Tie-dye with Lyla

Grace made a tie-dye shirt at camp this summer. As soon as Grace came home with it Lyla started asking to make one too. I finally bought a little kit at Wal-Mart and made them with her. It was fun and easy and they turned out great. We followed 3 patterns for a certain look. Then she "designed" two of them for Grace and Reesi by simply squirting the dye in random patterns. She loves the shirts and wears them all the time. I love craft projects that produce something useful! She is shirtless in the pictures because I didn't want the dye to get on her clothes.

Lyla making a silly face...

Lyla giving me a sweet face...

The finished products! The first one is my favorite. I couldn't understand the directions in the kit on how to do the spiral. I looked it up on YouTube and found a ton of people showing how to do it. After watching one video we made this....

Bowling

The week before school started for Lyla we met some church friends at the local bowling alley for a game. They have been running a special all summer that entitles each child to a free game of bowling every day of the summer! You would think we would have been there a couple times a week! But, no, this was the first time we took advantage of the offer. I don't know why! We should have been doing this all summer. Anyway, we finally made it over there and the kids loved it, of course.

The bowling alley was full of what seemed to be serious bowlers there practicing for real! They kept staring at us with our loud kids running all over the place! Our kiddos were very enthusiastic and anxious for it to be their turn. They basically all stood on the "alley area" (probably not the technical term) the whole time waiting for their turns! They played two games and then we went to Chick-fil-a.

By the way, I need in a lesson in how to take pictures in a bowling alley. For one thing, the lighting is aweful! And then the kids are moving so fast and I'm behind them! It's impossible to get a picture of their faces as they bowl. This is the best I could get...

They all stood here the whole time! Amazingly, there was only one set of smashed fingers between the balls.

I think this is my favorite picture.

I think I caught Jackson with a mouthful of goldfish! Oops!

I'm not sure if Seth was mad about something here or not. I think he actually had a good time but I caught him off guard in this picture. :)

Grace's first belt graduation

Grace started karate with Lyla back in the spring. She loves it. As sweet and gentle as she is, she really kicks and punches hard. I have to say she gives it her best shot out there. I think it's great for her confidence and assertiveness. She had her first belt promotion a couple of weeks ago. I'm very proud of how hard she works out there!

Eric was out of town so I was there by myself. I had the video camera and my regular camera and both of them ran out of battery power about 5 minutes into the ceremony! Bad Mama! Luckily, my friends Stephanie and Greg were there too. Max was also graduating and I had Greg get a picture of Grace and Mr. Klapheke after the ceremony with her new belt. When I get that picture from him I'll add it to the post. For right now, this is what I have.

Grace is kicking in the front of the line in this picture.

Lyla took this picture...

The High Dive

Grace's friend, Sara Kathryn, took us to swim at their club, Sequoia, a few weeks ago. There is a high dive and a low dive there. The girls were fearless and jumped off with what seemed to be no thought at all. I don't know why I was surprised. They're pretty good swimmers now and this was the first time I had taken them swimming with friends and sat on the side while they went everywhere without me! It felt very strange and a little scary. I was watching, of course, but still! They love to swim and had a great time. Here are the few pictures I got that evening.

I love this picture. Grace is looking at me from a distance while sitting with her friend like a little teenager or something!

I love laughing pictures. They're always my favorite!

Here's Lyla! She looks so little. She tries so hard to keep up with the big kids.