Happy 8th Birthday, Abigail Beatrice!

A little break in the trip review to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the sweetest 8 year old around!

Abby's first birthday:

Abby's Fourth birthday:

Look at her now:

Father's Day

While up in DC, we went to the Yankees-Nationals game to celebrate Father's Day. I also gave Kevin and the kids matching hats:

Picture from inside the stadium:

The Trip Begins

After being home for a whopping 4 days, we set out again for an actual vacation. First stop was Herndon, to spend a couple of nights with our friends Alex and Steph. It was Julia's last day of school, so we got to enjoy their neighborhood's start of summer celebration:

We also had a chance to celebrate Sophia's 3rd birthday with a small party.  There were balloons:

And presents galore.  Here are Abby and Julia "helping" Sophia open them.  Notice the look on her face in response to this:

To make up for it, the girls made Sophia a very special present from them - a guitar made from a bowl and rubber bands, with Sophia Turns 3 written out in stickers inside.  They were very excited to give it to her:

And, of course, there was cake. Rainbow cake:

Benji Learns to Swim

Since we are already at the pool every day, we decided this would be a good time for Benji to learn to swim. He has really embraced his lessons and loves Coach Brittany.

He has no fear of the water at all:

And by his fourth lesson, was already able to swim a short distance:

Coach Andrea says he will be ready for swim team by this winter!

Swim Meet Season Begins

We arrived back home Monday night, so that Abby was able to make it to swim practice Tuesday morning, ahead of her first meet on Wednesday. It was a pleasant day for it, and Abby was very focused for her swims. Here she is studying the heat sheet:

Showing off her heat winner ribbon (for butterfly):

Intently checking her times and ranks at practice the next day:

She ended up 6th in fly (out of 18 swimmers) and 14th in free (out of 48 swimmers). Not bad, especially considering this is the first of her two years in this age bracket (so half of the kids are a year older than her and will move up a bracket in the fall).

Wedding Shower

Continuing our insane pace, Abby and I took off for New York the day after the sing-a-long. Our destination: cousin Sara's bridal shower.

 We got their a little early, and Grandpa Steve took this shot of us hanging out before the party:

 

Here is a very tired Abby sporting her "flower girl" pin:

Sharing smiles with the bride-to-be:

Our entry won a prize in the playdough cake-topper contest (for most like Sara and John):

Here is Abby next to some of the entries:

After the party, we slept at Grandma and Pop-pop's and then got right back in the car for the trek to VA for another hectic week.

Rock the Mall

On our very first day of summer break, we trekked up to DC to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the girl scouts at Girl Scouts Rock the Mall. Over 250,000 people on the national mall for a sing-a-long. A friend scoped out spots early, so we had an amazing view of the stage:

But it was incredibly hot, although Abby refused to leave early:

We took a few short breaks to look at the awesome exhibits on the history of the girl scouts, as well as to add our names to the wall:

Abby, with friend Anya: