The Good Life

Finals ended near the beginning of May. We made it one year! These last few weeks have been great. I have been fairly busy trying to come up with a research topic for the summer, but it is definitely a different kind of busy...meaning no late nights, no Saturdays, and more time with Kindra and the girls! Speaking of girls, we recently found out that we will be joined by another little girl in October. We are very excited! We took the entire family to the ultra-sound. Ariana said she wanted to be a baby again once she realized how much attention the ultra-sound monitor was getting. Kierra was trying to hold back the tears when she found out we were having another girl. Come to find out that she was only sad because she was worried about her dad feeling lonely as the only boy in the family. Once I convinced her that I am excited about another girl, she has been so excited. Here is a little recap of some of the things we have been able to do since the end of the semester:

We finished reading Charlotte's Web near the end of semester, so for my first free weekend we had a Charlotte's Web Party complete with a visit to the carnival, watching the movie, and Charlotte's Web treats.
We also took the girls to a Chinese Festival. We tried Oriental food and saw traditional Oriental dancers. What was the girls' favorite, you ask. Of course, it was the bounce house. I am not sure how Oriental a bounce house is, but the girls had fun.
On Memorial Day, we took the girls to 'free day' at the local childrens museum. It is a nice museum, and the girls had a blast. Luckily, we got there early enough to beat the hoards that came for free day.One staple of our summer has been, and will likely continue to be, going to our neighborhood pool. With hot days (the lowest high temperature this week is forecasted to be 103) it is so nice to go cool off at the end of the day. We have already been to the pool around 10 times. The girls are getting so much better in the water. Kierra would panic when any water got near her face. Now she is constantly going under water. Ariana would just jump in if we would let her. And I couldn't resist putting in this picture:
KID QUOTES

Kierra [in a prayer]: Please bless that dad will get a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot....done in one minute so he can come home sooner.

Ariana [in a prayer]: Please bless that mom will get better, but she is better. Please bless that dad will get better, but he is better too. Please bless that we can eat dinner, but we are eating dinner. (she is really good at getting her prayers answered)

Ariana: I wish Kierra was a boy so that we could kiss on the lips and get married.