Art camp!

Claudia did the SJ Museum of Art art camp with the twins again. At the end of the week they have a showing and reception of the art work. It's fun to see what the kids produce and Claudia takes us around the museum to talk about her favorite art pieces in the museum.

The monkey's monkey 

Super Claudia!

Show us your guns

Juliet looks a little suspicious of me taking a photo of them in front of the artwork...

Outside the museum

Would you believe....

...that Juliet and her friend JULIET dressed alike with no planning? (at least no planning amongst the parents, maybe the two Juliets knew what they were doing...)

Twin Juliets

The midwest trip

No weddings this summer, but we still took a trip to the midwest to see both fams.

At the lake, having breakfast with Gralu

The girls on the bridge near the mouth of the Mississippi

The traditional picture at the marker. I'm not sure why everyone dumps their shoes and socks off RIGHT THERE.

At the end of our trip to Itasca. Whew! We made it through the fallen trees!

Our anniversary boat ride and fishing trip

Claudia was all geared up for fishing. 

Juliet wasn't quite ready. Juliet didn't seem to enjoy the boat ride as much as Claudia. She seems to be clinging to Peter a bit!

If the girls are lucky, they'll inherit my fishing skills. Look how jealous Tim is!

Family portrait at the Logging camp

Playing yahtzee with Gralu, Karolina and Allie

Looking at pictures with Rachel (and Cooper)

Sorry? with Uncle David, Gralu, Rachel and Aunt Loree

On our drive down from the lake to Lawrence, we stopped in Ames to have dinner with Jillian and Jo and then we stayed at Jo and Mark's in Des Moines.

Visiting Aunt Joey and Mark

Now in Kansas, hanging with Chandler

Dogpile Chandler!

The mosquitos in Minnesota LOVED Juliet. Poor thing, by the time we got to Kansas her mosquito bites were infected. We made a trip to minor emergency so that she could get some steroids for the swelling. The steroids also made her a little crazy!

Legoland in Kansas City just opened in April. It was small, but lots of fun!

 After Legoland we went to a restaurant that delivers your food via train. The girls loved it. So did the big kids.

Engineer Juliet

Engineer Claudia

2 big sisters

Juliet climbing up Uncle Darren 

With Poh Poh and Gong Gong

 Erin Kaci was doing an internship in Texas so we only got to see her at the airport when we were flying out and she had just landed. 

Goofing around in SJ

I got my new camera so practiced taking different shots. We took a couple trips to our local faves. 

On the merry go round at Happy Hollow 

On the merry go round at Happy Hollow

At the diorama at the Children's Discovery Museum

Putting balls into the water

Say CHEEEEEZ!

 We met the Powell-Russells at the Discovery Museum and then had lunch outside. These are some silly kids!

With the warm weather, it was time to break out the splash rocket!

Waiting for the light rail to head to Campbell (soup)

I tried to take a picture of the girls for Father's day. I think the girls look adorable, but the sun is messing up the picture.

At our park. Claudia is helping Juliet get across the monkey bars. Who knew my two monkeys would be such monkeys? 

Best Buds!

Juliet and her friend Abigail have known each other since they were ~8 months old. Abigail doesn't go to Juliet's preschool anymore so we try to meet up for play dates and birthday parties when we can. Here are the little cheese balls.

Juliet and her buddy Abigail

Claudia had a sleep over with her friends (and twins) Kennedy and Landry. They've known each other since they were 6 months old. The teachers at daycare/pre-school referred to them as the triplets.

Kennedy, Claudia and Landry

Bennie and Juliet

Ollie and Claudia have been buds since they were 2ish, and Ben and Juliet have been buddies since Ben was born. :-)

Claudia and Ollie

But we can't forget the best buds of all - each other!

Angry Bird-day to you!

Auntie Gina came out to celebrate (and help out with the birthday party preparations). The night before Gina arrived, Juliet decided to get the croup. So our last minute birthday prep was cramped even more by a sick little 3 year old. But Auntie Gina didn't mind hanging out with Juliet and napping after a long and early plane ride.

We set up to play a full size angry birds (sans a slingshot - that would have been too much work and probably dangerous!). The party favors were angry bird -themed. I found keychains and erasers, gummy bears and added a little wooden birdhouse and markers.

Safeway cake/Gina & Kelly decorations (supervised by a 7 and 3 year old).

Claudia in the last minute tshirt find

A few large purchases earlier in the year and we had the cardboard we needed for creating the game. Gina and I had fun making the pig balloons the night before. After each balloon touched the ground, it would slowly start to deflate!

Part of the birthday party crew

The deflated mustache piggy

I'd say someone is enjoying her cake!

Miss Bean and Auntie Gina

Since Juliet was croupy we had to keep her away from the other kids. She napped thru the entire birthday party. Even when the kids were playing in the house (since it was an odd 90 degrees in April!).

The croupy Juliet and Auntie Gina