The Gales: August 2013

In my mind, summer should be filled with fun outings, but we didn't do too many of those due to my all-day nausea. I suppose the girls don't really know better, but I still felt bad. So again, August didn't have many epic events, but we did have some fun.

A family from church held an end of summer BBQ. It wasn't an official ward activity, but most of the ward did show up.

Daddy sitting and eating with the girls

The kids brought their bicycles to ride together around the island in the neighborhood.

Allie is the second girl back and Rachel is at the very back in a green shirt.

One of the girls' favorite things was that the ice cream truck came by. All the kids picked out some ice cream. Both Allie and Rachel wanted ice cream sandwiches. The only bad thing is that now the girls really press hard, trying to get us to buy ice cream, when we hear an ice cream truck in the neighborhood. We told them we only buy it from the ice cream man on very special occasions.

Such a yummy mess!

One Sunday morning, Jared let me rest before church, which started at noon. He was super cool and made paper crowns for them to wear. They each colored their crowns and were happy as could be.

The Two Princesses and their Babies

This makes me imagine them with their own babies when they are grown up.

I can't remember what we were celebrating, but we went out to Braum's one night for dinner and ice cream. I know we had been working hard on different projects all day. It may have just been a treat for all our hard work. Our favorite part was, of course, the ice cream.

I introduced Allie to garage sales this month. She and Rachel got some stuffed animals for a great price. Allie really liked the buying part, and kept wanting to go places to spend her birthday money. So one day we went to Hobby Lobby. Allie picked out a bird house to paint, and Rachel picked out a little apple box to paint. Each item was from the clearance section, as was the paint. Again, Allie enjoyed buying her item, and then she really enjoyed painting it. I don't seem to have a picture of her finished project, and we still need to put it outside somewhere.

Allie Painting her Birdhouse

Rachel Painting her Apple Box

Both girls enjoying their work

Another view of Allie's house

Of course a month wouldn't be complete without a trip or two to the park.

I have started doing "school" at home with Allie. Some days go great, and other days she is quite resistant. I try not to push her too much because I really want it to be a fun thing for her. She wants to prepare for kindergarten, she just doesn't want me to help her prepare for kindergarten. She is a stubborn little thing. One of her favorite things to do is figuring out patterns. She's really good at it, too.

Allie had a few soccer practices in August, too, for the start of the Fall season. She was really excited to play soccer again.

The team with their coach

Stopping the ball with her foot

Sometimes Rachel likes watching Allie and the other kids play; sometimes she likes to explore. She and Daddy caught grasshoppers for awhile at Allie's first practice. She loved it, despite what her screams might have suggested.