Here's the Diehl

The heat finally broke and we've stopped playing with all our pink toys inside. The sky celebrated some cooler evenings with a beautiful sunset that turned the clouds into beautiful pink and purple cotton candy puffballs. As if we don't have enough fluffy pink goodness in our lives! It's nice to be outside again and enjoying the fresh air.

Ballet classes have been going so well. Ms. Mary the instructor, really knows how to get these girls to listen. And that's not easy with a room full of tutu-ed 4-6 year olds. Julia has been taking classes for about a month now (you can't even see her in this photo...she's in front, waiting for a cookie, but is one of the smaller kids) and she loves it. I may need to ask Ms. Mary what her secret is to getting Julia to listen so well. But look at all the cute little pinkalicious gals in their ballerina outfits. So sweet.

Schuyler is a little vixen. She is a sticky fingers. She is TROUBLE. You turn away for one second...and she's into something. The water dish. The toilet. The dishwasher. Pouring out water on the floor. Letting Bella lick her hands and plate. Stealing food off the counter. That's the latest. She was sitting in her bumbo seat while i was emptying the dishwasher. For anyone who's been in our house, there's literally no room in our kitchen, so she was safe and sound there, but as I turned my back to put glasses away...well, watch what she does!

We celebrated daddy's birthday with a fun dinner at home. And a breakfast out. Schuyler helped do the grocery shopping. Julia helped decorate the cake (and eat it). And we had a great birthday weekend with lots of chocolate cake, a night of food on the grill, some laughs with friends and a dip in their pool, and good times with the girls. It was super fun. The cake I made was so good we decided to quickly put it in the freezer so we wouldn't eat it all. Chocolate cake with salted caramel filling and chocolate frosting. Yum. Thanks for being a year older Daddy!

Besides all the fun sounds that Schuyler makes, she is really becoming her own person. And quite a little lady at that. She's very girly. In pitch and need for cuddles. She is a total music lover and crawls to as close to any speaker as she can, then bops her little body around. She is a water baby. A mermaid, just like her mom and sister. Literally putting her face into a pool of water. Strawberries have replaced blueberries as a favorite food, along with pancakes, waffles and pizza. She moves faster and faster each day, stands up and is starting to cruise a bit. But she's very cautious still and tends to bump her head a lot. This is one who will be in the ER, we're afraid. She watches before she does anything and loves to ride in the stroller and take it all in. 

I got to take my annual trip out to Butlers Orchard with my dear friend, Jackie and Julia came with me for the first time. She is an EXPERT picker. I had to drag  her out of the fields. We picked so many berries. Schuyler was very happy! If you haven't heard, Schuyler tends to overdose on blueberries. To the point where her out port is blue. Yes, that's a lot of blueberries.  Julia got to meet Jackie's youngest daughter, Sofie, and they had a great time on the slides (even though they were wet) after we did our picking. Butlers has a great area for kids, which is especially popular in pumpkin season. I'm sure we will go back there for that in the Fall.

Ok, so I love fireworks. All I wanted was to see fireworks. And there were clear signs all over Duck that read "NO fireworks". Apparently that is more of a guideline than a rule because there were amateur firework shows all over the beach. Amateur I know from all the trash left behind that I noticed on my morning run the next day. I took a couple videos to share with Julia who had passed out cold from a busy day at the beach. And we noticed there was something strange in the sky. Helicopters? No...they were silent. Firework shrapnel? No, although something like that hitting our house and burning it down could have been the best thing for this "cottage". Turns out some group was setting off those cool paper lanterns on the beach and they were flying all over the place. I thought they were UFOs. Oh well. At least I got to see my fireworks! From the balcony, no less.

Here's a bunch more of our clan having fun at the beach. Gosh, if only we could convince someone (grandparents) to buy a place down here... hmmm. Who could we ask about that?  Toes wet for the first time. It went well!  It did feel a little strange to actually have other guests on the beach with us.  SUP users (tiny dot in upper right) all over. My mission is rent a board this September.  Julia's sand masterpiece!  Happy? YES.  Hat too small? YES.  Little sickie has a cold and fell asleep in my arms. That literally never happens.  Soundfeet shoes is HUGE. Julia loved trying on some sandals. Not sure the salesmen liked her doing it...and me photographing it like it was ok. Whoops. I thought it was adorable. Nevertheless, great shoe selection!  Dinner booth dancing at our favorite eat place!

Schuy had a cold while we were at the beach. She was pretty miserable the first couple days, but was a trooper and felt better with the ocean breeze and salt spray in her face. She really enjoyed crawling around and playing though. Yes, the beach house had wall to wall carpet (gross...with bugs!). And a giant fireplace and mantel that she bumped her head on. But overall she was happy, despite her red eyes and snotty nose.

Fourth of July in Duck was FUN. The town puts on this adorable parade (that we walked to). The whole town comes together and watches the coast guard and lifeguards and a lot of kids and dogs parade around the Scarborough Fair shopping center (home to my favorite home decor shop!). Then everyone heads to the town center for free drinks and watermelon. Super cute. Notice how young the lifeguards are. That made me feel really old. And King Triton on the rescue boat? Julia was upset they were squirting water (which was refreshing). But she said "that's not very nice!"  Waiting for the parade to get underway. It was stinkin' hot! Hot bods of the lifeguards. Gosh I miss that job.  King Triton and his "crew" of super soakers. Coolin' off with some ice cream.  Long day. I tried waking her up for fireworks, but she and Bella konked out after some "reading." Please notice Julia left out a book for Bella to read too (Bella is the dar...

It's true. We went back to the beach. We just love it so much down there. The kids love the ocean and playing. We love being together. I love not cooking :). Sooo, we rented a "house" (more on that later) and braved the crowds for the fourth of july weekend. It has been years since we were at the beach for fourth of July....the last time we were down there was with friends and we were doing things like playing flip cup into the night and tossing empty beer kegs off the balcony. Mature, I know. That was also the year we brought home our first baby, Bella. Almost TEN years ago. Truthfully, it was not that crowded feeling. Granted, we drove down during the night on a Tuesday. Which was genius...we got there in 4.5 hours. And our location, right in the heart of Duck, was on a private street, so we only had folks staying on that street in our beach area. It was great. And the weather couldn't be beat. Which was important, because our house was a total dump. Dump as in ...

So, every year on the weekend following July 4, the city of Alexandria has a big birthday party. Parades, cake, sidewalk sales and of course, fireworks over the water. It's super. What's even better is that we can see the fireworks from our own house! Julia and Bella shared the chair and peeked out the window to catch a glimpse of the sparkles in the sky.