July started off with a nice, low-key 4th of July celebration. Jason and Bludau came to join us for the once again great Buda fireworks. Anneliese did much better this year than last year (last year a train scared her and she sat with her face covered up for the majority of the show). She picked Bludau as her best friend of the day and pretty much stayed right by him the whole time he was here. She watched the whole show, but the noise started to bother her a bit by the end so her ears did get covered.
Anneliese finally got to take swimming lessons during July. I've been wanting her to take lessons at the Y since last summer but just never got around to registering her and making the plans. Since our girl is a total fish in the pool and has no fear we decided we better finally do it. She just completed 2 weeks of lessons and she can actually "swim" a few feet all by herself. She's not quite ready to challenge Michael Phelps but give her a few more summers and she just may be there!
We also took Anneliese to see Dora Live at the Bass Concert Hall this past week. As most of you know, she's loved Dora for quite a while and she's seen the commercials on Noggin (the best thing since sliced bread, by the way!) so we thought it'd be fun to take her. It was really quite a fun show and she really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, we couldn't use our camera during the show so we only got a couple of pics during intermission.
Here she is with her Daddy enjoying a little photo op with the Dora Live poster.
And here she is showing off her Dora coloring book and her Star. She's got on her Backpack - ready to help Dora on the next adventure.
We've also done our fair share of playing and just clowning around this month.
And here's Anneliese's contribution to the photo world - don't you just love the bow in Maggie's hair!
Finally, we've got the rooms completed. Getting ready for Ainsley's arrival meant transforming Anneliese's room into a room for 2. This meant gettting all of the toys out of there to make room for a baby bed. The transition went quite well. Anneliese loves her new toy room (our spare bedroom) and I think she likes having Ainsley's bed in her room too. As you can see from the photo, she's already put her mark on the decorating by loading the crib full of stuffed animals and a baby.
She's going to be a great big sister!
It's hard to believe that we've only got 2 weeks of summer left before I go back to school (3 for Anneliese)! The next blog will probably be a back to school one. Wow, how time flies!
Love to all,
Brandon, Jennifer & Anneliese
