June 2012

We don’t have any birthdays in the family from January through May, so by the time Elizabeth’s birthday finally comes on June 15th, everyone is pretty excited about it.  She turned six this year.

She started out the morning with a pile of presents and lots of eager and helpful siblings crowded around.
New goggles!                                                                                                

Painting supplies!                                                                                                             
And best of all, some serious bug catching equipment.  I saw this little bug-catcher watch on Amazon (fake spider included), and knew it would be perfect for Lizza.  We also got her a fun little microscope for examining bugs/leaves/flowers, and it came with 3 small plastic jars for storing bugs in (so maybe she’ll stop using all of my tupperware).                                                                                                                    

The microscope has a little mirror underneath, which is great for examining bugs from all angles.

After Lizza quickly collected and examined some roly poly bugs and beetles, Oliver caught her this gecko and we all got to see it up close and personal (a little too up close for my taste):

Reading her new Fancy Nancy book from Grandma and Grandpa:                                      

A “6” shaped pancake with strawberry sauce and whipped cream for breakfast:                    

Coloring in her new coloring book (from Henry) while wearing her new goggles:                      

New birthday outfits she picked out herself with her Grandpa Darcy money.  Lizza has always had the best style sense of any of my kids:                                                                

Birthday picnic at the pool:                                                                               

Cindy being cute in her swimsuit:                                                                                    

Henry working on his back float.  He is such a little fish and loves being under the water.  His favorite thing to do at the pool is dive to the bottom for swim sticks, so he finally convinced me to not make him wear a floaty tube.  I stand right by him as he dives down to the bottom over and over again, and he’s basically taught himself how to swim this way.                                                                                                                

The birthday girl eating some watermelon:                                                                         

Henry eating some watermelon with big eyes:

Cindy eating some watermelon backwards:                                                                       

After swimming and dinner, Elizabeth posing with her fancy birthday cake.  She saw a picture of me when I was little with a cake covered in pink and white animal cookies, and she knew that was the cake for her:

Other fun things we did in June besides turning six and a lot of swimming:

A lemonade stand! They made tons of money because it was about 200 degrees outside and I think people felt sorry for them (although Lizza claimed it was because people just thought she looked so cute).                                

Round rock donuts:                                                                                                     

Playing with magnets:                                                                                                       

Cynthia has discovered the girls’ magnet dolls, and she is in love.  She asks to play with them every day, and she will spend hours setting them up in a line and then putting different magnet outfits on them:

Catching animals:                                        

Cub scout day camp:                                                                                                        

Dressing up:   

Henry as Ironman (suit made by Oliver out of paper):                                                      

And Henry as Batman (Lizza was inspired by Ollie’s costume-making skills, so she used up all our black crayons to make Henry this awesome Batman cape):
                                                                                                                   

He’s pretty sure it really makes him fly:

Cynthia is also a fan of dressing up.  Sometimes she likes to be a fancy princess:                      

And sometimes she likes to be an army cowgirl with a sword:                                

Here Princess Cindy is drinking some applesauce out of a sippy cup.  She is seriously addicted to applesauce – it’s the first thing she asks for in the morning (she’s always asking me if it’s “applesauce time?”), and she goes through about four of those cups a day.  At least it’s a healthy addiction:
                                                                                                                   
Princess Cindy being friends with Henry.                                                                             

They are learning to be good little buddies, which makes me happy because Elizabeth will start school this year and I’ll be on my own with these two:                                                                                  

Even with all this fun summer play, the kids still find time to read daily:                  

And when there’s nothing else to do, they’re always up for a friendly game of “Prisoner.”  I’m not really sure how the rules work, but it’s something Lizza and Henry made up, and it involves tying Oliver up in a care bear blanket with jump ropes:                       
I’m sure it will lead to lots of fun summer memories when he is older.