Real Housewives of Algiers Point tee *AT* Costco. Oh, irony of ironies.
Paul: "Ada, why are you crying?" Ah, you might think this is cruel, but we were, in fact, having a great, laughy time, and then Ada was done. Outta nowhere, so it was a genuine question. She was promptly removed ... after taking a photo. If you need proof of their sibling-love, here's them reading together, too.
Somebody got a snazzy haircut while we visited the ever-improving (how's it possible?) HEB while at Nana & Pappy's. I love HEB.
The neighbors put in a driveway instead of the rutted mosquito-trap they had, and we had to watch. Of course, the cement mixer rolled up riiiight at 1pm in time for nap. So we stayed out and watched it all until 3, when both kids promptly crashed.
We've been doing a bit of digging around in our neighborhood's community garden. Mostly weeding, which is feasible with the kiddos around, but, hey, somebody's gotta do it. (We're really just helping out marginally. I'd love to be more involved but don't know how that can happen at the moment.)
We celebrated the 4th! First, the fam came in from Houston beforehand, and we all had a lovely courtyard dinner in the Quarter followed by beignets, naturally. This is what the end of the night looked liked:
Actually *on* the 4th, we visited Aunt Mollie whose birthday it was...
We've been getting these kids in the water as much as possible, too. We'd done swimming lessons with Paul back in Austin, MN when he was 18mos, but last year missed out because of the move, and now here we are again in summer, and Paul hadn't been swimming in 2 years, for all intents and purposes of learning. He was a bit tense every time we'd get in, so we've just started doing it more and more and more. Anyway, we've joined a local gym on our side of the tracks (read: river), and with its membership, comes weekend access to their flagship campus, which has an aaaamazing pool setup. We tried it out last week for the first time after Paul's soccer on Saturday mornings, and everyone loved it. So! That's our Saturday from here on out: soccer + swimming. Ada even gets to start soccer next month. Til then, though, she'll just get by with the swimming.
I've also started and finished a 5-week class with just Ada on Wednesday mornings. Let's just say that it was geared very much toward first-time moms with a bit younger than Ada and not as structured as I'd hoped, but it was still nice to do something with just her. During that time, though, my good friend and import to NOLA like me, Stacy, watched Paul! She has a 2+ year old very sweet boy, and she taught Montessori (so I knew he was in good hands ;) ). They had a great time together, and Stacy was very good about sending me little updates. Here's a snapshot of their fun:
Lastly, here's a peek at our Mini Art Center, which does Flubber Fridays for 5 and under. It's a 45min class with free art, a guided project, and then an "artsy" story. Everyone loves the MAC and are so glad it's here in the 'hood!
Just for kicks, I'll throw this one in of our impromptu, very fancy, very detectible, very expensive (but-not-for-us) top chefs' award dinner:
So, technically we celebrated the 4th, then went to Houston for a week, and then came back for some of this other stuff. But I didn't feel like shifting photos around again, and it doesn't really matter, does it. It's all been in July, and that's apparently how I'm running this blog now anyway, monthly. Ah, well.
