Wednesday, August 1, 2012

July 2012


July was such a busy month, and went by SO quickly!
We started the month with our power outage adventure, enjoying trips out in the mornings to visit, play, and swim with friends.  And lots of dinners out made the week even more fun!  We enjoyed playing at friends’ houses and parks in the mornings before the very hot middle of the day (100+ degrees many days!); and played outside in the sprinklers on some of the cooler nights.
The best part of the month was our trip to visit friends and family in Ohio!  We stayed with our Grandmas and Grandpas, went swimming in a pond, played in a fountain, and got in lots of swinging, sandbox, and slide time.  We had fun seeing the kitties, fish and doggies at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  We also got to pet the stingrays at the Columbus Zoo, and saw all the neat animals at the Akron Zoo.  And best of all, we loved exploring, spending time together, and playing with our friends, cousins, Aunt Robyn and Uncle Mike, and our Grandmas and Grandpas!
We can’t believe we’re almost two!  The summer seems to have flown by, as has the last two years, and what a big month of change we have ahead – Turning two, starting school…  We will miss all of our play date friends, but at the same time, we’ll be meeting so many new people and learning so many new things.  We can’t wait to tell you all about it!
Here are some of our favorite photos and videos of things we did and saw this month!
Love,
Katharine and Christopher

July 2012 Photos

Swimming With Our Friends On The 4thHappy Flower GirlDrew Noodles AroundTurning Two Soon, Like Us!Wow!DaDa And Katharine Steer
Teralyn Swims With ChristopherHanging Out At The Rocknocerous ConcertSwing!Splash!Just Hanging OutHee Hee Hee
Swinging With GrandpaYou Go This Way, And I'll Go That Way!Tinkertoys Are Neat!Happy SwingingMr IndependentConstructing Our Train
Drawing With GrandpaI Did It!Sharing SnacksStudying For  Water BasketballHappy Froggie BoyOooh!  Sandbox!

July 2012, a set on Flickr.

July 2012 KLK CLK Ohio Visit

July 2012 KLK CLK Highlights

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

June 2012


Summer has definitely arrived!
June was a month of many doctor visits and calls. From croup, to fevers, to some other symptoms we won’t share, we kept Mommy and Daddy busy this month trying to get us healthy and stay healthy themselves.  (You will note runny noses in many of our pictures this month!)  Thankfully, at the end of the month, we logged in almost ten completely healthy days, breaking a streak that has seemed to go on for a couple of months now.  Whew!
Not feeling well, and having some pretty warm days, has kept us inside more this month, but we still got to do some fun hiking and walking with Mommy and Daddy, and we had some great, fun playtime with our friends.
The warm weather has given us a chance to really enjoy “water play” for the first time, with lots of water tables and sprinklers at friends’ houses – and at our own!  We had fun trying out our new elephant sprinkler, and the sprinkler ball, although we’re still trying to decide whether a sprinkler ball is something we want to get very close to. Playing with our new water toys at home is fun, and will get us ready to LOVE water-play time when we start school!  We also had our first taste of popsicles at our friends’ house (still not sure about those), and frozen blueberries – mmmmm!  And on cooler days, we’re enjoying fun family meals on the porch with Mommy and Daddy.
We got to meet our teachers at Chesterbrook at the open house earlier this month, and they seem really nice! Mommy has gotten our backpacks, sheets, name labels, and extra supplies all ready to go for when we start “school” in August.  For the record, we start school five days after our birthday, to get used to our new routine as Mommy gets back into her classroom.  We’re a little nervous, but are practicing lots of “big kid” things to get ready, like eating with our spoons and forks more, and we keep practicing using a knife and drinking from a cup! 
At the end of the month, we got a taste of life before electricity, when a huge derecho storm came through our area, causing widespread power outages.  The storm was so big and so fast, it went through Ohio on the same night, causing similar damage.  Our power went off on a Friday night, and didn’t come back on until the following Thursday!  So we got to go on lots of fun trips to the store to get cold milk and ice, and we got to eat out a lot with Mommy and Daddy.  We found lots of fun ways to keep cool that week!  We enjoyed a fun family trip to the Baltimore Aquarium, where we saw SO many fish, dolphins, turtles, and sharks!  In the mornings we played at parks and pavilions while it was cool, and went to see a concert at the library.  Some nights we ate dinner at the mall, and then Mommy and Daddy let us explore and run around there.  We also swam at our friends’ house a couple of times (thank you, dear Carlsons!), and spent the 4th of July listening to the fireworks in our neighborhood as we slept with the doors and windows open to keep cool.  It was pretty warm at our house, so we got to camp out in the living room all week, sleeping in our tents!  What an adventure we had!
We’ll save some of our power outage photos for July!  We hope you enjoy our photos and videos from this month (below), and can’t wait to visit all our friends and family in Ohio soon!
Love,
Christopher and Katharine

June 2012 Photos

Pretty Farmer's Market FlowersMowing With DaddyVvvvvvvvv!Playing At Music ClassCleanup HelpersHelping Mama With Lemons
Just A Little TasteLemons Are Fun!Hey, My Turn!One Little DrummerBig HugNooo, That's Not How It Goes!
Drumming FriendsJam Session BuddiesIt Goes Like This!Happy Father's Day!Here, Now Open This OnePretty Doggie Card
My Dad's The Best!Rocking In Grandpa's ChairFirst You Measure, Like ThisHelping Mama Make PlaydohThen You StirPowdery
June 2012, a set on Flickr.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

May 2012


May was a very active month!
At the beginning of the month, we hiked as a family in our second annual March For Babies, to support the March Of Dimes!  With your support, our family was able to contribute $700 to our team (the INOVA Fairfax Hospital Center NICU team), which raised a total of $27,513!  These donations help the March of Dimes fund research and programs related to premature birth and birth defects, and help bring comfort to families with a baby in newborn intensive care.  Thank you so much for helping us support this organization!
The weather was mostly beautiful this month, and we enjoyed lots of walks, hikes, and bike rides with Mommy and Daddy.  We went to the farmer’s market, hiked around Meadowlark Garden near our house, and explored the Cross County Trail.  We even had lunch in our backpacks for the first time, while hiking on Sugarloaf Mountain, in Maryland, with our friends! 
As always, we had fun playing together at home!   We love watching the squirrels eat “helicopters” on our deck while we eat breakfast and lunch each day. We also had fun playing at music class each week, going to friends’ birthday parties, and playing with our playgroup friends.
On Mother’s Day, we got to go play with Mommy at the park – SO fun!  And we got to talk to our Grandmas and Grandpas on Skype that afternoon, which was the BEST, because we really miss them!
Then for Memorial Day weekend, we went on our first family trip to Shenandoah National Park to hike and enjoy lunch out in the great outdoors for two days in a row! We saw so many pretty waterfalls and beautiful views on our hikes. And at night, we had lots of fun exploring our room and having dinner at Big Meadows Lodge.  What a wonderful adventure we had!  Back at home, we got to go on a fun bike ride with Daddy on Memorial Day!  Wheee!
Mommy and Daddy really noticed on our hiking weekend that we keep growing (and getting bigger and heavier!).  We also had lots to say!  Christopher loves to hum and chatter while we hike.  And we both love to make the sounds of all the animals we know!  We like to try saying almost anything we hear, and can say so many things now, that Mommy is losing track of how many words we know!
Please see post below for photos and video from this month. Enjoy!
With Love,
Katharine and Christopher