Big Girl Room!

The past 2 weekends we spent turning my office/our spare bedroom into Amelia's "Big Girl" room, in anticipation of the new baby.

We are SO proud of how it turned out!

View from the door:

She got a beautiful new bed. It's a twin bed, with a trundle underneath. The trundle will be used for clothing now (tiny closet in this room), but there's an option to later put a mattress on it for sleep-overs.

She got new pink sheets and curtains, and a princess comforter. Princess-themed stickers on the walls around the room.

View from the bed to the other side.... her name letters on the wall, a book shelf, and a storage bin for some toys

A little reading area in the corner:

Dresser, with her treasure shelves above (some special souvenirs and such):

The dresser was a garage sale steal. It and the book shelf were both re-painted to be used in this room.

So now for the big reveal!!

Amelia peeking in for the first time:

Checking out her book shelf:

Testing out the chair:

Getting ready to climb into bed:

She LOVED it!!

Peeking at the stickers:

Then she noticed her angel on the wall:

The angel has a special story. Last year, when we were on the metro in Rome, a woman across the aisle kept staring at Amelia. Finally she came over, and had a conversation (in Italian) with Chris. She told him that she had been near the Vatican that morning, and had felt led to buy this blonde ceramic angel. Then, when she saw Amelia, she said that she knew that she was supposed to give her the angel, because it looked like her. It was such a special moment.

We asked Amelia if she knew where the angel came from (despite not having seen it in over a year) and she said "Yeah! From the train!" Wow.

Amelia was so into her new room. She wanted to just stay in there all day and read. We told her we needed to come back downstairs to get ready for church and she replied "Okay, I'll just stay up here and read." Our little girl is really growing up.

She kept thanking us for her room, and included it in her thank you's to God during prayer time.

Then last night was our first attempt at using the new room. This would be Amelia's first time free of being confined at bedtime, so we were a bit scared.

Shortly after putting her to bed, we heard some tiny tip-toeing across the floor above us. Daddy went to investigate, and she scurried back to bed before he made it up there. The only other hiccup was a 5am search for her friends "Ti-Ti" and Mickey, who had fallen in the crack between the bed and the wall. So we certainly called night 1 a success!

Now we'll just have to figure out how to get her to take a successful nap in there...

Swim Class!

How about some pictures and videos from Amelia's swim classes?

Week 1

Looking a bit hesitant about everything:

Working with the instructor on back floats:

And kicking:

And scooping:

Things got better a little later in the week, with some practice with Daddy before class started:

Videos:

Week 2

By week 2, Amelia was more confident. Practicing with Daddy before class starts seems to really help her be ready to work with the instructors.

Videos:

In class, she worked well with her instructors, and really is getting the hang of what it takes to swim. She can't do it independently yet, but in time she will.

She was super brave with going off the diving boards!

Low dive:

Videos:

AND high dive!!

Video:

She was one of only 3 kids in her class to brave the high dive! And she was recommended to graduate up to the next level of classes! We were so proud.

Weekend Fun - July 9-10

This weekend, Chris's Dad and Step-mom came into town to help us with a big project - re-painting the garage!

Specifically, Chris and his dad spent 4 days straight on the garage (scraping and painting), while the girls entertained ourselves in other ways. Also, Linda painted a dresser and bookshelf for Amelia's big-girl room!

Amelia got some grandparent time, and a few other adventures.

Saturday 7/9

Dance class in the morning!

Showing mama and grandma some moves before class time:

After class, the girls spent a couple of hours at the zoo:

We came home for nap time, and then made the guys some dinner.

Sunday 7/10

The guys finished up the garage, and then it was time to say goodbye.

The finished job!

Amelia gave Grandpa and Grandma the stink-eye as they were leaving. She was NOT happy.....

It was a nice 4-day visit, with a lot of great productivity!!

Weekend Fun - July 1-4

Friday 7/1

It was "First Friday" downtown, so we went down and had dinner with some friends.

Followed by some walking around and ice cream!

Saturday 7/2

This was the work day of our weekend. We went to the farmer's market, ran some errands and worked on a few projects around the house.

We may have done some fun stuff, but my brain has forgotten all of that by now! :)

Sunday 7/3

All dressed up for church:

On this day, Chris spent 8 hours power-washing the house and garage, so my job was to keep Amelia fed and entertained in the house.

We had fun and delivered some dinner to Daddy. But it was a pretty low-key day.

Monday 7/4

We got up in the morning, had some pancakes for breakfast and then hit the road!

We had a scheme.... we thought that since it would be a late night, we wanted to skip our local parade in the afternoon, so Amelia could nap.

So we went to another town's parade in the morning:

Being patriotic:

Waiting for the next candy:

After the parade, we went to a local park and had a picnic lunch!

We came home and attempted a nap for Amelia. I'm not sure if we waited too long, or if she'd had too much candy, but at 3pm when our local parade was getting ready to march by, she was NOT having that nap.

So, we gave in, and she enjoyed her second parade of the day.

But on the upside, she took a little nap after the parade.

In the evening, our friend Joe came over for dinner (his wife was on a trip). We had a nice little barbecue in the backyard.

And then we headed over the University for the free symphony concert!

I forgot Amelia's sunglasses, so she looked super-cute in an old pair of mine from the car:

She loved sitting and being silly with Daddy:

And Joe!

The funny thing was, she kept calling Joe "Grandpa....errr... Joe" -- I think because whenever she has a spare male with us, it's typically Grandpa Larry? :)

Super cute little firecracker:

She has a mosquito bite right in between her eyes!

The concert was GREAT, and then it was time for fireworks!

They were kind of hard to see over the tree line, so super-tall Joe gave Amelia a boost:

It was a great weekend!!