The Fighter's

503. Memorial Day Weekend. 504. Dad's ribs. 505. The sound of Indy cars speeding around Indianapolis Motor speedway. 506. Family. 507. Bloody Mary's. 508. The start to summer! Growing up there was never a Memorial Day weekend Sunday when Dad wouldn't rush home right after church to flip on the Indianapolis 500.  And today - I still get nostalgic and love the whirring sound of those cars!  This year it was a beautiful day, so Dad set up a radio outside to listen to the race - next to his smoker (full of ribs) and him and Doug sat outside and listened to the race, sipping on their Bloody Mary's!    509. Backyard pools. 510. Prospect of school being out. 511.  Special Treats The girls also kicked off their summer in the baby pool in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard.  Doug gave them a pop - they thought they were extra awesome with their special treat! 512.  On Memorial Day we always head to downtown Sylvania for the annual parade....

495.  These precious curls. 496.  My little hams. 497.  Three little girls sitting side by side in front our backyard fire pit in their favorite animal chairs. 498. Olivia my little cheeseball - stealing shoulder space from her sissies. 499. Katelyn Jane 500. Smores! 501. Sticky faces and hands! 502.  A break from smores and messy hands for a ride on her favorite bus.

488.  The last day of preschool for Kate! 489.  Kate's fantastic wonderful preschool teachers.  We just loved Mrs. Cheryl - I don't know that I've ever met a kinder, more patient, sweet, enthusiastic, caring teacher.  We are so happy with how the school year went - Kate grew so much and we are so thankful for her experience.  She met some nice friends, learned her letters and numbers and how to write them, learned her address/phone number, how to read some words.  She learned the months of the year, days of the week, did lots of counting, read stories from the Bible, memorized the Lord's prayer and learned about baptism.  Kate did lots of pretending in living center (where they can cook in a kitchen, dress dolls and clean house).  We have lots of art work as proof of all the painting and coloring and sculpting she did (her pinch pot is sitting proudly on our shelf in our living room).  And we had great reports that she listened, followed the...

484. Secret after school sister chats on the swing set.  I so wish I could be a fly on the play set to hear their conversations.  They sat out there like this for about 20 minutes after Ava got home - eating their snacks, swinging, twisting and chatting about who knows what.  Love it. 485. The summer view from my kitchen window:-) 486. Ice cream cones.  Olivia likes to eat them from the bottom up.  A fun mess. 487.  Colorful annuals to spice up my flower pots.

483. My Olivia. She is so much fun right now - talking up a storm, keeping up with her sisters - she is getting so big and just brings us so much joy! From the time she gets up in the morning - until the time she goes to bed - she doesn't stop talking...or moving for very long. She's our little busy body - running constantly, playing, climbing, eating "snacks", talking, talking and more talking. She's hilarious. A few of my favorite sayings lately....  1. "pretty pwease mommy, pretty pwease, pretty pwease?"...she asks repeatedly - trying to butter me up - usually when she wants a snack. And it usually works.  2. "I need to use my brush-teeth (aka toothbrush)" or "brush-hair" aka hairbrush. We try to correct her - but...she likes the words her way. 3. "Mommy...will you paint my pigtails (aka fingernails)"? 4. And last but certainly not least...her love for Ellie (her elephant). Ellie goes wherever Olivia goe...