Best Friends

Best friends are for telling secrets:



And for sharing hugs:




Julia and her family are officially leaving Charlottesville today for the greener pastures of Herndon. Abby is "a lot sad" about this, but knows we will see them often, as it is only a two hour drive. Hopefully, she will soon have kindergarten friends to take her mind off of things.

New clothes

What else does a five year old princess want for her birthday? Here Abby is modeling a few of her new outfits this week.

Clothing Thief

One of Benji's favorites things is Abby's room (and Abby, of course. Big sisters are exciting). He has taken to crawling into her bedroom and emptying her bottom drawers. Abby is not thrilled with this development, but we think it is hysterically funny.

Tooth Fairy Arrives!

No sooner did we begin to mention the tooth fairy, then Abby's first tooth fell out! It was a bit of a jolt to hear a call from the back seat "I think my tooth just came out," but we recovered quickly.

Abby was very excited to put the tooth in her pillow and leave a note for her tooth fairy:



The tooth fairy visited last night, leaving a very nice note back and a book about fairies. Abby's other bottom tooth is also on its last legs, so the tooth fairy will be making another trip again soon, I think.

Helping in the Office....

By making a big mess.

Loose Tooth

Hard to believe it is already time for her to start losing teeth. This one has been loose for a few weeks and is getting really wiggly...won't be long until the tooth fairy now.

Birthday Streamers

We decorated Abby's room for her birthday, which seemed like a fun idea at the time. However, the streamers are still up, and Abby has declared that she would like them to stay forever. It requires quite a bit of agility to put her laundry away now....

The Bat

Earlier this week, we woke to this site one morning:



Abby noticed immediately: "hey, is that a dead bat on our window!"

Actually, not dead, as we could see it moving occasionally. It apparently just decided to roost between our storm window and screen for the day. We all decided this was very cool and moved in for a closer look. The bat was actually pretty cute, from what we could tell, and looked like a mouse with wings:



Abby also thought it was neat that it was hanging by its toenails.

A little research revealed that this was likely a little brown bat, which are common in this area. It was almost definitely a pup, who frequently choose spots like this to roost through July and August if they are temporarily separated from their moms.

Alas, "Woody", as we dubbed him, took off as dusk fell and has not returned to roost again. Hopefully he found the rest of his bat family. We are re-considering our previous decision not to build a bat house, which are very popular here in Charlottesville. Abby is particularly keen on the idea, so we think we should maybe capitalize on her enthusiasm for it.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Abby and Jules helping Kevin celebrate a little early.

Short hair!

Finally catching up on pictures....For her birthday, Abby really, really, really wanted to get her hair cut. We agreed to a mommy-Abby day at the spa as her gift from us, and she got her much coveted short haircut and her toenails painted pink. Kevin and I were both very hesitant to chop all of her hair off, but she sure does look cute in her new 'do.

Tomatoes

Our tomato plants are a little scraggly, but we were able to pick a few.

Walking Boy!

He is still not walking everywhere, but he has been willing to cross a room on his feet more and more....

Making pancakes

Our usual Saturday morning activity.

Bye-bye CBI!

Today is Abby's last day at CBI. She is a little melancholy about saying goodbye, but a few of her friends will go to Camp Triple C with her next week, and at least one will join her in kindergarten in the fall.

Bedheads

Just Chillin'

Benji in his chair (with two Henrys)

Big Girl Abby

Last year she still said she needed to ride the stroller sometimes, but all of a sudden, she is big enough to be the one pushing:

Fourth of July, part 2

Here are some more photos from our weekend celebration. It was great to have Kristin, Jono, Ella and Will down to Cville, and to get all the girls/families together for a laid back barbecue. The girls had a great time splashing in the kiddie pool:



After dinner, we had an impromptu parade (to the stylings of Lee Greenwood):



Followed by fun with sparklers, which were a big hit with the 3-5 year old set:

Raincoat Twins

It rained most of Sunday, ruining our pool plans, but Abby and Ella made the most of it.

Happy Independence Day!

Up Close and Personal

Benji, trying to get into the camera as we tried to take a picture:

Wearing Daddy's Glasses

Can't be good for the eyes....