Summer fun!!

We have had such a great summer so far! With Anna Kate walking and into so much now we have truly been able to get out there and enjoy what the summer has to offer!

The pool has been a hit with both girls!! Claire loves to wear her puddle jumper and go in the big pool, especially with daddy. She is getting really good and kicking her legs and getting herself  around by herself in the water. Anna Kate prefers to just be held and splash in the big pool over being in her float.  They also both love the water sprinkler parks.  A new sprinkler park just opened near our house and when we took them there Claire seriously had a smile on her face the entire time and loved every second of it!!

We have been visiting a lot of playgrounds. Claire loves the swing and Anna Kate loves slides!! She will climb right up those stairs and go down the slide all by herself over and over again.

Claire also started a gymnastics class this summer which she loves!! They do the balance beam, bar, rings, trampoline, hand stands, somersaults, etc. I have seen her get more and more confidence on the balance beam. When she first started she would want to hold the instructors hand and now she will walk across on her own!

We have had a few visits to hampton while daddy has been out of town. There are so many fun things to do that there that's it's hard to get them back up to Richmond!! They love Buckroe Beach! Claire would stay in the water all day if we'd let her. The water is great there because there aren't many waves and she will just play and splash for hours in it. Anna Kate loves the water and the sand too. Claire also loves searching for shells and filling up her bucket with them. Can't wait to take them to nags head again! The girls also love to visit Blue Bird Gap farm and see all of the animals. Anna Kate smiles and waves at them all! Grammie and Papas pool is another favorite spot!! And the Living Museum has a great dinosaur exhibit they love to visit. And Anna Kate loves to press her face against the fish aquarium and look at all of the fish!!

Some other fun things on our summer bucket list...getting ice cream and snow cones!!

Ice cream...with lots and lots of sprinkles!

Anna Kate actually ate the ice cream in the cone, yay!

Stop at O Doodles Doo's in Suffolk...so many yummy fun doughnuts!

Claire's favorite thing at gymnastics, the swing!

A little blurry, but there she is on the balance beam walking all by herself!

Visit to Westmoreland State Park. It was a park on the Potomac River and it was a 1/2 mile hike down to the water from the parking lot to fossil beach.  You can find shark teeth and other fossils there.

Looking for fossils!

Beach babies!

Water table fun!

First time to Chuck E Cheese on a rainy day!!

There they are on the fire truck ride

Sprinkler park fun, she didn't stop smiling!

"Anna Kate, isn't this sprinkler park the best thing ever!!"

Visit to Blue Bird Gap Farm petting the baby goat!

Gobble, gobble!

Swings!

So sweet!

Snack break at Blue Bird!

She LOVES Jason's Deli...both for the pizza and ice cream!

Visit with Aunt Kristen on the river!

Pretending to be a turtle at the Living Museum

Riding on the dinosaur at the Living Museum

Digging for dinosaur bones!

Wow, that's a t-rex!

Oh...it's just pretend

Riding on the turtle!

Fish!!!

Playground fun...they can now really play together there!

Claire steering their boat to Disney World! Anna Kate looks excited!

Petting the cows in front of Tom Leonard's grocery store. 

Carytown Watermelon Festival...check out her watermelon dress :)

Claire loved the bounce house at the Watermelon festival!

Riding Angel with Aunt Kristen...she LOVED it. She wanted to go around again and again!

Anna Kate even got a ride!

She comes up with some fun play outfits! Go Hoo's!

Playing with the puppy dog!

Singing on the play microphone Mema brought, Anna Kate loved it!

Hanging out with Pepe!

She was so excited to try her spaghetti and meatballs...she was covered in sauce at the end of it.

Ready for the neighborhood 4th of July parade!! It starts at the end of the neighborhood and goes down to the pool. Everyone decorates their bike or wagon and walks on down. It's really cute! 

After the parade and swimming at the pool, we headed to Crump Park for a 4th of July Festival. Here she is eating her ice cream cone...this was before she got into actually trying the ice cream.

Claire had no trouble with the ice cream part!!

Trying to play the piano with Sissy!

Just floating with Papa

The gang!

Cutie pie!

Swimming!

Anna Kate is 13 months old!

Anna Kate turned 13 months on July 27th! She loves balloons, dogs, books, bubbles and her sister!!

Every morning when we go in to get Claire up, Anna Kate climbs right up into Claire's bed for some morning sissy hugs. And to get Claire's water bottle on her bed :) Then they both love to give Molly a belly rub, lucky dog!

Anytime Anna Kate sees a dog she waves with both hands and says "hi!!" She loves animals. Her favorite book is the 100 animal book which has pictures of all different animals.She will say book, bring it to you and sit in your lap.

She can say, hi, book, up, bloon (her version of balloon), mama, dada, maa (Molly).

Her front two teeth came in and my they are some big teeth :) So she now has a grand total of 4 teeth. More teeth haven't quite equated to more food though...her favorite foods now are gold fish, yogurt melts, peanuts butter crackers, and her favorite veggie straws. She is drinking more milk which is great!

Anna Kate loves, loves to play with Claire. Anna Kate loves to hide behind the clothes in Claire's closet with her sister. I hear them just laughing and giggling in there.

Anna Kate loves to play in the toy kitchen and stirring the spoon in the tea cup. She always grabs the same spoon and tea cup and just starts stirring away! She also will love on and feed the baby dolls their bottles.

Always smiling!

Playing doctor with sissy!

Hmm...what is this cold stuff in the cone? Think I would just like to eat the cone plain...

Ready to go down the slide, such a big girl!

Sweet, sweet girl!

And just like that...Anna Kate is One!

Anna Kate turned one on June 27th!! The year really did go by so fast. Anna Kate is such a sweet, happy, loving, adventurous, funny, and determined little girl!

She always seems to have a smile on her face! She loves playing with her sister so much. They now really play with each other and it's so fun to watch. Some of their favorite games to play are chasing the cars on the floor, playing in the tent and tunnel, throwing the ball to each other.

Anna Kate also is happy just playing by herself. She loves to play in the toy kitchen with all of the food, with all of the baby dolls and their bottles, and pushing the ride-along car and riding on it too. She also loves to look through books!

And she's walking!! She started about 2 weeks before her birthday and has really taken off! She can walk all over and will probably be running soon! She seems very sure on her feet and hardly crawls at all anymore. She stands right up and walks wherever she wants to go.

She says a few words too..."booook," "baaal," (balloon), "da da," "ma ma," "up."

Even though she doesn't say them, she knows what a lot of words are. She knows who Sissy, Mommy, Daddy, Grammie, Papa, Mema, Pepe and Molly are! If you ask her to hug the doll, she will. She really understands so much. "Go give the ball to Daddy." "Put the book in the basket."

She will lean in and cuddle with you if you ask her for a hug. And if you ask her for a kiss she will lean her head into you.

She also shakes her head for no! She likes to shake her head :)

She still is working on the food front. Her favorites now are crackers, cheerios, yogurt bites, veggie straws, rice cakes...basically anything dry and hard. Hoping she expands this soon!

She is just so fun and happy and we love her so much! Happy Birthday our Anna Kate!!

Birthday cupcake on her birthday! She loved the candle!

You want me to eat what?

Claire was showing her how to eat it :)

Present time!!

Mommy and the birthday girl :)

Playing with her new piano

Loved her birthday balloons!

12 months old!

Party at Mema and Pepe's house!!

Happy birthday girl!

Sister hugs

Walking around!!

Time for cake again!

Hmm...looks pretty good!

And of course, Claire knew what to do!

She loves books!

Reading her books in her new chair!

Happy Birthday to our sweet Anna Kate!

Anna Kate is 11 months old!

Anna Kate turned 11 months on May 27th! She really "knows" words now. If you ask her where is the ball? She will go and get it. If you say, "Hand me the ball," she hands it to you. If you ask her where Molly is, she looks for her etc.

She also has become a great helper at clean up time. If you hand her a bucket/basket and show her how to put a toy back in, she will start to pile them in!

We were trying on shoes for Claire and we put a pair on Anna Kate too. Now, whenever she sees a pair of shoes, she tries to put them on her own feet. And she is usually pretty good getting them on too.

She loves walking around holding both of our hands. And she loves to climb!! Just like her sister did! She just loves to climb up the stairs so the baby gate has been brought back out!

I'm 11 months old!

And here comes Claire!

Loves the swing!

Love her!

Some Grammie cuddles

Big girl bath!