Summer begins

Summer began officially just two days ago but I feel summer begins when grades close at school. Even though there's a few days of school left there's much less work to be done and I start relaxing into the birthday parties, afternoon swims, late bedtimes frame of mind. These pictures are from Kaya's first birthday party on June 12th. Kaya is a great walker now and perfected this skill within days of turning one.

Maria likes to choose her own clothes now and so we've adjusted things in her room so she can access everything she needs to create an outfit. She actually asked me to take a picture of this outfit, all orange, which she was so proud of. What makes me a little sad is that she never wants to wear the really cute matching outfits that people bought her for the summer, for example these orange shorts actually go with a striped dress. Minor I know but I think I've worked out a deal where we get to switch off picking out her outfit. We'll see this morning.

We've had great swimming weather lately and have visited Wason Pond in Chester several times already. Papi and Maria labored over this water slide while taking a break from swimming. After they were done constructing they floated sticks and leaves down it and back to the pond.