The neighborhood 4th of July Parade

Our neighborhood had it's annual 4th of July bike parade today. We know, it's still June. They do it early because so many people have plans for next weekend. Plus, the firemen aren't busy putting out fires caused by fireworks. It stopped raining about 3 minutes before the parade started, but that was all we needed. The kids decorated their bikes. Here's Evie and her patriotic bike. We also decorated Annalise's stroller, but she wasn't a very willing participant. She decided at 11:30 pm last night to stay awake for a couple of hours requesting something to drink. We were all tired this morning.
Here's the parade en route. The firetruck's sirens and lights were on the whole parade. It was quite a thrill!
Lots of kids riding. One of those pink helmets is Evie.
There she is!
This is from June and Henry's visit. Annalise isn't ready to share mom.

Surprise Visitors

Grandma, Aunt Becky, Henry and Baby June rolled into town yesterday afternoon to visit for the night. The girls loved playing with Baby June. We all went for a swim in the pool after dinner and wore all the kids out. It was a quiet night at the house. Evie loves to hold Baby June. Annalise thinks that she is pretty cute too except when mom is holding her. We took more pictures, but I'm having problems uploading them tonight.

While the kiddos slept last night, we picked more cherries and pitted them. I can only estimate what we picked by the number of bags in the freezer. I'm guessing 50-60 cups of cherries. So, we made some of the cherries into "Bounce".
Thanks for the recipe, Rebecca. We can't wait until Christmas!

The Toddler 'Tude

Jim snapped these when Annalise was getting ready for bed tonight. I'm not sure what was going on besides a lot of attitude. That's a nice belly--she's giving her 8 month pregnant Aunt Elizabeth a run for her money.
This has pure Sauce written all over it. What a Stinker.

Our family trip to Pittsburgh

We loaded up the grocery getter for yet another weekend get away. This weekend was to Pittsburgh, PA to visit Jeff and Glenn. They were great hosts and we had lots of fun! Here's the highlights.

We aren't letting Evie choose restaraunts anymore because we are tired of McDonald's. Steak and Shake was dad's choice for the night. Annalise had a serious case of goof for dinner. Then, after 3 trips to the potty, she got her business done and was able to eat something.

Evie the future chef.

Annalise did some coloring too. She wanted to get a lot done in a short amount of time.

Evie felt her hat wasn't colorful enough

We went on a duck boat tour of the city and the rivers. This is Jim and Evie getting ready to set sail.
This is one of the boats on our tour. We were in a green boat
The laws are different over in PA. Evie was old enough to drive the boat on the river! She did a great job and we didn't run into one single bridge.
Here's a view from the water of the incline. There are only 3 left in the US. Pittsburgh used to have 30 of them going up the banks. We departed the ducks and set off to take the rail car to the top.

Here we are at the top. Recently, Aunt Becky posted a picture of Henry and June with matching grimaces. This is Evie and Annalise's attempt at matching grimaces. You can't say they don't look alike.
In continuing our theme of NFL stadiums, here are Mom, Annalise and Heinz field--home to the Steelers and Aunt Becky's least favorite quarterback.
Later, we found a free merry go round! Here are our outstanding hosts. They were so patient with the kids. They even understood the 11 times we had to get up to go to the bathroom during dinner.
Evie on her horse. YOu can tell she is getting tired.
Annalise on the elephant. she only held on with one hand. In the other hand were the remains of a doggie sticker that she carried all day long.


The next morning, we went to a park to burn off some steam before the long car ride home. Annalise tried out the zip line.
Evie found a slide that you are supposed to use cardboard on, but went down wihtout.
Uncle Jeff took his dog, Sally for a ride. We don't think that Sally liked it.
The Taller women caught up in the web.
There was also one of those exercise courses that have you do certain things along the path. Mostly, it involved hanging.

Annalise on the zip line.

Play dates

Sweet little Parker and her mom came over for a playdate. She was all smiles and got loads of attention from our kids. Annalise kept saying "look Parker!" as to get her attention. It was pretty cute. And as you can see, Parker is pretty cute too!
The Lupkes also joined us for the playdate. Here's a picture of the newest 2 year old in our group!

Outside, we had a surprise. We knew that we had cherry trees in the yard. Last year, due to a very late frost, we lost all the blossoms and therefore all the cherries. This year, we are experiencing our first cherry crop off our three mature trees.

This is what I picked tonight in 45 minutes only off branches I could reach without a ladder. Oh, and the neighbor came over and picked about 6 cups too. We each made a pie this evening and I still have 2 bowls left over. I guess the next few days are going to be devoted to cherries and preserving them. Rebecca Cullen, if you are reading this, send me your recipe for cherry infused brandy (or vodka!)

Happy Father's Day!

We did many things to celebrate Father's Day. We made dad waffles, went to Lowe's for home improvement stuff (let's just say, check out the new toilet seats the next time you visit), went swimming, and grilled lamb for dinner. The only thing we documented was our trip to an art fair in downtown. It was pretty hot and boring for two girls. We even came armed with snacks and water, but Evie wanted something that was cold that she could bite.We took her request as one for ice cream. Here they are enjoying it in a shady spot.
Annalise definately has Seibert blood running through her because she still won't share ice cream. By the way, Jim calls this dress her Moo-Moo dress. I think it's cute and perfect for a little girl who needs frequent diaper changes.
Evie is just plain messy.

Later, we purchased a great piece of art for our almost complete dinning room transformation. It's wrought iron and was made by a nice man from Illinois. Anyway, you can check it out when you come to inspect the new toilet seats. The girls really enjoyed his functional art . Evie proclaimed art fairs to be boring except for the fair food. And honestly, it was probably the best soft serve that we have had since the Cup N' Cone.

Happy Fathers Day to all our dads, grandpas, and uncles!

Why we had kids

ok, the truth comes out. The real reason we had kids. We decided that the deck was really dirty (actually mom decided this because of the track of dirt on the carpet in the family room), so we brought out the big guns to get it clean. These mateys swabbed the deck (arggg!) while mom and dad sat in lawn chairs and supervised. We can't wait until they learn to landscape.
What? I missed a spot?

Evie was a touch more thorough than Annalise. In a couple of years they both can have scrubbers on a stick

Strawberry pickin'

We visited the U-pick farm today to get our supply of strawberries. Here we are heading down the rows. We were surprised how dry the field was despite all the rain we have been getting. Indiana clay, I guess.
Evie searches for the perfect berry. Later, she got bored and started collecting rocks and making a fort on the edge of the field.
Pick two, give one to Annalise to eat....she would say "more more strawberries". I think she probably ate a pound. What a deal.
Here she is with a mouth full of strawberries. When her belly got full and started to hurt, she thought it was fun to hang on my back. This will be the last trip to the strawberry patch for my "helpers". Next time, it's moms only.

I do it!

Recently, it seems that we have entered the terrible twos with Annalise. Her favorite thing to say is "I do it!" This normally happens with buckling the car seat, washing her hands, putting on shoes....well, you get the idea. Almost everything. She is fun that she is learning to talk and tell us things. LIke tonight, we ate outside and an airplane flew over. She said "Airplane fly, helocopter fly, bird fly."
One other charming thing is that when she eats she doesn't want to wear a bib. This results in the rest of the meal with everything hanging out. Then, she doesn't want to put a new shirt back on. For some reason, she thought it was a good idea to put her sticker on her belly. It hurt to pull it off.
This is how our day ended. A quick trip to the bath and then off to bed for this tantrum throwing almost 2 year old.

Playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house

It was a hot, muggy morning, but the kids were getting restless inside, so we braved the heat. We played in the yard and barn for a while before we had to leave.Evie reflects quietly on the swing. This swing has quite a history. It belonged to the girls' great, great, great, great grandparents. We know this because there is a picture of Great Grandma Seibert's mother sitting on it as a child. We guess that it is well over a hundred years old. It now has a place of honor in Grandpa Seibert's yard (and barn in the winter)
A few generations sitting on the swing. We all told stories about making it swing as high as we could. Great Grandma said that she and her brother could even make it jump out of the notches and fall on the ground. Wow.
Another weekend spent with baby June and this is the only picture we took of her. She got her first pedicure courtsey of Grandma and Aunt Jenni. We were too busy squeezing and loving her to take her picture. There are probably some pictures over on the Turner family's website to see exactly how cute she was all weekend. She was a charmer and sat on everyone's lap without complaint.
Annalise found Mary Alice and made friends.
We are so in trouble when she learns to ask for a pet.
Another busy weekend, another set of wiped out kids on the way home. Evie slept for about 45 minutes.

Annalise slept in the sun with a blanket on for almost the entire trip. She was pretty sweaty when she woke up. The highlight of the trip home was that the local ice cream stand was offering free cones just as we drove by so we had a nice pre dinner cone as a treat to cool off.