Alicia's Birthday Party

Cousin "Lici Bug's" 6th birthday party was today. It was a beautiful day to get into the pool and play. Uncle Donnie and Aunt Jess have the perfect sized pool for the younger kids to play in. They can always touch the bottom and therefore, don't need their life jackets and can really experiment with swimming.

Emily was getting braver in the water. She actually went under on purpose a couple of times!

Abigail preferred to hang out by the side and play with dinosaurs and an iguana, which she said was a "scary little creature".
Ring pops were part of the festivities and, as you can see, Emily had a blue one.

Swimming at Nana and Poppy's

We had a great opportunity to swim with all our cousins at Nana and Poppy's house this week. We are very blessed to have such a big, wonderful family. There are 5 girls, Aly, Alicia, Emily, Abigail, and our newest addition, Lorelai. And, then we have only 3 boys, Donnie, Benjamin, and Ethan. They all play so well together and the older ones are very kind and patient with the younger cousins.

Abigail has become a great little swimmer (with her life jacket on, of course). She still isn't crazy about going under the water, but doesn't panic or get upset when she does. Emily is a little more cautious and likes to stick close to Mommy or Daddy, but still enjoys the thrill of jumping into our arms from the side.

Pump It Up

We went to Pump It Up for our Tulsa Mother's of Multiples July social tonight. The girls especially liked the basketball court inflatable, but also enjoyed the obstacle course and giant slide. Emily played in the circle inflatable, but Abigail was scared to even go in it. There were lots of others families from our multiples group there as well. We had a lot of fun and really enjoy it when Daddy can come along with us.

Lil' Gym Birthday Party

The girls went to The Lil' Gym this weekend to celebrate the 2nd birthday for some of their boy/girl twin friends. I was really excited about taking them because I've been wanting to see how they like gymnastics. They both had a lot of fun, but Emily seemed to be more willing to try new things.One of Abigail's favorite activities was the parachute. They tried to get all the little ones to do all sorts of tricks with it, but it usually ended up with them just shaking it and making big waves.
Seeing Double....The girls are patiently waiting for the next activity. They are sitting by a set of identical twin friends. These girls are about 4 months older than the girls.
Emily enjoyed several of the gymnastics activities. The balance beam was among her favorites. She was pretty good at walking holding Daddy's hand, but the lower beams with the handle bars were lots of fun for them both.
I'd have to say that the rings were Emily's absolute favorite. She would climb up onto a step right behind them, grab on, and swing down. She could this this for long periods of time, but we had to practice taking turns, as there were a lot of little ones there.

Tybee Island

Our flights out to Tybee Island were fairly uneventful. The first one, Daddy volunteered to sit by both girls. That didn't work too well, as they seemed to get each other riled up, giggling over nothing in particular. The second flight, we were separated. That seemed to work much better. Emily actually fell asleep during most of the two and a half hour plane ride.

One of our excursions away for the beach was to see the light house. We had to walk up 178 stairs to reach the top. Daddy and Uncle Jerrad carried the girls most of the way. Emily actually wanted to climb the last 50 steps by herself. The view was beautiful, but it was very hot.

The girls were a little unsure about the beach and ocean when we first got there, but they soon fell in love with the sand and water. They especially loved looking for sea shells, digging, and running into the waves. Daddy would dig them a hole and they would spend a long time running back and forth carrying water from the ocean to their hole.

We also made our way to the pier a few times. It was very windy(as you can see by Abigail's hair in the picture below), but provided a great view.

A fireworks show was put on from the pier on the 3rd of July. We spent a little time before it started walking on the beach. Emily loved it, but we discovered that Abigail does NOT like "pop-pops" this year. Daddy had to take her back to the house, while the rest of us stayed and enjoyed the show.

Broken Bones and Ice Cream Cones

We suffered our first broken bone on June 25th. Daddy took the girls to visit their Great-Grandparents. As they were running around in a circle, Abigail tripped and fell. Daddy took her to the Urgent Care where they did x-rays and determined everything was alright. However, an hour later we get a message from the doctor saying that we need to come in the next day for more x-rays because they think they saw a "buckle fracture". That would not have been too big of a problem except Abigail HATES the x-ray machine. I had to basically hold her down as she cried. But, sure enough, the second set of x-rays confirmed that there was a fracture. Daddy had to take her to EOOC where she had to be held again so they could cast it. She chose a "rojo" cast(pictured below) and loves the fact that Daddy drew a Bob the Tomato(from VeggieTales) on it. She is doing very well and does not complain about it. She will most likely have to wear it 2-3 weeks. We go back on the 10th for the decision. This is just another example of how she is like her Mommy. I had 7 casts on my wrists from the time I was 2 until I was 14. I desperately hope this will be her last.

We had to get in on the "all you can eat ice cream" action, so we braved the heat and took the girls to Blue Bell for their annual "A taste of Summer" event. Josh said it was his version of Heaven. There were people all over just handing out free ice cream and popsicles. The girls liked it at first, but once the novelty of the ice cream wore off, they realized how HOT is was. We cooled off while taking a tour of the plant, eating more ice cream, visiting the fire trucks, and making crafts. Abigail, of course, ate nothing but chocolate, while Emily had rainbow popsicles.

Summer Reading Program

Emily and Abigail turned in their reading log for the Tulsa City-County Library Summer Reading Program today. They were very excited to get rewarded for reading their 20 books and visiting the library more than 4 times already this summer. The received huge inflatable crayons, coupon booklets, and, best of all, the necklaces they are wearing in the picture. They love visiting the library and always remind each other to "Shhhh!" when they enter. Today Abigail was adding, "You have to be very quiet."