The last four final days of summer have been filled with a trip to the Dallas Aquatic Center, two separate family bbq's–one with family from Baker and the other with family that had never been to our place before–and haircuts for both girls. All very fun and perfect photo opportunities. I took a grand total of zero photos. Shame on me.
Looking back, this has been a great summer for our family. Here's a few glimpses of what filled our days (that haven't been posted):
A trip to Newport Beach:
...and their first time crabbing on a boat:
Slumber Parties in the living room complete with popcorn and movies starring princesses:
Summer nights playing in the backyard with Daddy. Especially "bat-thirty" nights when the three of them sit outside at dusk and watch for bats high up in the evening sky.
Days spent selling lemonade (or orange juice if that's all you have on hand):
A trip to East Lake with the girls maneuvering the pontoon boats on their own:
Lighting fireworks on the fourth of July with the neighbors. H finding my camera and taking 25 pictures of her best pal that all look like this:
Birthdays:
Of course in addition to many days of bike riding, sprinkler running, vacation Bible school learning, bean picking, boat rowing, swimming, backyard baseball playing, library book perusing, and sidewalk-chalk drawing on every gracious neighbors driveway, they also enjoyed plenty of lazy summer days staying in pajamas until noon:
You know the rule about bananas that are getting too ripe? The rule that they must be cooked into bread–always. That rule applied yesterday and the girls didn't seem to mind. When I asked who wanted to cook they all ran for their aprons and hats and stood in their usual cooking spots ready for their turn to stir.
H bought this bug catching set with some birthday money yesterday. She set out to use it today–girly style. She used the matching tools in order to not touch the bugs and carried the case like a purse once she was convinced the bug would not get out.
I don't blame her for ensuring the bug would stay in. It was a big ol' leggy crane fly.
When she was done, she politely showed it to the cat ("because he would like to see it") and set it free. Well, by unlatching and throwing the case across the yard so when it came out it would be nowhere near her.
V and H went to the zoo today with Grandpa. Notice V put on her orange and black. H wore yellow. Not a coincidence. In fact half the drive to Grandpa's house was spent debating who had the better team. 
The girls had a great time of course and did their best to wear out Grandpa. I think H looked a bit worn out herself when she settled in to read books and snuggle before supper:
Despite all the interesting animals they saw today though, I think Henry still ranks #1 as their favorite.
After school on Friday the girls wanted smoothies. Not just any smoothies, KK's special recipe. (They nicknamed each other KK and VV.) The recipe consists of Otter Pops and milk. Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it. Clearly it's a hit with the 8 and 5 year old crowd.
Another fun part of back to school is new school shoes of course. H is very hard on shoes so before they hit the playground I thought I'd take a picture of them for all posterity. Aren't they cute!
She found the cubby that has her name on it: 
She found the desk that has her name on it and put her new school supplies inside:
Then we went on a tour to the gym: (V is still helping by holding H's hand)
