American Girl Tea

In lieu of a party this year, Abby asked to go to the American Girl Cafe and Store in Washington, D.C., with her best friend Julia.  After much perusing of the website, Abby decided on an afternoon tea.  They brought their dolls:

There was much giggling in the booth:

The girls chose lemonade in their tea pots over actual tea:

The food was surprisingly good:

And Abby took lots of pictures with her new camera:

After tea, the girls both got their dolls' ears pierced (really):

And Aunt Steph bought the dolls matching outfits:

Abby is already saying she can't wait to go back, so we'll call that a birthday success.

Abby's Birthday

Trying to squeak this in while it is still July, but it will take two posts.  Since we started our vacation on Abby's actual birthday, we had her birthday dinner with Gammy the night before.  She asked that her birthday poster from Pop-pop be displayed prominently near the table:

We had her traditional birthday dinner of pop-pop's pasta, followed by brownie sundaes:

Followed by presents, of course:

Dress from Uncle Tom and Christine

Camera from Grandpa Steve

New clothes from Grandma and Pop-pop

Overnight, we decorated her room for her:

And, by request, her birthday muffin (in her new 8 t-shirt from Steph):

Tomorrow: birthday tea

Good Luck at CHAMPS!

Abby is swimming her championship meet today, which marks the official end of swim season.  She is doing three(!) races: fly, free and back.  Here is Abby doing her mean fly:

And here is the whole team on photo day:

We bought Abby's photo package, but I couldn't help nabbing a few shots at the same time:

Carter's Mountain

Another favorite July activity is peach picking.  We headed up to Carter's Mountain one cooler July evening to get our fill.  We started with a picnic:

And moved on to the main event:

We ended the night with peach ice cream and plans for a peach crisp.  Tastes like summer.

Independence Day 2012

Hard to believe July is almost over! It'll take me a few days to catch-up post-trip, but I wanted to post our 4th of July pictures. We take the holiday seriously in our family:

We spent the day at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, where they were having a special old-fashioned Independence Day celebration.  We checked out the farm (Benji with Alex, petting a boar):

And Abby (with friend Anya) enjoyed a few sack races:

Benji mostly enjoyed waving the flag:

In the evening, we headed out the the city celebration and fireworks. McIntire park was all decked out:

The kids enjoyed bouncy castles and some sparklers:

They even gave us 3D glasses for the fireworks (which we stayed for only 2 minutes of before the kids had had enough):

Name writing

Benji's been practicing.

More Meet Fun

With only the Championship meet left to go, Abby is sad to be leaving swim season behind. She had an awesome year, with good friends on the team for the first time. Here she is mugging with fellow Swordfish LilyKate and Fry's Spring swimmer (but fellow girl scout) Claire:

Dewey Beach

Just in time to leave for another vacation (we're off to San Francisco today), here are the photos from our trip to Dewey Beach last month.

Some shots by the waves:

 



Flying kites on the beach:

Playing with cousins:

 



Mini-golf:

Ducks on the golf course

Celebrating Birthdays:

Boardwalk fun:

Water park:

Benji goes down the big slide all by himself

Benji swimming!

The whole gang: