Sara and Grandaddy make their way down to the dock.
Sara had the best seat in the boat!
Oops! Lost the hat!
What a sweet face!
Emma's being coy.
Emma's best Elvis impression.
Sara's test shots to be the new face of Ray Ban sunglasses.
Now her baby blue's are totally protected from the sun!
While Grandaddy was away, the little girls came to play!
You would think that a pool full of toys and bubbles would be enough for any child. Nope. Who needs a pool when you can "paint" stones with a bucket of water!
Sara must have been experiencing one of those "ice cream headache" moments.
Again...who needs the pool? Paint a tree!
Yum!
Work it, Sara!
After "rest time," we got on our aprons and got to work! Emma enjoyed rolling out the dough.
Sara liked pushing the cookie cutters into the rolled dough.
It was a tough to decide which letters to use.
I got a kick out of watching the girls decorate their cookies. Sara pretty much focused on just one of her cookies and smushed it to bits! Emma liked sampling the butterscotch chips that were supposed to go on the cookies!
The girls sat on the kitchen floor and turned themselves around while waiting for the cookies to bake. It made me dizzy watching them.
It did not take long for the girls to get tired of waiting so they decided to change into their princess dresses.
Yea! The cookies are finally ready to eat!
Emma loved eating the cookies that she made.
Sara was more excited about drinking her milk out of her big girl cup.
After their cookies and milk, my helpers ran off into princess land again. So I was left on my own and made these little gems! They are supposed to be Mickey Mouse but they look a little more like Snoopy. Oh well!
We spent the 4th at Grandma and Grandpa's. Their backyard looked like a water park complete with a kiddie pool, inflatable pool with a slide and a slip-n-slide! In this pic, Daddy is helping Emma slide!
Sara's turn! Mommy and Daddy also took turns but I'm not posting those pictures! I don't know what we were thinking...I was sore for days!
After all of our water play, we got redressed and played in the yard with bubbles.
Emma took some time out to visit with Aunt Lolli and Cooper.
God Bless America!
Sisterly love! When Sara kisses you...you know you've been kissed!
How sweet...even if the picture really isn't in focus.
Emma's modeling her Australian hat from Vacation Bible School.
Filthy, filthy face! At least she's smiling!
Another filthy face but this one is chocolate cupcake, not dirt.
Yes, you read that correctly. We had a potty party Wednesday night in honor of Sara!
We're not sure how it happened but we successful "diaper trained" Sara instead of potty training her. At 6am every morning, Sara would wake up and we put her in her Minnie Mouse or Daisy Duck panties. Every two hours or so we would sit her on her potty and hope (and silently pray) that something would happen. It never would. Lunch time would roll around and then nap time. I would put her in her diaper and put her in bed. About five minutes later I would hear, "Mommy. I go potty!" 
We knew she could "hold it" and that she knew when it was ok to "go." So we decided to bite the bullet and go with panties full time (diapers only at night). Long story short, Sara finally used her potty on Wednesday afternoon! Yes, she was naked sitting on the potty on our backyard deck while playing in a bucket of water and she had held "it" for 9 hours ...but it happened! So I ran out and got cupcakes! 
Emma loved running through the Mickey Mouse sprinkler.
Sara was happy to fill up her watering can and empty it over and over and over. Cooper spent most of his time cooling off in the pool.
Yum! Popsicles!
We also put Emma to work mowing the concrete. You know how it gets in the summer!
Since we backed out the van into the driveway and it was raining, I decided to use Mother Nature to help me wash the "magic door." Sara also pitched in!
Emma models her all-American look!
Yes, I resorted to sugary distractions to keep Sara semi-quiet. She still was able to stand up in my lap and yell, "I'm Cinderella!" at the top of her lungs. I'm not sure why she felt the need to share that information, but the people around us thought it was funny. Then she leaned over and told her Grana (who did not yell...not even once), "Shhh. Be quiet Grana."
There is Emma in the middle holding her flag proudly.
After the program, we all came back to our house for the Strawberry Shortcake party-rama.
We love cake!
Cooper's cousins tried to lure him into their tent, but being the smart boy that he is, he hightailed it the other direction!
Opening presents went really well this year. Both of the girls were interested in what each package contained. Can't wait to see how they devour their Christmas presents!
Sara took Fancy Nancy for a slide ride.
Cool! A basketball goal!
