NH Cabins Day 2

Badminton, fishing and 2 failed boating attempts.

Ally learned to skip rocks!

We enjoyed dinner at the lodge with our friends.

New Park

Finally park #2 in our neighborhood has re-opened. And it has monkey bars! A really fun climbing structure and a super fun spinning thing!

NH Cabins Day 1

 

This year we decided to go to  the cabins for 3 nights. Our friends joined us for the last 2 of the 3 nights.

We had the usual fun; fishing, boating, fireplace cooking, play ground climbing. No swimming this year. Ally got an unusual injury at gymnastics the day before we left (yes this is sports injury #2 for the summer) and after a trip to the emergency room and a visit to our pediatrician it was determined that she had a cut not an infection and needed to stay out of the lake water and let her cut heal. It did not seem to bother Ally (or us) and we had a wonderful time. Such a good we booked our cabin for a week next year!

Ally was excited to play horseshoes again! She carried her bag for “collecting things” throughout the week she collected pinecones, sparkly rocks and a feather.

Right now Ally does cartwheels and round-offs and gymnastics anytime there is space.

Soon we grabbed our fishing poles and headed down to the dock. It was cloudy and overcast, and eventually started raining. But we persevered and caught some fish!

Ally’s method is to drop the line in off the dock and watch the fish come nibble at the work, and when one has a good bite she reels it in. She was extremely successful at this technique and we lost count of how many fish she caught.

Ally was very interested in touch and holding the fish, and even put several back in the water after we took the hook out.

But after a while it got chilly fishing in the rain, so we headed back to our cabin to warm up and dry off, and cook our dinner of hot dogs over the fire!  Ally thought it was great fun to roast a hot bog on a stick.

Dessert was s’mores of course. Ally even tried one! Becky assembles it for her.

And Ally took a bite – but she was not a fan.

So I assembled the parts of a s’more for her and she ate them ala cart! After dinner it was a bath and snuggling with Mama in front of the fire.

I forgot to pack pajamas for Ally, so she wore comfy clothes to bed every night. Here she is coloring before bed.

Toad

I was at work, on a jobsite standing in a client’s yard when a small toad starting hopping around my feet. I was so excited to see one. We had them all the time growing up and called them “hop toads” I decided to catch it and bring it home for Ally. Once of the guys I work with got a coffee cup with lid for me to take it home in, and then at home Becky put it in a larger clear container for Ally to see it.

After work we set it free in our yard.

Hilarity ensued when it was dropped, picked up, ran after and it was so much fun! Ally kept saying how excited she was to hold the toad!

I feel pretty happy  to have passed on a fun summer memory to my daughter.

Ally asked me to take picture to email to Lauren, so we did, and Lauren said she thought the toad would make friends with the birds. Ally said “I hope the bird doesn’t eat it.   Birds eat toads you know.”

There you have it – our budding scientist talking about survival of the fittest so matter of factly!

Guatemala Girls July 2013

Its been a month since we had our July gathering. The summer just flies by.

In July Julie and Rosa hosted us at their local pool.

 

It was Ally, Gabi & Rosa – this time – the 3 girls swam and played games and ate snacks and had a great time together.

Visit With Grandparents

While Becky was in Nantucket Ally and I drove to Grandma Barbie and Grandpa Frank’s house.

We had a lot of work to do while there – our main task was sorting thru Grandma’s jewelry. We got a whole bunch of finery to bring home!

The hydrangeas in front of their house are HUGE bigger than Ally’s head.

It was a creature filled weekend. We introduced Grandma and Grandpa to a new show Ally likes called “Be a Creature” we learned about manatees and living in Patagonia.

Grandma and Ally and I went to the local science museum which had a display on dinosaurs!

I experienced the hurricane tunnel, and Ally took my picture inside.

This time Ally could read the books to Grandpa – and not just have them read to her. It was pretty neat. Another highlight of the weekend is that Ally brought home most of my Barbie dolls. These were my toys from when I was a girl. Ally particularly likes the old style Malibu Barbie and held it on the 3 hour drive home.

We took some of the hydrangeas home and they look great in our dining room.

Ally had to take her medicine while we were there – 3 times a day. My mom had gone to the ice cream store and bought 3 scoops of pink ice cream. She did this once before for Ally and Ally has asked for it again. There was raspberry sherbet, strawberry ice cream and cotton candy ice cream with rainbow chips! We devised a system, where I would squirt a “teeny tiny bit…not too much” into Ally’s mouth and then she would swallow it, wash it down with water and get a bite of ice cream. This process was repeated about 6 times until the medicine dose was complete. We even brought the cotton candy ice cream home with us so we could repeat the procedure at home. It worked and we did manage to finish out the dose, and Ally’s foot has healed properly.