Lilly's front tooth

Lilly had to have one of her front teeth removed.  The dentist recommended it because the tooth was dead and the gum above it was infected. Believe it when I tell you that the infection was gone the very next day, as the dentist predicted!

Here's a few before shots followed by the after picture. 

Professional Dance Photos

I just love this green outfit and I'm so happy I decided to order this photo.  

We had to order everything without ever seeing a proof. 

 

This was Lilly's ballet and tap class.  Enlarge the photo by clicking on it. 

Lilly is in the center on the ground.

This was Lilly's jazz class.  Again, you can enlarge the photo by clicking on it.  

Lilly is in the front row with Carlie.  

 

Botanical Garden last week.

A new YMCA

WOW.  We found a YMCA in Chesapeake with an awesome outdoor and indoor pool area. Yes, it's a little farther away from the Virginia Beach YMCA that has  pool, but it's worth the extra minutes and extra miles on the car.  Will will disagree.

We went there last week and Sophia hadn't taken the swimming test to be permitted to swim alone in the deep end so she actually didn't have a fun time.  She was too scared to take the swim test (swimming one lap and then treading water for 30 seconds) even though she would have passed it with flying colors. 

This past weekend we took Will to the VB pool and he taught her how to jump into the indoor 10 ft pool.  After he boosted her confidence with that feat, she was ready to take the test.  She passed, of course.  Now whenever she is wearing her green swimming necklace she can be by herself in the deeper ends of the pool.  She can also play in the indoor pool without an adult.  Basically she can go anywhere she wants.  Both pools have ample lifeguards for those of you reading this with fear in your heart.  (smile)

So, back to this week.  We went to the Chesapeake pool on Monday so Sophia could wear her necklace and go down the big yellow outdoor slide.  Once she did it the first time, I didn't see her again for two hours.  That's all she did.  Lilly and I had fun just playing around while she learned to swim better.  She's GOOD!

After two hours Sophia wanted to check out the indoor pool area and to our surprise they have two smaller slides inside!   This set the stage for another hour of slide riding.  This time Lilly and I enjoyed the hot tub for a while before we headed back outside.

The kids begged to go again yesterday.  So.....we did.  We first went to see a $1 movie in the morning and then hightailed it over to the pool for two hours.

We were supposed to go to the beach today with friends, but Sophia has a high temperature.  We're going to take the day off today and have rescheduled with our friends.

Here's a shot of the slide followed by a picture of Sophia running up the stairs, and finally a picture of her at the bottom. 

Cute faces

We were walking out the door to go to our neighbor's birthday party on Saturday and the girls stopped me to take their pictures. They are such hams these days.

Getting ready to go to the pool

A Trip to the Botanical Gardens

On Friday we went to the Botanical Gardens with Haley and Carlie.  We ended up getting rained out, but we had already spent about 4 hours there.  The girls loved playing on the huge sand mound, playing in the little cabin, playing in the new art station, and rolling down the tall grassy hill.  They are not so much interested in the sprinklers anymore.  Funny....because that's why we go.  They go into the sprinkers and then a few minutes later they want to move on to something else.

These water pumps are an old favorite.  There's a bunch of plastic food and cool containers and they love washing the fake veggies/fruits over and over again.

Church Photos

A couple of weeks ago we had our family portrait taken for our church directory.  Here's the photos.  Not the best, but OK.
 
We purchased the 11 x13 photo of the picture of both girls and purchased a 3.5 x 5 copy of the rest.

 

Zoo Trip

We went to the zoo today with a group from our church.  The education director organizes activities for the rising first graders - rising fifth graders on most Wednesdays throughout the summer.  Lilly is allowed to tag along if I agree to be a chaperone, which I always agree to do. 

Today was the perfect day to go to the zoo.  For the most part it was cloudy and in the 80s.  Alot of the animals were roaming around and not trying to find shelter from the hot sun.

The girls had a super time.

Silly Headbands

Dance Recital Night

Last Thursday night we had to go to Lilly's dress rehearsal for her dance recital which took place on Friday night at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk.  We'll be getting the recital video soon and I will post Lilly's dance performances for all to enjoy.  Of course, I think she nailed it!

Sophia was bored to death sitting through the entire first act...we got to leave at intermission because Lilly was done.  We picked her up backstage and Will took us all out for a celebration dessert. 

She says she wants to take dance lessons again the fall except she's interested in jazz and hip hop.