Pool

Okay, I know. I've been terrible this summer about keeping up with my blog. There's always just something else that needs to get done that I never end up sitting down and doing it. So my goal is to try and get some pictures up from the past couple months that have been sitting on my computer for forever and let you know what we've been up to this summer.

Last year, over Labor Day weekend, we went to my parents' and helped them take down their pool. They were giving it to us, so we needed to get it all loaded and brought home. Once the weather started warming up, I began to drop hints to Calvin about setting up the pool. He finally agreed, only for us to have to wait three weeks for a part we needed to come in. This meant that instead of putting up the pool in June, we were now looking at July. I still wanted to get it done, but had pretty much lost hope that it would get up this summer. Calvin finally made up his mind to put it up and started digging out the sod, leveling the dirt, and then putting in sand. The weekend we put it up ended up being the weekend mom and dad were on vacation and the wind was blowing pretty strong. Calvin's parents and aunt came and helped us put it up. It was pretty stressful. I thought for sure several times that the wind was going to knock the whole wall in, but we made it and got it filled. Mom and Jenna came over the next day to help me set up the pump, filter, and add chemicals. It didn't take long for the water to go from brown to clear - maybe three days. We were swimming within a week of putting it up.

The pool has been amazing to have. During July, we swam just about every day. The girls, even Chloe, will swim by themselves around the pool. Aubrey will even go under water - though it's not her favorite thing. They've gotten so much more comfortable in the water and have become little fishies. :) I'm so thankful to mom and dad for giving it to us.

Aubrey swimming

Aunt Dani with Aubrey and Chloe
Getting ready to go swimming for the first time

Aunt Dani and Chloe

Swimming with Grandma and Grandpa
The pool

Aubrey swimming

Fair Time

One of the girls' most favorite times of the year is fair time. They love the whole thing - the food, rides, animals, and taking projects. This year, each of them took a painting and a flower. Aubrey also took a photograph of our cat "Rosie Posie". Danielle came down for the fair - she's gone with us the past three years. We went every day and even took the girls to the demo this year. It was pretty hot out - much different than last year, but we all had a good time. It was fun to be able to spend time together and look at all of the different things. The food was great too!

We took the girls to the demo this year. Brad (Calvin's brother) was in it, and we thought it might be fun for them to watch him. Calvin's aunt saved us great seats in the grandstands (we sat on the second row), so we could see really well. We brought the girls earphones to try and block the sound, because it is so loud. Chloe didn't want to wear her "white telephones", but changed her mind as soon as the first car came out. Both girls looked hilarious, especially Chloe, because their little faces looked so fat. We also had to block flying mud with a blanket. Brad ended up winning the whole thing, so it was really exciting to be there and watch that.

At the petting zoo this year they had calves, goats, a pony, chicks, ducks, and bunnies. The girls pet almost everything and loved going there to look at the animals. I think we were there at least three times. Each of them tried to hold a chick but weren't quite ready to do it by themselves.

A rare moment - Chloe walking with Daddy

One of the girls' favorite parts of the fair is riding on rides. Aubrey wanted to ride them the first day we went to the fair, but I told her we had to wait and ride them with Daddy. So, on Saturday, they finally got to ride on rides. I wasn't sure if Chloe would actually ride on them - I thought for sure she would chicken out - but she didn't. She loved them as much as Aubrey did.

This year I decided to take a sewing project to the fair. I had bought a pattern for a $1 and decided to try sewing a dress for Aubrey. While it was challenging (and took a while to figure out), I was able to sew everything but the zipper by myself. After getting Aubrey's dress done, I thought it would be cute to make Chloe a matching one. So, a couple weeks before the fair started, I began one for Chloe. I was a little panicked about getting it done on time, but managed to finish with a few days to spare. The dresses turned out great! The girls then had to model them in the fashion show at the fair twice. The first time they just had to be judged and did great. The second time was in front of lots of people and they did pretty good. Aubrey, of course, did awesome and walked like we had practiced. Chloe needed me to hold her hand as she walked down the runway, but overall did pretty good too.

On Sunday, we took the girls to the tiger show. It lasted about 25 minutes and we had to sit directly in the sun. The guy talked about each tiger at first, so they only ended up doing tricks for about 10 minutes. The girls enjoyed it though. Chloe even sat in the stroller watching for about 20 minutes, which is really good for her.

Swim Lessons

This year we decided to sign Aubrey up for private swim lessons. We thought that some one on one time with a teacher would be more beneficial to helping her become more comfortable in the water. Last year, she was scared to even put her face in the water, so I wasn't exactly sure how she would do. She had one week of lessons and made drastic improvements. Her teacher Marissa was amazing! Marissa taught her how to put her face in the water without holding her nose and practiced kicking and floating. By the end of the week, Aubrey was going underwater by herself, floating on her back by herself, and was 100% more confident in the water than she had been. It was definitely worth it to have private lessons, especially since we got our pool up. It's so nice that she enjoys swimming now.

Visit to the Acquarium

The last weekend in June we took the girls up to Chicago to the Shedd Acquarium. We had never been there before and were excited about taking the girls to see everything. After we got our tickets, we walked around for a little bit and then found our seats for their "Fantasea Adventure" show which consisted of dolphins, whales, penguins, and a hawk. It was pretty cool and the girls were captivated by the animals and the tricks that they did. After the show, we walked through the gift shop and then went to see our 4-D movie about arctic animals. We had to wear 4-D glasses (Chloe refused). During the movie, our chairs moved and we had water sprayed at us. I figured both girls would be scared, but they did really good and enjoyed it. After the movie, we ate lunch out on the patio overlooking the lake. It was beautiful! We then walked throughout the acquarium and looked at the fish, octopus, sharks, and jelly fish. Aubrey was scared to go and look at the sharks, but ended up liking them - the room was pretty cool! Overall, it was a great day! It was fun to spend the day together - just us as a family.

Waiting for the "Fantasea Adventure"

Playing on the Polar Playground

View from the patio

Calvin and the girls

Me and the girls

Checking out the fish

Father's Day

This year for Father's Day we went out to the campground where Luke and Shelly have their camper and had a cook-out. It was so much fun! While it was hot, as long as you were in the shade, it wasn't too bad. We had tons of yummy food, and the girls got to play with their cousins and then go fishing for the first time. We had bought them fishing poles about a month ago, but hadn't taken the time to go anywhere to use them yet, so this was the perfect opportunity to try them out. Chloe had a blast practicing casting, while Aubrey loved the whole thing. We fished for probably two hours. Aubrey caught three little bluegills, while Calvin and I each got a catfish. Chloe got pretty bored with the whole thing, but was pretty good about just playing while we sat, relaxed, and fished. Aubrey though, loved just spending time with her daddy and really enjoyed watching the bobber and reeling in her fish.

Clare, Aubrey, and Chloe waiting for the food to be done.

Daddy and his girls
Grandpa and four of the granddaughters

Practicing casting

Chloe fishing

Aubrey fishing

Aubrey with the first fish she ever caught

Sophia and Aubrey touching the fish

Jenna's Graduation

A couple weeks ago we went to Fort Wayne for my sister Jenna's graduation from high school. It's still so hard to believe that she has graduated from high school and is going off to college. I think that to me, she will always be my baby sister and I will always think that she shouldn't be as old as she is. I'm really excited that she'll be going to Purdue though, so we'll be able to see her more often. The girls and I went over on Thursday night. Dani drove down and went with us, so that Calvin could come later. The girls did so good on the drive over - and that was without the DVD player, since we had to take the truck. On Friday, Dani, Hannah, and I went shopping for Jen's gift and some other stuff, while Jen babysat the girls. It has been so long since I went shopping without kids - it was nice! Saturday we spent all day decorating and making food. Sunday was church, the graduation ceremony, and then her party. I was so proud of the girls! They were excellent even though they ended up sitting for a large chunk of the day. They sat through 1 1/2 hours of church, 1 1/2 hours of graduation, 45 minutes stuck in the parking garage, and then the 3 hour drive home. I think they were so happy to get home and be able to move around.

Great-Grandpa Leininger reading Aubrey a book. She absolutely loves him and spent quite a bit of time near him, which is just priceless.

Calvin and Aubrey sitting at the graduation ceremony.
Chloe patiently sitting too. She loved "texting" on Aunt Hannah's phone.

The girls with Aunt Jenna after the ceremony.

The four sisters - me, Jenna, Hannah, Dani

Jen and her cake

Mom, Jenna, and Dad

The family - we missed having Nic and his family there!

Chloe and her baby

My family before we left to go home

Summer Fun

The girls and I have been enjoying the warm weather that we've been having. We've been busy playing and working outside (hence the not blogging for over a month). They have helped me plant flowers and a few bushes, weed several times, and put mulch around our trees, flower beds, and playground. We finally found one litter of kittens, and the girls are trying to tame them so that we will actually be able to pet some of our cats. Aubrey has already laid claim to the all orange one and has named it "Lias" (her own creation), while Chloe says the orange and white one is hers and has named it "Ella", even though its a boy. We tried to get her to change the name, but she insists on it being called "Ella". They love being outside and would probably play outside all day every day if I let them.

Aubrey ended up missing her last full week of school due to strep throat. She actually wasn't too upset about it - she just wanted to make sure that she didn't miss her field trip. She got to go on her field trip to the park and then Burger King. She found out that she CAN go to the top of the indoor playground (she never had before) and loved it! Now every time we pass by a place with a playground she wants to stop and play. I thought for sure she would miss school terribly, but she hasn't talked about it too much. We have had a few playdates with friends, so that helps. The girls have actually been getting along pretty well. They fight, of course, but for the most part they play very well together. Their latest thing to play is house. They take turns being the mommy and the baby (Chloe makes a very good baby), and sometimes I even get to be the big sister. She loves being in charge and telling Chloe what to do - hence the fighting, because Chloe doesn't always want to do what Aubrey tells her to do. Aubrey's been a great helper and is getting so big. She loves to talk about going to kindergarten and being five, to which I tell her to quit growing. She just tells me that "she'll still love me even when she gets big".

Chloe continues to be the more ornery one, but she's just so cute it's hard to stay too mad at her. She knows just how to push Aubrey's buttons to make her mad, which also causes some arguments. :) She loves to talk and talks non-stop. Some of the things she says just crack me up, although there are times that I wish she had a mute button. She loves playing with her baby (NOT the new one I bought her, but this old one that was Aubrey's) and takes that thing with her everywhere - to the store, church, friends' houses - and of course has to sleep with it. She continues to be mommy's girl and is my shadow most of the time. I trip over her quite often, because she is constantly standing right next to me. I'll tell her to quit being my shadow and she'll say that she's not my shadow, she's Chloe. She's pretty much potty trained. She has a few accidents now and then, but does pretty good most of the time. We just need to work on her going by herself now. It is so nice not to have to change diapers though. She's also gotten to the stage where she has to do everything by herself, which is sometimes great and other times just annoying. Although, she loves to be carried around alot of the time. I'm not really sure how that fits into her independent personality. :) She's quite the character, but overall is such a cute, sweet little thing.

Last weekend we went to the Fireball Festival where Aubrey got her face painted for the first time. She wasn't so sure about it, but once Abby did it, she was brave enough to try it and loved it.

The girls were playing house - Chloe was the mommy and Aubrey was her baby. Chloe had to feed Aubrey her bottle.
They are going to be expert texters.

We got out the kites the girls got and flew them. They had a blast, although it was hard to keep both girls' kites going at the same time.

Aubrey did a good job holding onto her kite.

Aubrey's last day of school

Getting ready to go and run through the sprinkler for the first time.

Aubrey loved it and even got her face wet!

Chloe was content to stay on the sidewalk and just watch Aubrey.