anticipation

we have this awesome tent, but have never taken it anywhere, so we decided to try camping in the backyard - we cooked over a fire and then luci and kai read stories by flashlight in the tent. it lasted about an hour - apparently the 'bugs were too noisy' and luci had to come sleep inside.

luci spent a lot of time this summer playing with our neighbor Allison. she gets super excited when there's an Allison sighting and then starts jumping up and down begging to play with her. luckily it seems that Allison enjoys playing with Luci just as much.

Luci helped paint the new toy storage bins that we bought for the playroom.

mysteriously a lot of the paint ended up in luci's hair and is just now coming out.

after some rain, luci and kai usually go to the creek to stomp in puddles in rain boots and to make a dam

we worked in a visit to the zoo and one of the rare non-90 degree days - luci was very particular about which animals she wanted to see. the elephants were her favorite, but she refused to see the lions or gorillas - too scary. though the next day she said she was ready to go back to the zoo to see them.

we did the 4D Dora movie at the zoo - it was pretty cool - they splash water on you! and you get to wear some pretty groovy shades.

sweeping the driveway wearing wreaths of leaves - why not?

when hurricane irene came through we got lots of wind and very little rain, but it was a day mostly spent indoors. so kai invented a great fishing game, which involved going fishing with a noodle, string and clothespin. all sorts of treasures were caught.

it's official - our house is on its way to being completely taken over by the children. bye bye dining room and hello playroom. thanks to heather, eme, taty and captain for their hard work in helping paint the room and for donating the futon. and thanks to poppy for the new ceiling fan/light fixture.

the crib has been reassembled and is ready for baby.

all the neutral clothing has been washed (luci helped - she likes to push the buttons on the washing machine and dryer) and organized.

and luci has transitioned nicely to her new 'big girl' room complete with fairy wall decals.

I realized that I didn't update the blog at all in August - this is mostly due to the fact that we've all been a little preoccupied lately preparing for baby #2's arrival (official due date is today). so here are some pictures from the dog days of summer, which in reality were a whole lot nicer than the beginning of the summer. all in all the summer of 2011 was wonderful - several trips to the beach, trips to see good friends in Charlotte and DC, lots of popsicle eating on the front steps, birthday parties, including Luci's!, several days/evenings spent relaxing at the pool (luci now goes down the slide all by herself and jumps off the low diving board), cook outs, visits to 2 aquariums and the zoo, and lots of fun times playing with our little girl who will soon get to be a Big Sister.