Giggles

Lara got Ayla to laugh a little tonight so I got some video of it.

Little Angel

Dancing Starz Day Camp

I signed Lara up for a 4 day dance camp in Baldwin. It was just an hour long each morning, and she loved it. I can't wait for the actual class to start in the fall. We are going to the open house next week to get her signed up and order her shoes. I stayed and watched a couple of the days, but it was a long time to sit and try to keep Ayla entertained. They did a different theme each day, and got to wear swimsuits one day, and dress like princesses one day. They had snack time, and made a craft at each class, and the last day they performed a dance for us that they had been working on, with the bird masks they had made. It was very cute!

Here she is getting some help from Miss Melanie

Ayla even made some friends! The little girl is Miss Melanie's daughter Addison, so maybe she and Ayla will be in dance together someday!

Chocolate Fondue!

I had a Tastefully Simple party last winter and finally dug out the chocolate fondue mix that I bought. It is SO good!

We just did strawberries, and Lara got quite messy. We had a ton left, so I bought some bananas to do. Lara is at daycare right now so she'll be happy to come home and eat more chocolate! I brought her to daycare yesterday because she and Angie missed each other SO much, and when I went to pick her up they asked if she could spend the night. We are so lucky to have such awesome daycare, I feel bad that I don't work, but I take her there whenever I can. She has 2 daughters that love Lara so much! She had been going there since she was 2 1/2 months old, so Angie is like her 2nd mom.

Just some more of the kids

I've been having Lara take some pictures, and she's doing a pretty good job. This is the only way I can usually get pictures of Ayla and me, since Mike isn't home too much, and he was here more when Lara was little, so I have lots of pics of Lara and I when she was little. Maybe she will get to live my dream and be a photographer. : ) Unless, of course, the position of Vanna White DOESN'T happen to get filled by another cute blonde girl. That was my REAL dream job. Anyways, here are a couple pics of me and the babe, taken by Lara.

Of course, Ayla is never smiling in the one's that Lara takes, but I have to take whatever I can get, I guess. We spend a lot of time out by her pool, and if it's a really nice day and Ayla cooperates, I even go in with Lara. It feels good on a hot day!
This dress was Lara's when she was a baby, and Ayla got those socks (yes, they are socks that look like shoes, not real shoes) that happen to match the dress perfectly. The socks have little pink polka dots on them, they're a little hard to see in the picture. I love them so much!
Her noggin looks huge here, due to the angle of the picture. It's not really that big. : )

More summer pics

Ayla loves her kitty! Poor Eric, he takes a lot of abuse from the girls. He's a good sport though. Ayla has been really interested in Ozzi lately too, so I hope I have another animal lover on my hands.

Mike was done in Texas a couple weekends ago, and had a week off in between before he left to finish up some clean up in Nebraska. I put the idea of getting a new boat in his head, so he spent a couple days looking online, and found one. It's A LOT bigger than the other one (which he has YET to sell) (I'm a little bitter, I have to park outside while his 2 boats get to park in the garage). We went to Siren while he was home, but I didn't get a chance to go fishing. I chose to watch the Vikings play instead, eventhough they lost. : ( I'm so glad it's football season again! We did the usual four wheeling, game playing, and going to the beach. Lara went in the deepest yet this time around.

We came home early Saturday morning, and left the girls up in Siren since I was going to a bridal shower, and we had a family picnic in New Richmond on Sunday, so my parents just brought the kids with and we got them back there. We had a nice night off! It was Hammond Heartland Days, and Mike's sister Shannon came over, and my cousin (really my cousin's cousin) Jodi and her boyfriend Nick met up with us. Everything goes on right behind our house so we don't have to worry about drinking and driving. We had some drinks and listened to the band. They had a really fun band this year. It feels good to get out without the kids once in a while!

My cousin has a big inflatable waterslide so they brought that to the picnic on Sunday, and Lara actually went down it!

Mike had to get up early the next morning and go down to Nebraska. He should be done soon, and it sounds like New York will be next. I might have to visit him while he's there, but he will be in Albany, no where near Manhattan. We'll see how long he's there. I'm going to Virginia with my parents in October, so I might just stick around here for now.