California: There and Back Again

The California trip gets its own post, mainly because I took so many pictures of the kids...

I can't help it.

They're too cute.

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I call this "The Many Faces of Gracie-Poo" -

Such big blue eyes for such a tiny thing.

She's a pretty happy baby most of the time.

 

She's scooting very efficiently now, and so close to crawling!

 

All those rolls on her arms!  So wonderfully squishy.

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Fun together -

The white floppy hat becomes a helmet when Kai takes his little motorcycle for a spin around the house.

I'm not sure how much good a floppy helmet does...especially when one deliberately falls off one's motorcycle.  (There were lots of ambulances involved in said game.)

 

Ava (who has also been known as Avers, Aver-roo, and Aver-wavers...until she declared, "I'm not Aver-wavers, I'm Ava-Poo!") looks so much like Sarah did when she was little.  All except for the deep brown eyes (which she gets from her daddy) and the curly reddish hair (in which she would take after me).

We went to the farm one day ("the farm", not just "a farm" - we've been going there as a family since I was a kid, and Kai and Ava have been there before too).  The cows, the prairie dogs, and the peacocks were all huge hits with the kids.

My personal favorites have always been the cows and goats.  If I could, I would happily get one of each, but my current living situation doesn't exactly lend itself to such an idea...

Striking his "model" pose

This little girl is a stick of dynamite: full of emotion and enthusiasm and hilarity.

She loves puzzles and we had fun talking about different states.

Sunshine and chalk in the back yard

They spent a night while I was there.  We watched a movie and Mom made her deliciously buttery popcorn. 

And now, thanks to that evening, I have a bunch of songs from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stuck in my head.

Cheese!

And while we're on the subject of cheese, they helped me make pizza one Saturday night.  I always loved helping my dad make pizza when I was a kid ("building" a pizza, he would call it), so it's been fun to show Kai and Ava the ropes!

We sprinkled and sampled and giggled.

That belly.  Those eyelashes.  Those cheeks.

Sigh.

Kai is a veteran pizza-making assistant.  He's been helping for a couple years now. :)

The hall closet, a favorite hiding spot from my hide-and-seek days...

Helping/inspecting Auntie's laundry

 

Afternoon naps

Naptime was usually preceded by listening to a few Piano Guys songs.  Kai and Ava had their own names for the songs they've watched the most -

The one where the guy fell down ("Silly him," Ava was sure to say every time we watched that part.)

The "woof!" song

The girl in the water

The one with Steve's wife

The ay-ay-ay song

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Sisters -

Ava is pretty happy with her baby sister.

Sometimes she'll say in-a-not-exactly-inside-voice, "I love you, Gracie-Poo!"

Gracie-Poo, of course, doesn't say anything in response, so Ava repeats even more forcefully (read: practically shouting), "GRACIE-POO! I LOVE YOU!!!"

- - -

The original sisters -

This was the only night all three of us were at the house together, and we had to make sure we got our traditional sisters-on-the-counter pictures.

Different counter this time, but close enough.

- - -

Happy Auntie heart.

...until it was time for good-byes.

Sniffle, sniffle.

- - -

While most of my visit this time seemed to center around the kids (no complaints though!), there were a few other things I got to do -

hang out at Beck's new apartment (she just moved back from SoCal in the spring)
visit with my friend Kendra and her four kids (it had been a year-and-a-half since the last time I saw them!)
see people at my sending church and give a brief update on the school consolidation
watch Barnaby Jones with Mom and Dad
go out for curry with Uncle Paul and Auntie Glory
build four (or was it five?) puzzles with Mom


And at the end of it all, I was so very happy to be back safe and sound in my own little home...with the fireflies, the thunderstorms, and the summer insect hum.

This...

It's been a long time since I blogged, and there so many pictures (some from back in May...) I think I'll have to do two posts.

This is that one day at lunch he was so sleepy, he just wanted to be held.

This was the last Tuesday small group of the semester.  (Chelsey is in the middle and Raylea is on the right.)

Love these ladies so much!  Loved our discussion time together.  Loved all the snacks-and-British-movie nights we had.

They are both gems.

This is from the yearly tulip festival a couple hours away.

I went by myself this time - and a bit earlier than I had in the past, so not as many tulips were in bloom just yet.

But what was in bloom was stunning.

Tulips will forever be my favorite flower.

This is Dutch dancing at the festival.  Fun to watch, but I can't imagine it would be fun to prance around in those klompen for too long.  It makes my feet hurt just thinking about it.

This is the end of the bissap I brought from Senegal the last time.  It was a sad day when I poured the last drops into a glass.

This is because mint is the essential companion to the afore-mentioned bissap.  Well, that and lots of sugar.  So much sugar.

This is Cashew, my squirrel-neighbor.

I'm rather fond of him.

This is rain drops from the roof, just because it looked cool.

This is from the peony bush out back.  I thought they were pretty enough last year, but this year I enjoyed them so much I think they might be in my top five favorite flowers now.

Of course they're done blooming now, but it was lovely while it lasted.

Side note: I quite like having lived in a place long enough that I know (more or less) when things will be in season.  Like, first come the crocuses, then the daffodils, then the tulips, then the irises and peonies...

There's just something satisfying about the anticipation of what you know will come next.

Happy Thursday, y'all!