4th of July on the National Mall

Some thought we were crazy to brave the parking, traffic, the predicted 600,000+ crowd and the humidity at the National Mall, but we did it anyway, because that is what we do on the 4th of July... we're a little crazy!

We drove in about 6:30pm and were home before 11pm that night, no sweat (well, a little with the humidity), but well worth the memories...

we all give it a BIG thumbs up!

3rd of July

We celebrated the 4th of July on the 3rd with our good friends the Conovers and Gillians. Always the rule with this crowd is good and plentiful amounts of food (the guys are lovin' dinner from Famous Dave's, or "the Piggy Place" as Adrienne refers to it) and good conversation with plentiful amounts of laughs! Catharine even whipped up a flag cake in the middle of packing their house to move just a few days later, she's nuts! It was such a fun night and it reminded me of the days that all three of our families hung out in good ole Prove (minus the 8 kids:). We all some how ended up in the DC area and now the Conovers are moving west to Southern CA, we're moving to Northern CA (we hope to see them even though Catharine said, "that's so far north, you're practically in Canada) and now we hope to see the Gillians sometime in the near future!

Cooper, Claire, Sean, Alyssa, Elizabeth & Adrienne (the babies slept through most of the celebration)

Emily, Catharine and I are ready to light 'em up!

Katie Holmes...

Last year Adrienne grew her hair out all year long and then the week after her dance recital she got a cute short summer cut. So, this year she decided she'd do the same. The week after her recital we "googled" little girl short haircuts with not much luck so I just searched short haircuts and let Adrienne look through them all and pick a haircut. She picked a picture of Katie Holmes. She printed it out and took it in and here is her before and after...

Dance recital...

Adrienne had her last dance recital at Chris Collin's Dance Studio the last weekend in June. She was a cute little cowgirl in her tap dance Hello Texas and a a beautiful ballerina in her Colors of the Wind ballet number.

The dance studio raises money by putting little advertisements in the recital program so my friends Tiffany, Jill, Emily and I got a great shot (thanks to Emily) of our girls to include in the program this year!

Adrienne, Avery, Lizzie and Emma, sigh, they're getting so old!

Adrienne was in different classes than her pals.

Adrienne had one of her favorite people, Christine Bullock, come watch her

perform. Ryan, Cooper and I also came:)

We made little cards attached to candy bars for her teachers, Miss Terri (above) and Mr. Chris, fellow classmates and friends. This was Adrienne's 3rd recital and she did a great job. When she got home that night she dreamily said, "I want to be a dancer when I grow up!"

THE END!

1st grade wrap up...

1st day of school......................................................last day of school

Adrienne finished up 1st grade on June 24th... she had a wonderful year and we miss wonderful Tucker Elementary with all of our wonderful friends and teachers.

Adrienne going up for her Citizenship award..........Adrienne and her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Breakwell

Above left: Adrienne and Principal Scott, she became extra good friends with Principle Scott because she won a raffle for a lunch with the principle... Adrienne thought that it was SO cool. I was very surprised when Principal Scott called and said she planned to make cookies for their lunch and asked what Adrienne's favorite cookie was. She was very thoughtful and a great principal.

Above right: Adrienne and Mr. Murphy... I love Mr. Murphy, he was an amazing art teacher and really took time to get to know each child! I so wish we could have packed him in our suitcases and brought him to California where they don't have art teachers, parents volunteer as "art docents" here... I didn't know we had been so spoiled!

End of the year concert........................Adrienne and her best buddy Quyhn and Dylan

Alex, Coriel, Maeva, Katharine & Adrienne................Cooper thought family come to lunch day was pretty cool!

Father's Day

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to the best dad in the world!

Aunt Robyn came the weekend of Cooper's birthday, which means that it was also almost her birthday! So to celebrate the girls squeezed in a pedicure! Adrienne got a mani-pedi for the first time and loved it, I think we may have introduced this a little too early:)

Robyn was a trooper while she was here! She was a good sport as we dragged her to all of Cooper's birthday festivities, the last day of swim classes, random errands.