night she happened to go! It's certainly not time to potty train yet, but this is an exciting view of what's to come in what may be the near future.

Sabine has also been going through a big growth spurt. She's taller than she was last week, and her brain is on overdrive, which leads to some sensitive moments throughout the day, and some nightmares at night. But she's trying hard to work with it, to not yell at night, she knows we can hear her through the monitor (we've temporarily re-installed it) and not wake up Aspen. Her reading skills are progressing, she likes to write grocery lists, signs, cards, and magazines. Her most recent work:


"Sabine's best magazine ever I mean really in the world just sayin' "(In case you had any trouble translating that.)




All in all, we are doing well, if having some interrupted sleep. It's nice to be in a healthy phase, and we are enjoying being outside when it's not raining. Yay for summer!