July, August & Early Sept

At the MN State Fair with friends.

Dinosaur!

The first of many, many foods.

Cotton candy!

Olivia!

The first day of school! She's in Kindergarten and is going to a Spanish immersion school called ISLA. They wear a uniform which makes life easier.

Alistiar would have loved to go to school with her!

All ready at the bus stop.

First spotting of the bus = jump for joy!

Getting on the bus with Ethan, a boy from school.

Teacher's assistant, Giovanna.

Teacher, Senora Shrevesta who is from Chile.

This was the one hour Kindergarten orientation with half of her 25 student classmates.

Not the normal way we eat food, but I liked the crossed legs.

Alistair looked at this photo and said, "a fake cry."

My friend's band played for my 40th birthday backyard party and Siena was their best groupie.

The party was fairly rainy, but still fun.

At Alistair's second adoption day party, Russ helped us make homemade blueberry ice cream.

A naptime and nighttime tradition.

First of two baby teeth already gone! The tooth fairy brought a princess bag with change for the first tooth and princess bag of pennies for the second one.

She's always been a creative child...

My parent's rented a lake cabin on Detroit Lake for two weeks this summer and the kids and I went for about a week.

Relaxing on the dock.

Riding the lake neighbor's Barbie car.

Granda Carol reads to them at the lake (and anywhere else they happen to be.)

Neighbors come over for a 4th of July BBQ. Here they are playing a game of Simon Says.

Neighbors on swings singing?

I dont think she has ever held a sparkler.

First sparkler!

We have, no lie, about 50 pictures of Cuddle and Coo, Siena's favorite doll. I edited down the 25 pictures she took at the BBQ to this one, my favorite composition.

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Siena

I told Siena she couldn't go to the park. The front door was locked so she tried to open a window and climb out!

S What is that?
C A space shuttle.
S Like a rocket ship?
C Yes.
S I don’t want to leave Earth. (Looking thoughtfully to the sky)

C I need you to clean the bathroom floor.
S Like Cinderella?
A But why are you cleaning the floor?
S So I can go to the ball.
S (To Alistair)You can’t go to the ball.
A But I’m a prince!

C I think I want a new cell phone.
S You want another one? No problem sweetheart.

Tinkerbelle is so fascinating and I want to get that music box just like the movie!

After the first few days of school, she sat down in the living room with her brother in front of her and the book of shapes facing out and taught Alistair how to say the shapes in Spanish. Also taught him the word for bathroom.


Alistair

Al Are you renting this house?
Grandma Carol What does renting mean?
Al Borrowing.

Alistair handed me a jog bra and said, "Here's your bra, put it on." He calls all tank tops bras too so he wanted to wear his shark bra today.

Pinecones, I love them! (eating green beans)
Tastes like cookie dough! (eating dates)

Alistair always wants to be a “bad guy” which means he walks around without his shirt on. He is thrilled when anyone else will be a bad buy with him! The other day he said, “I want to be an Underwear Bad Guy. No shirt, no pants, just underwear.”

On the first day of school when Siena had been picked up by the bus and I was putting him in the car to go home, he was very sad and said, “But I’m an ISLA boy!”

Al tries on an extra pair of glasses and asks: “Do we look gorgeous?”