Pieces of June from my iPhone that are little snippets of life.
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Atticus has really taken to Daddy as his role model.
Milayla puts a smile on my face when she takes the rice to their little kitchen rather than the apartment kitchen. Pretty sure she is anxious to get some real cooking done!
A lovely trip to The Hague Temple in The Netherlands. And finally some summer weather to welcome us there.
I love the warm welcome there always is at the temple and all the smiles that greet the children. The kids have loved getting to meet the temple workers there and spend time in the waiting room. I can't wait until we can all go in to the temple together. It will be beautiful.
With the summer weather it also meant that we could enjoy a little time at a nearby playground after enjoying the temple yard.
Atticus had his orientation day at his kindergarten. The kindergarten and workers are great, but he may not end up going there (may write more on that later). We really were blessed to find a kindergarten that has been such a pleasure and so patient with us as we try to understand the system in another language. We toured quite a few kindergartens before finding this one.
We've enjoyed plenty of trips to the library, but imagine the kids' concern when we walked in one day to find this:
It gave them quite a startle and rightly so! And then there have been trips to stock up on some summer clothes. Milayla is pretty keen on trying everything on. And she loves practicing getting dressed.
Like this for example - she ran off and came back in this lovely ensamble. Aside from her seasons being a little mixed up (winter boots and a swim suit?) we were pretty impressed with her creativity. And we are absolutely loving her closed-eyes camera smile.
Milayla is progressing at high speed. She has been helping out in the kitchen and with cleaning so well, asks to go on her bike every day, and practically lives at the piano or at the book shelf.
Birthday's of little ones usually means checkups at the doctors as well, so that has filled some of our time. But otherwise, we have been trying to get out as much as we can to enjoy the gorgeous flowers that are in bloom.
This picture at the doctors' office always makes me smile. The text at the bottom says "never give up". So true. And such a humorous way to depict it.
We've had lots of sensory play with the kids, both inside and outside. The waterplay park at the lake has been a choice spot with the nice weather.
I am remembering why we love the city park so much. It is really rather dark and dreary in the winter time, but it is definitely lush and beautiful now. Between the playgrounds, greenery and animals it is a fun time for everyone.
I've been doing better at planning weekly one-on-one time with each of the kids as well. Boy, does that make a
huge difference around here. And it is such a blessing to spend that time with them as individuals to really work on that relationship and learn who each of them are.
Atticus and Milayla are so much fun to have in the kitchen as helpers. I never knew that making crackers could be this funny :). I love these kids.
The kids also help set the table and take the food to the table. Milayla can now reach dishes from the counter top and decided to try and grab her bowl from the counter, but it tilted too much when she grabbed resulting in yogurt all over her arms and face. I don't think she minded too much.
We made a special shirt for Daddy for Father's Day. And Atticus was pretty excited about his paper airplane shirt for his birthday.
There is no shortage of great reasons to celebrate in June!
Lots of discovery walks to learn about plants, flowers, bugs and sun.
And it's always nice when a trip to buy new shoes for the kids ends up turning into a visit seeing firetrucks, rescue boats and vintage police cars. The kids were pretty excited about it.
And lots of gospel studying happening around here, too!
I love summer. And I love getting to soak it in with these great people :).
