the last week of having daddy home

Aran took off a little bit as he will be hunting a lot in the next month. we did a lot of fun family stuff. ofcourse we went to the children's museum. we got a membership for the year and it is the best money spent.. Aran really takes over when he is home and especially this weekend before the busy month.

aran is concentrating hard on paddling, the faster you paddle, the brighter the lights. i guess Lilja on his shoulders does not help;) 

tinker toys.. Lilja loves them

Aran got a new tent for hunting.. A three person tent, but for my standers still pretty little. This year Aran will go by himself.. next year we will start camping with Lilja and see how she does. At least she loves this tent. So much, she wanted a picnic in it for dinner.

she was showing me how she would sleep with daddy when she goes camping..

Lilja and I went to starbucks with her bike. the little hills down town really help her balance. she is so serious when she rides.. and a big chatterbox!

two of my new favorites!!

smiley girly girl!!

playing with the dogs in the pond

throwing sticks!! and finding "fishing poles"

this is what I found on my path up the hill in the morning,, steaming and all. I did turn around.. just in case.. If you do not know who makes this, it was a HUGE bear.. well, not sure if it was huge.. but I am imagining it looking at me behind a big tree.. a 10 foot tall bear!! 

Ballet

Ms Annette is trying to implement more ballet in the class for the new year.. so cute! I think lilja loves gymnastics the most, but she really focused on her steps.

scarves way up high

practicing!!!

bmx riding

the farm puzzle

Lilja is so excited to have "family time"

the start of our BIG puzzle

and the end result. Just doing puzzles for a couple of days in a row makes a huge difference. She is definitely good at them

The farm puzzles

James got us some great puzzles last year for her birthday and we have been taking them out now that she is a little older. This is turning into our family time before bedtime.. Her attention span at night is a little shorter though.

ballet practice

Ms Annette is showing the parents differences in the Ballet classes that are coming up and the gymnastics classes. I do think Lilja tends to do better in gymnastics than ballet, but like the diciplie of a ballet class. Here Lilja has her first ballet lesson.. so cute.. Takes me back.. Oh so many years!!

her first ferris wheel!!

Ok got the videos figured out. Youtube always keeps me on my toes ;$

somewhere #2

Mushroom hunting !!

Our friends Greg, Joanne and their 5 year old Lillibeth asked us to go mushroom hunting.. portini mushrooms..Up on our big ski mountain called Durango Mountain resort.We met them at 9:30 and hiked all the way up and then back down till 1:30.. This little three year old did not complain once.. was a delight to hike this big mountain with and the two girls together acted like best friends. What a fun and exciting adventure.. Check out our bounty!!

our start, look at that view, and yes, there is snow on the mountains from this big storm  that came through yesterday. Lillibeth is 5, and was so sweet with Lilja. 

Lilja found a big one. The big ones sometimes have bugs in them, so you are looking for little guys that are nice and round and white on the bottom. 

great job Lilja!! that is a mountain mushroom... I think ;)

love this picture, Lilja is looking mighty comfy in our arms there..

Looking is this was a good one, not really the bugs got to it already, but he was as big as her head!!

Momma, look strawberries... Lots of them!!

Lillibeth helping Lilja down the mountain.. It was pretty steep and rugged.

Our bounty, two big bags full and Lilja's basket.. What are we having this week for dinners?? Steak and Mushrooms, tortilini and mushroom sauce, mushroom soup and...

The County Fair 2013!!

The County Fair was here this week and Lilja Aran and I went on Saturday to look at all the 4-H animals and go on some rides. It was pretty hot, so we did not stay long, and oh my goodness, it was expensive!! so those little rides you see in the pictures 3 or 4 dollars a time. even those slides.. Ridiculous, but watching Lilja's face... priceless..

she would go between the chickens and the rabbits

this incubator had little quail eggs hatching.. one was wiggling to come out, but he took too long..

she is really to afraid, especially feeding the little goat. She is an expert in that by now as we always feed the little goat each year in Holland.

Momma, he is so soft!

Oh yes, her first ferris wheel. Aran was not sure if she would like it, but this little chatterbox got so excited I could hear her all the way from the ground talking. r

Ok Daddy had to get his thrill ride in.. We remember we did that together, pre Lilja.. and we laughed so hard...I almost peed in my pants.. TMI??

Yep this was one of those 3 dollar rides..each!! but look at that face!!

ofcourse she had to go on the merry-go-round. everything has to be sparkily and pink right now.. guess what she sat in??

Pizza night

we made our own pizzas tonight.. I did not make my our dough.. but I will next time, because the sauce was really good. Lilja LOVED making them. Putting everything on her own and then taking everything off when it was ready.. she said it was Dilicious ( just imagine her head shaking and probably jumping up and down).

the sauce... I also made my own with fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil.. way yummy!!!

she put the sauce, cheese, peporoni and mushrooms on it.. But when the pizza was done, she took everything off and ate the pizza crust with the sauce and then ate everything else individually.. go figure.

so proud of her pizza and she helped make ours too.we will definitely make it again.. 

loved this picture.. her little face is just changing.. look at those dimples!

videos

Hmmm, youtube will not let me put the videos automatically on Blogger, so I am doing it like this.. see if this works http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKwxwme1tPI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy6SHNeT8pE

Squishy mud

Pop pop

the many faces of Lilja

We were walking the doggies and it just started pouring outside.. We were both soaked and tried to run to the house.. Lilja just loves the rain.. good thing as that is the only thing it does here right now.

running to escape the rain.. with a smile on our faces.. always ;)

the sprinklers are still on on the field and Lilja liked to get sprayed in her face..

yep right on her nose!

waiting is so hard and so exciting..here the water comes around again.

nice and soaked!!

practise practise!!

practising with daddy on the bike





very serious face the steering is still a hard concept

 

look at that stride!! and the smiley face :)

Riding her bike ... Fast !

Learning to ride the bike.. she is pretty good in letting go of the bike when she falls.. No big diggers yet !

Riding her bike .. Slowly

Watermelon seed

Lilja's favorite snack? Water melon! now she wants to make a watermelon garden.. Hmmm let's see if it works ;)

Our own splash pad

this week .. summer winding down..

The weather was pretty hot this week, eventhough some rain appeared here and there. Just one more month and work will start again , so Lilja and I are trying to do as much fun stuff as we can with other kids.. Making lots of friends!!

Lilja's "little" smile she is making for pictures right now.. Krullebol!!! in dutch  little curlyhead!

Lilja loves laying in her float, throwing rocks in the water.

she wanted to look into the water.. see the water is pink now!!

lots of friends floating with Lilja.. Garrett, Maddie and Zoe!!

pretending to be a mermaid

Lilja and I went down that river probably about 10 times.. The water was pretty low, poor bum of mine ;(

The she decided to go byherself, as she saw Maddie do it.. Mind you, I , melissa and Zoe's mom were on alert every 5 steps of the way  

and then they wanted to go by themselves.. those big girls!!

she took a long nap after the river, so we met up again with maddie to play just a little more.



the three muskateers..