Des Moines visit

After not letting Sage leave town for the first 6 months of her life, we've been trying to make up for it since.  We started with a trip South, then a couple weeks ago we headed a bit Northeast for the girls' only cousin's 2nd birthday!  Then, finally last weekend the family made a trip West.  We stopped and had a really nice picnic with Nana and visited the Raptor Center, seeing some owls, hawks, and eagles. Then, more time in the car (Sage still doesn't really sleep in the car, unfortunately, though luckily for us she's almost always happy and playing instead.) and finally we made it to Des Moines to visit Aunt E and Uncle A. We had a great weekend - visiting the science museum and trying on Aunt E's shoes were big highlights of the trip for the girls (the adults liked the science museum too, though I can't say I saw anyone try on E's shoes except for E, so that must not have been as big for the adults.  Instead we enjoyed a fun game of Settlers and lots of good conversation.)

Here are a couple pictures from the science museum and the rest of the weekend:















Thanks, E and A for hosting us!  We had a great mini-vacation!

Sage entertains at the table - Video!

Click on the title of this post if you can't see or play the short video!

7 months

Sage turned 7 months old a few days ago.  She loves sitting at the dinner (or lunch or breakfast) table with the rest of the family.  Though she's still not really that excited about solid food she loves playing with toys and watching us and maybe even trying to make us laugh...

A short simple video of an example of that should be up in the next day or two!

Little Bug

I won a give-a-way last month during a whole week of giveaways on a bunch of different blogs.  From Amy Plew I won that she would make a personalized felted creature based on a kid's drawing for me!

I was really unsure what drawing I would send her a picture of. It had to be one of Claire's because Lise isn't really drawing anything recognizable yet, and Sage can't even hold a crayon except to put in her mouth, of course.

I was so happy when I found this drawing because I thought it would make a really cute little bug and did it ever! I'm so happy with this and Amy was extremely quick to get this done and sent to me after I emailed her the picture! I'd highly recommend her work if you're looking for a cute gift idea for parents!

When Claire saw it she was pretty amazed that it was so much like her drawing!  It has some fishing line attached to the back for hanging on a wall - not sure where this one is going - but I really love it!

Junior Gallop

Before the start of the 1 mile kids race this past Saturday!  They are happy and ready to run!



And here they are after the race with Ma and Pop, who were about to run the big 4 mile race.  Still happy!  (Ma and Pop were pretty disappointed that they didn't get those treats after their run.)  Both girls finished the whole mile and are already talking all about how they're going to run it again next year!  Next year we are hoping we'll need a babysitter to watch the girls after their race, because we hope Will and I will both be healthy and racing also! It's a big race: 150 kids (12 and under) finished the 1 mile and ~960 ran the 4 mile.

Popsicles

Nothing better than a popsicle in the summertime...




Unless it's these!

Busy building...

Claire has been busy...









Look what she built!



Ok, maybe she had a lot of help from her dad.  The girls are really enjoying it!

Catching up with the big sisters

Every once in a while I have the blog up on the computer and one of the older girls will come over and want to see pictures.  Last time they said, "But where are pictures of us?"  I guess maybe the blog has been a bit "Sage heavy" lately.  To be fair, she's the one changing the most right now, but still, to (try to) be fair, here are a few of the older girls.

They still absolutely love being big sisters. Here they are talking to and entertaining Sage (who isn't crawling or anything, so is in no danger of falling down the two stairs) while waiting for Mom or Dad to be ready to take them somewhere.



Here Claire was helping keep Sage from crying while I was baking.  Sage can almost sit up by herself, and she loves it.  But she really needs someone sitting behind her for when she falls backward or sideways or forward occasionally.  Claire was very excited to help and Sage was happy she didn't have to be on her back or tummy anymore.



And finally, here's one of just the big sisters - out on a walk in their cool sunglasses. (Not sure why Claire is directing, but she usually is ordering Lise around in some way or another!)

Solid food?

Okay, no, her first solid food wasn't salad dressing, as much as she would have liked to try it.

Here she is on Monday trying banana for the first time... she wasn't really a fan.

10 years!

10 years has gone so fast - time really does fly when you're having fun!

Love you, WCH!