Summer Skating

Our days of summer are coming to an end quickly. Each day I ask Dawson what we should do. Today she totally surprised me by suggesting "ice skating." I wasn't sure she really wanted to go but, we did and it was tons of fun. Its a little different digging out the winter clothes to go skating in the middle of the summer but, it worked out!

She was able to skate holding on to me or to the wall. Not bad for a 4 year old!

I just wish that wall was a little bit lower for her. She had to stretch to reach it. As for now, she is still sleeping. After an hour of not leaving the nice, I have a very tired girl! By the way, I'm tired too..it's hard skating for an hour straight...holding someone up!

Meet "CHUBBY"

Our new pet hamster, Chubby, joined the family yesterday. He is better known as a Syrian Bear Hamster. He will live about 2 years (we hope) and will get to be about 5-7" long. I had to do a lot of research to figure out what kinds are best for younger children. Many of the smaller hamsters bite and are much more squirmy then the larger ones. After looking at 4 different ones, this is the one Dawson picked out! He's very cute! Miss Dawson has been begging for a cat so this is what we came up with instead. We didn't think Ella would like to share her house with a cat!

She was brave holding the box and walking out the store for a little while until......he started moving around and scratching the box. Then Dawson decided to set it down for a few minutes!

She wanted to look inside to see what was going on.....

And finally...Chubby. The hamster has to stay in his cage for 2-3 days without being picked up or taken out of his cage. Supposedly, the get stressed easily (and can die) if there is too much trauma too soon. It's hard keeping Dawson away from trying to hold him. One more day of waiting!

Movie Under the Stars

These past few nights have been perfect for an outdoor movie night. We invited a few friends, ordered some pizza and set up our sleeping bags. At the beginning, everyone was watching the movie but, as time passed, some silly friends decided to have some fun on the swing set, mostly the slide. They would slide and slide and sometimes stop to catch a glimpse of the movie. I loved all the giggles and smiles.

Unfortunately, the bugs came out biting us over and over again so we headed inside to wrap up our night. Within a few minutes, I had a sleeping girl!