The Harries Family: And there goes summer ...

It's hard to believe the summer is over already. We've kept busy, which is why I am woefully behind on updating this blog. Here is a bit of what we've been up to!

A playdate at Brooke's house. Katherine adores her and she is Daniel's first crush. He's doing a few chores while the girls play.

Would you believe we conned the little guy into vacuuming? Sucker!

Ahh, young love :)

We spent many afternoons with trips to our neighborhood playground. It's the perfect spot to burn off a bit of energy after naps before Brendan gets home.

Cooling off with some "mighty minis" ice pops

Daniel went through a phase of loving the pantry. His favorite thing was to build towers with cans. He was particularly proud of this one.

Katherine went to a birthday party for her preschool friend Dougie at BounceU. It was our first time playing there and she had a blast! It was fun to catch up with some of her school friends over the summer.

Katherine and I used some of the zucchini from our garden to make chocolate chip zucchini muffins. They turned out delicious and got the thumbs up from Katherine.

Daniel gave them the index finger up. Close enough.

We played on Gram and Grandpa's water slide when Emily and Andrew were in town.

Little rascal Daniel got into the bag of Trix cereal. Of course I had to capture the moment before cleaning it up (with some help from Inky, aka "clean up crew").

Katherine and Kate went for a drive together at Jeanie, Rufus, and Arthur's house. Katherine decided Kate should be their driver since she is five and that's much bigger.

We spent a lot of time at the Lower Macungie Library getting books. Each summer they have reading programs for the kids. Last summer Katherine read 209 books in about 6 weeks, and this summer we got to 343 books in 8 weeks. It probably would have been more if we weren't so busy doing other activities and could have refilled our heap of books more often.

Silly girl

Katherine liked to help water the garden when the weather was really hot. And her brother.

Daniel tried fingerpainting for the first time. He wasn't sure what to do with the paint at first, then he had fun for a while until he started to lick it, and I shattered his little heart by stopping him and taking it away.

We had lots of trips to Dorney Park, mostly with just one of us taking Katherine in the evening while the other stayed home with Daniel. She's much more into riding the rides then he is, and she really loved the one-on-one time with us too.

The girl has some style!

Katherine's default choice of activity when we have no plans or there is lousy weather is to go to Target and look at the toys. She likes the "pink aisles" the best.

Katherine had a great time running in her kids racing series. She's warming up here with our neighbor Callum.

Crossing the finish of her last race of the summer

This picture just makes my heart smile. The kids get medals at the last race of the summer - I didn't tell her about that ahead of time, but when they handed it to her and put it over her head, she looked up at me with the biggest smile and said "Mommy, I am SOOO proud!". And she was ... it was great.

My sous chef helped make cookies. And of course was happy to help with the important duty of licking the spoon!

I'm guessing BJs doesn't want their shoppers doing this.

Lots of afternoons at the LCC pool. Daniel absolutely loves the water!

We had a few nice dinners on the patio at LCC after swimming. Katherine is a big fan of the cheese spread and crackers to snack on while waiting for our meals.

What a pretty smile! Such shiny white teeth.

Exploring the woods by our neighborhood playground, "looking for clues". I don't have a clue what for, but that's her game.

A rare double snuggle with my babies!

I'm not sure if he thinks we can't see him, but silly 'ol Ink dives under the living room curtains to hide. Crazy pup.

Katherine had a birthday party for her preschool friend Emma at the Rave movie theatre. We saw the Smurfs movie and she loved it. Katherine Emma and Emma Kathryn are excited to be in the same Pre-K class this year and are two peas in a pod.

Playing with friends at McDonalds

We took the rail off of Katherine's bed. Inky thinks we're geniuses because now it is super easy for him to get up there and make himself comfortable during storytime. He always follows me and Brendan when we leave, but Kat loves snuggling up to him while he's there.

The kids like to toss the cushions from the sofa onto the family room floor and jump around on a "pillow party". I guess it threw off Inky's napping routine, but he adapted by napping on the couch cushions anyhow, even if they were on the floor.

Daniel practiced being 2 before his birthday by throwing a tantrum on the kitchen floor. Such heartbreak not being allowed to throw cans across the house, poor kid!

Katherine was the top reader in her age group for the library's summer reading program again this summer. She told everyone that she "annihilated the other four-year-olds"! She loved the Color Wonder glitter painting set she got as a prize at the end.

We found Katherine sleeping like this one night - IN her pillow case. Potato sack racing in her sleep?

Leaping into the pool during one of her swim lessons.

Our little boyboy, puddin pop, sunshine, lil D ... turned TWO!

Putting the sleeper hold on his pal Jonah.

Nana and 2/3 of her grandbabies

Our little family

Time for cake

It wasn't just a one time thing, she's potato sacking it up again a couple days later!

Katherine squared off with Sarah in a game of chess.

D practiced basketball while his sissy was playing chess. He yelled "sam duck!" (slam dunk) after every shot.

When it's your birthday, and you're this cute, you can sample whatever donuts you want for breakfast. A little of this, little of that...

Brendan took the day off and we took the kids to Please Touch Museum on Daniel's actual birthday. He got right to work loading blocks on the construction site.

Dr. Daniel did his rounds.

Ahh, the PIE. Last time we visited PTM, Daniel was crazy for these pieces of pie. He carried a piece around for a while again this time, offering a snack to the goose.

There is an exhibit with air blowing and lots of different balls, and the kids can set the balls on top of the air tubes and watch them hover. OR they can bend the air tube to have it spraying on their faces because that's good fun too!

Riding the carousel

We had a birthday dinner for Daniel at Gram and Grandpa's after PTM. The Boston cream cupcakes were a big hit.

Daniel had his two year checkup at the pediatricians. He know weighs 32 lbs 3 oz, which is 90th percentile, and is 37 inches tall, 97th percentile. BIG boy! He's doing great on the developmental questions and he didn't have any shots because the flu vaccine wasn't available yet, so he was pretty happy during this visit.

So the boy won't eat grapes. Or strawberries. Or pretty much any other fruit kids typically love. But LEMONS? Oh yes, he'll eat those. He makes the pucker face every time but goes back for more! At least he won't get scurvy.

Taking a walk around Trexler Park. It's been a while since Inky was there, so he was LOVING being able to run around and sniff everything. It's doggy paradise!

We brought bread with us to feed the ducks and geese. Both kids had a great time doing that.

We took a (what turned out to be) quick trip to Rodale Park to play in the giant sandbox. The kids were having a great time with their friends, but as it turned out, the yellowjackets were out in full force that afternoon. We made a quick exit out of there!

We met up with friends at a different playground the next day. As we were about to get out of the car, a lady walked by with her teacup poodle. Katherine fell in love! The dog was so sweet and Katherine was happy to get a chance to hold her.

This other playground we went to had a much smaller sandbox, but no yellowjackets. Perfect!

D may have ate a few licks of sand.

The kids helped to wash the car. Taking turns with the hose was tough, they both wanted it all the time.

All clean!

One last trip to the LCC pool for the season. Gram and Grandpa joined us. D had been talking about going to the pool with "Pa" for a while so he was happy to have him as a swim buddy.