a new book, French and SWIMMING!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited to say that Linda is SWIMMING all by herself!!!!!!!!!! She is doing the doggy paddle and swimming all over the pool, deep end and all! How cool is that?!?!?

I found a book at Barnes and Noble that was on sale and had to get it for Linda. You email a pic of your child and they make a book w/her pic in it, and her name, so she is part of the story. The book arrived today and Linda was so excited. It was cute to see her as a character in a Sesame Street book.


We are hosting a French student for the next couple of weeks. His name is Louis and he is very nice. We picked him up last night. Linda has taken to him already. She has enjoyed practicing her French w/him. He brought her a French children's book as a present for her, and some butterflies for her window. It was very sweet. We look forward to getting to know Louis better.

A day at the Library

We headed to the library today for a story time, and for Linda to turn in her summer reading program. The first picture is the kids in the story time. This is an "on your own" story time, so the parents are not in there w/the kids (thus the pic thru the window). Don't they look cute?
These other pics are Linda w/Miss Linda. Linda is showing off her paper. Each sticker on the paper represents a book that Linda read herself. She was so excited to tell Miss Linda about all the books she read.
this is a pic of Linda getting her certificate from Miss Linda.
this is a pic of Linda putting her name (that she wrote herself) up on the board w/the other kids that completed the summer reading program.

Camping

Here is a cute quick video of Linda pretending to be camping.

It's always a fun day at the farm!

We headed to another local farm today and wow did Linda have fun! They had amazing play structures for the kids. We took a hay ride, saw the petting zoo, bounced in the bounce house, ate lunch and played played played! It was a playgroup playdate. The farm is normally closed, so we made reservations and had the whole place to ourselves. The weather was very hot today, but most of the farm was shaded, so it wasn't too bad. It was a really nice morning. The summer is flying by and we are staying so busy. I think Linda really enjoys being on the move. She plays so hard every day and is whooped by nap time and bed time. I'm so blessed to have such a happy, healthy little girl.

A hot day at the gardens

We headed to the gardens yesterday. It wasn't too hot when we got there. But by 11am or so, it was pretty warm. thankfully at that time we headed for shade and had a picnic lunch. We skipped the children's garden this time and did some exploring. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoying taking all their little paths and finding beautiful areas they have set up. We are so lucky to have this place near our home. We visited their butterfly house. It was neat to go in and see all those butterflies, probably hundreds of them. Linda found a caterpillar (the pic where she is bending down) and was trying her best to follow the rules of not picking it up. She didn't like that rule, b/c she wants to handle nature as much as she can. And when we are not in the butterfly house she can, but those were their rules. It really was a fun day!

how she loves nature

The other day Linda found a dragon fly that didn't mind being man handled, lol. She picked it up and was excited to look at it up close. It's eyes were pretty big and you could see it's legs and head clearly. It actually was pretty neat. And then today we were sitting eating breakfast, and we noticed our first sunflower has opened up. Linda was excited and was talking about it being a big yellow sunflower peeking up over the fence. The dress she is wearing was made by my father's wife, Barbara. We have had so many comments on how they love the dress. Linda loves it as well. She says she feels fancy when she is wearing it.

Dinner at Aunt Lynn's

What fun it always is to go to Aunt Lynn's house! We had a nice time as always. Linda found a small praying mantis and was very excited to hold it. The mantis did not seem as excited. Aunt Lynn also French braided Linda's hair. I definitely need to learn how to do it, b/c it was so cute. And she just whipped it together w/o trying to make it look nice. I took some cute pics, as you can see, of Linda w/Aunt Missy, Aunt Lynn, and Lynn's dog Cody. We are grateful to have such loving friends Linda can spend time with.