Ice Cream Again

When the kids stay at Grammy and Coach's, at least during summer, the daily routine often includes an ice cream cone outdoors after supper. Perfect, n'est-ce pas? No dishes to wash and all drippy mess is outside.

Fun at the Movies

After the hundred year birthday party, our next advenure was to do a "kid swap" with Frank and Cristin. Josie came home with us for a couple of days and Will went home with Frank and Cristin. We met halfway later that week to trade the kids back. Will got lots of concentrated "boy cousin" time and we had girlie time at our house.

One of Eva's favorite things to do is to change the house into a theater and Josie was all for it. Maybe she does this at home too! The girls rearranged the furniture for "stadium seating," made tickets, and (as you can see here) a concession stand. Princess Diaries 2 was showing that night.

Three Little Kittens

The girls enjoyed having matching hairstyles and also hairdos more creative than the usual ponytail or braids. Today, they all had cat ears.

A Day at the Park

Cherie and Sydney and Porter were in town too so the kids really got a lot of time together. Here we are at the "school park." This is Lyra's park of choice. If you look closely, you can see that Eva and Josie have matching hair again...a french braid from one ear over the head to the other and ending in a braid. I am getting pretty good at hair.

This never happens!

Why Not is having its end-of-season sale and I actually found matching dresses to fit all three girls! I can never seem to find Lyra and Eva matching clothes so I was pretty surprised to find 3 dresses all in the right size. Don't they look pretty? Eva and Josie have matching hair again, regular sets of french braids this time.

Great Gram Turns 100!

On August 8, Gram (Dad's mom) turned 100 years old! All the DeRonja kids and their kids went up to celebrate at a birthday party hosted by Uncle Pat. Our cousins and others from Pat's side of the family were there too. It was a gorgeous day and we had the most enornous picnic (in terms of food) you've ever seen! Gram's cake was beautiful. Cherie had gone to Kinko's to make the special table decorations in the background here...Gram's wedding picture, her birth certificate and entry papers from Ellis Island and a list of interesting facts about life in 1908. A loaf of bread was just five cents!

Emily really took to Grandma! It was very sweet. Even their leis match though I believe Emily is wearing hers in the "princess style." Most of the grandkids had not had the chance to meet her or Aunt Mary before so this was a very special day.

Bill probably has the best photo of this and you would not believe how many we had to take to get everyone in there and relatively presentable. While Unce Pat had a perfectly lovely backyard for Gram's party, the kids could NOT keep away from the swingset at the next door neighbor's. Lots of fun was had by all and the kids slept well that night.