It is summertime!

I've been on summer vacation for almost a week now and Miriam and I have been having a lot of fun.  Although the weather has mostly been cold and rainy, we've been keeping busy indoors with lots of fun activities.  We've been painting, doing sticker activities, doing lots of baking, playing cars, puzzles, hide and seek.  Miriam has also been enjoying her new roller coaster (a toy that has a riding car, it goes down a roller coaster ramp) that we currently have set up inside until the weather gets nicer.  (The first morning she woke up and we had the roller coaster set up, she exclaimed "I love it!")  We've also been running errands and meeting friends for play dates, mostly at indoor playgrounds due to the rain.

Last weekend we had a gorgeous weather day on Saturday and the 3 of us spent the whole day outside.  In the morning/early afternoon we met some friends up near Lake Washington and played in the sand, had a picnic and enjoyed the playground and the sunshine.  Later that day, after Miriam took a 2 minute power nap on the way home, we spent the afternoon lounging in the backyard.  Miriam has a couple of outdoor toys, a small pool and a water table, and she goes back and forth between playing on those and doing whatever we are doing (Mario was weeding the yard and I was reading a book).  She's somehow gotten a fear of spiders (Mario claims it isn't from him!) and always makes us check her playhouse for spiders before she'll go in it.  I know I shouldn't laugh, but she does this hilarious whole body shudder whenever she sees a spider, before backing away and saying "icky, spider!"

I've been enjoying having more time to read now that summer vacation has started.  I've read a couple of good books lately (Shantaram, An Ordinary Man, and The Kitchen House among them) and am looking forward to reading and relaxing more at the lake.  Miriam and I leave next Monday morning (July 1) for Minnesota, and we are both looking forward to it!  We'll miss Mario, but I'm excited about the house projects he'll be working on while we are gone, most importantly the complete renovation of our upstairs (main/master) bathroom.

Here are some random pictures from recent weeks:

Big girl, eating cereal on her own

"Where's Miriam?"

"Does anyone know where she is??"

"Here I am Mama!" 

She insisted on putting stickers on her nose (and on mine as well).  

Miriam's first glimpse of her new roller coaster...

First ride....

Whee!! 

Tired girl! 

"Mama's flower - is broken!"  (One of my flower plants broke in the wind last week, so we pruned it down and Miri got to keep the flower.) 

This is how Miriam shows love to Bella...surrounding her with toys.  

If you look closely at the picture, notice I labeled the different scribbles.  She would draw a "picture" (scribble) and then point to it and name a person.  (She also included her teddy in her pictures.)