Last Night with Cousins

My cousin Kimn and her two sons have been in Boston for the past 3 plus weeks. Jesse is 11 and Justin is 18. They have stayed with us off and on since June 18 when they arrived from Hawaii.

On their last weekend in town they stayed with us again. We had dinner and fun at the park.

Pre-dinner mancala games. Ally beat both boys.

 

After dinner at the park:

 

ping pong!

slide races between brothers

 

Ally pushed Jesse on the swing.

She was thrilled with it

A trip thru the fountain on the way home to cool off!

First Sleep Over

Ally was invited to spend the night at her friend LouLou's house. Ally was thrilled and excited. We talked all week long about how she could come home or call us and what she should do if she was worried or scared. 

She did great.

She had a fun time. 

Stayed up till midnight. 

Slept thru the night.

All packed and ready to go.

World Cup Soccer–the Women

One of the interesting things of raising a strong athletic daughter is that to her women and girls being successful at sports is not a big deal. There are an amazing amount of impressive women athletes and in her short lifetime she has been able to witness much success; the London Olympics where USA swimmers conquered the pool, the USA women’s gymnastics team won gold in team and all-around. We watched winter Olympics and saw skiers and skaters  and other women athletes win too. And this year, the USA women won the World Cup!

I love having so much positive athletics to show and inspire Ally with. For the final game I got us all shirts to cheer on USA with. Ally got an official team jersey, Becky an official USA soccer t-shirt, and I juts got a USA flag shirt.

Ally put her hair up in a pony tail (like the players) after her shower, and started a letter to Lauren.

Here she is before the game started in her jersey.

Goals 1 and 2

Goals 3 & 4 – even Beth was getting in o n the cheering and excitement.

Goal 5 was amazing.

 

So excited and concentrated and focused.

But then it was over – and pure joy. They won!

A before bed picture with mommy and Cloey.

4th of July

Aunt Beth came to visit for the 4th of July.  She arrived on July 3rd:

As usual the sisters dress alike. Admittedly Beth wore her clothes to our house, and Becky was trying things on and realized she was dressed just like Beth.

Beth, Becky and Ally went Stand Up Paddle boarding on Friday, and I stayed home with Cloey. Cloey spends most of the time we are home together looking out the window for Becky's car. This day she figured out how to get 3 legs on the window sill. I could hardly believe it.

They look so sporty and ready to go!

After paddle boarding they went out for frozen yogurt. On the way home Ally fell asleep in the car. This is what she looked like when I came out to the car with Cloey to meet them. She was so tired.

July 4th:

Saturday morning we did some gardening in the yard, and I made food to bring to the BBQ at Liem’s house later that evening. After our hard work we headed over to the pool. Beth did a really neat braid in Ally’s hair.

After lunch Beth, Ally and I watched Jurassic Park. Becky said it was too scary so she took a nap. Can you find Cloey in the picture?

Then we headed over to Liem’s house for a 4th of July BBQ. Charlotte (at left), is Andy’s older sister. She painted all of the girls hands (and toes).

The kids at the park.

Ally and Beth being silly before we leave for the fireworks.

Photo bomb from Becky! Can you find Ally in her stroller? Khai is sitting on her lap. Yes we hauled out the “Purple Chariot” for the walk to the fireworks. At 10pm we thought that best. Ally was happy to ride and was a good sport about sharing the stroller with her friends.

Here is the 4 of us waiting for the fireworks to begin. They were amazing as usual.

Here is a group shot in the dark of us watching the fireworks.

July 5th came a little too soon – with not enough sleep for most of us. But Cloey needed a walk, so Becky and Ally set out to take her to the dog park. Beth braided Ally’s hair in an Elsa style braid.

 

Ally has a clipboard because she was going to do math work on their adventure. She was counting up how many dogs and what size there were.

Later in the day after a nap we met up with Rosa and her mom  Julie at their local pool.