The days are flying!

While daddy was gone Uncle Brooks and Aunt Clara kindly protected our sanity by coming up for a day visit. We had a great time swinging, swimming, blowing bubbles, and playing games. Thank you sooooo much guys! We ALL appreciated it.

We even survived Sunday morning without Wally except that Alden got up at 5:40am to start his day, and Rhianwen busted her lip on the front of the pew at the very end of the service. All in all a wildly successful day.

While eating her "garlic" (aka granola) at breakfast before dad left, Rhi was asked if we should eat daddy's birthday cake without him since he was going to be gone on his birthday. "Yeah!!!!" she said confidently and excitedly. When Daddy asked her if she knew how old he would be, she said, "Yeah, but you will still be daddy when you are old, right?"

Mommy thought it would be hilarious if we gave him a big scare when he got back at 1am and came in the door to see the big bad birthday man that Rhi and I made (aka the "wrapping" job for the hammock from his parents).

Here he is!

But I ended up warning Wally over the phone, so he wouldn't flip out and hurt himself, wake the entire house, and ruin his gift by shooting it.


The funny thing is that the next day, Mr. Birthday Man looked like he had gotten attacked by some Pygmies who liked to shrink heads...(I'm just imagining the hits I'm going to get on this page as a result of that last statement).


Enjoying the contents of Mr. Birthday Man.


Rhianwen insisted that we wrap balloons for Daddy's birthday. So, here they are. (We only let Alden try for a few seconds...yes we know it's a choking hazard, and no, we won't let your children do this if you happen to entrust them to our care.)

Rhianwen attended her first VBS this past week. She had a great time learning about Paul, played by Troy, one of our pastors. They said that he clocked in about 15h in chains by the time VBS was over and done with. And I think it was quite a bit crazier than Paul's house arrest with a hundred plus kids tramping through to visit him each day!

Alden has been so energetic and into everything as always. His favorite thing to do is to dive into the kiddie pool when we aren't looking. He did this when we were saying goodbye to our neighbors who were moving, and they said, "Um, your baby just got into your pool." They said he reminded them of the baby on The Incredibles. I think we have our hands full enough without him floating around self-combusting. The strange part is, that he doesn't want to get into the pool when we want him to be in it. Instead, at those times, he prefers to be in our flower beds eating dirt and tearing up plants. He's been learning to kiss and will make a little "Mmmumm" sound to go with it (something her learned from Rhianwen). Other sounds he enjoys mimicking are animal sounds, car sounds, and the white noise on his soundmaker. He's really started enjoying books big time and will even read to himself (finally!). I don't know why, but this boy seems to be a pro at destroying board books even though he's only reading them. We'll need a whole new round of them before the next child comes along. When he picks up the prayer books with pic of fam in it he'll often start saying, "Gac, Ga Ga, Gac." b/c there are so many Grands in them :)

The fantastic duo.

What Rhianwen did while I was in another room....

I wonder why she stopped. I found the camera open on the desk. At the time I just shut it off and wondered why it was on. Then later I discovered the photographs.

Brightness

A short clip of Alden playing the recorder. He's become even more of a virtuoso and no longer hums into it. He's very proud of this new skill. I wonder if that means he'll blow out his birthday candles.

The up and coming star Alden Wallace strides confidently to his waiting limo even amidst the paparazzi.

In fact Alden is becoming a star at imitating other people. He tries to blow bubbles when Rhianwen does. He's learning how to jump and run (in fact, the library has become a difficult place to be now that he can go so quickly. He loves to RUN as fast as he can down the rows and across the building. Today I resorted to quickly grabbing whatever didn't look heretical for Rhianwen and departed in about 20 minutes...a new record for us.) He saw mommy and daddy kissing on the lips and wasn't satisfied with mommy's cheeks anymore since apparently the lips are the new cheeks this season. He loves playing tag with us and trying to throw balls. Of course there are some negative things about imitating. Now if we could just get Rhianwen to understand the importance of setting a good example. Which reminds me of a very annoying habit of hers: using the popper toy only when I am talking on the phone. It is the single most noisy toy we have, and she only seems to play with it when I am trying to make a phone call. Why is this? I really don't think it's intentional, but it's nearly without fail.

We've been enjoying what I consider "summer" activities even though technically it's still spring. Rhianwen planted some cantaloupe seeds in a blue pot which is now on her dresser. I hope they sprout! We've begun having our usual summer breakfast food of "garlic" yogurt and fruit. Actually, it's granola, but when we ask Rhi what she wants for breakfast she says, "Garlic!". One summer activity that I'm not going to do anymore is to let Alden wander around in just his diaper. He managed to intentionally rip it off in one motion while going down the step into the family room. It was only later that I realized that he had been pooping at that time.

There's no doubt they are siblings! Noise or no, poop or no, you just have to melt when you have moments like this.

We also got some painted lady caterpillars as a gift from Grandmama. They came in a jar with a bunch of food on the bottom just in time for Nanny Kim's visit for Advance '09. They've been growing longer and fatter and will soon form chrysalises at which point we'll transfer them to the supplied butterfly cage.

Caterpillars.

A visit with Nanny Kim is always exciting. Usually it's because of all the wacky things she does, but since she was gone most of the time at the conference and in a more serious mood, I felt compelled to spice things up a bit. I cunningly sprinkled black pepper onto a hot burner while everyone was hanging out in the kitchen. Now we all know first hand what an attacker feels like when he inhales pepper spray. We all were hacking! (In all actuality, it was Nanny Kim's fault for talking to me while I prepared dinner. I had forgotten that I had moved my pan off the burner. Yes, I can always find a way to blame her ;0).

Enjoying ice-cream with friends at a dairy/creamery. I think it's hilarious how the girls are holding their cones. It reminds me of the wedding photographers'/coordinators' warning to the bridesmaids about how NOT to hold their bouquets.

Alden gets even with mommy and daddy for once-again withholding ice-cream by eating hay while we are distracted by Rhianwen's jumping.

We let Rhianwen stay up late one night to chase fireflies outside. This was her first introduction to them. What fun! A couple of nights later daddy put some in her butterfly cage so that she could watch them while she went to sleep. Fireflies are one of my favorite creatures. They are so magical...that is until you remember why they are flashing.