Off we go!!

Just 25 hours to Yellowstone!  (Big gulp!)

Who?

The following videos are the girls' rendition of a song Gigi taught them called "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt".

Juliette's version reminds me SO much of videos we have of Kathy growing up, performing.

And Magdalenne's version?  Well....

And who is this John Jacob character?  According to Wikipedia:  "The mock German name celebrated in the song suggests that English-speaking children find long northern-European names to be inherently funny words."  So great... it's pretty much a song to tease Germans.  Hmm... I guess we'd call this self-deprecating humor then since our girls are probably like 50% German themselves.  :)

Have a great week everyone!

Ice cream shoppe

Who knew they made cotton candy ice cream?  Well, now you do.  You're welcome.

The crazy thing is -- it really does taste like cotton candy!  

As my girls would say, "that's cray cray..." (thanks Rachael!)

This picture below of Magdalenne seems so grown-up to me.  Maybe it's that supposed knowing look in her eye... but I kind of wonder if it's a glimpse into what she might look like as she gets older...

Ah, here she is, back to her characteristic two-year-old sassy look:

And the two-year-old impish look:

(No, I have no idea who that other girl in the background is, but she clearly wishes her mom had let her get cotton candy ice cream instead of whatever green concoction she has!)  :)

And the proven connection between ice cream and happiness lives on.  

Have a great weekend everyone!!

A mish and a mash

I was having some issues with my blogger app and wasn't able to upload things as efficiently as I usually am... so pictures started to "gather dust" so-to-speak on my iphone.  Since I don't keep photo albums and this little blog is my spot for storing photographic memories... I just uploaded them all in one go with this post so I wouldn't lose them.  So here you go -- a mish mash of photos from about the past three months:

First up, the flowers on our apple tree nearly put the cherry blossoms of D.C. to shame.  We had a couple days of gorgeous florals out back...

And did our best to enjoy them while they lasted....

And before they turned into nuisance apples dropping and rotting underfoot all summer long...

We celebrated Tia Kathy's birthday with the Lukaszewicz clan, and yours truly managed to take away but one terrible photo of the event.  Juliette and Henry were adorable at the restaurant, jamming out to the live music -- though you can hardly tell from this pic.

While Magdalenne carries on with her princess/mommy phase -- Juliette still prefers the role of a superhero with "comfy pants".  It's going to be heartbreaking when that little costume no longer fits her!

Some "super" art work from our Supergirl:

I've mentioned a few times already about all of our camping trips with Gigi and Grandpa Bob -- here are a few more photos I had from those adventures:

We climbed the tower of High Cliff State Park to look out over Lake Winnebago...

And the girls made bouquets of wildflowers during our long walk back from the tower trip (it was our effort at keeping them from melting down as they had to sit still for such a long venture).

Back at camp, Magdalenne shows off her bouquet (and Grandpa Bob shows off his toe).

In other news... Chen took Juliette for her first cinema outing -- to see Monsters University.  Before they left, she made a poster about it because she was so excited.  It reads "Papa Juliette Monsters University" ("Monsters University" runs kind of back and forth on the page)

And here they are just before setting out...

We celebrated the 4th of July at the Lukaszewicz lake house and the only pic I have is of Chen and me.  Fortunately Kathy & Mike were better photojournalists, so there are more pics on her blog here.

Juliette continues to love on Duncan Doo...

And a little more on her sister too....

I took the girls for Sunday doughnuts the other day -- in memory of many-a-Sunday doughnuts growing up.  They both choose the white frosting with sprinkles -- of course.

And last but not least -- more camping!  Here we are at the very fake little lake of Devil's River Campground.  I also brought our little pool so the girls could stay cool even when I couldn't be down watching them in the lake.

It was a surprising hit considering the fact that there was a much larger body of water just within eyesight!

When we did finally make it in that oddly-hued green water... the main attraction was catching the smallest frogs in the whole wide world.

Magdalenne bears proof of their teeny tiny size (you can see the frog in her cup)

We eventually concluded that these must be toads, because there were also tadpoles in the lake that were much larger than the teeny tiny frogs... so I'm guessing those tadpoles will one day become frogs.  And I think I'll be glad we WON'T be camping at Devil's River any more this year!!!

And that's a wrap of my photo dump!  

Ciao!

To the beach!

This past Saturday we had a rare weekend day when Chen didn't have to work and we had no plans.  So we packed up and headed to the beach -- Harrington Beach, to be specific.

It was great to get down by the water, but the day proved to be a rare break in the extreme heat wave we've been experiencing.  Couple that with the ice cold temps of Lake Michigan and you get two girls (and two parents) who preferred to spend the day on the sand instead of in the water.  The girls still had a good time, building, digging, and even flying kites.

 It was all just grand... until it started to rain!  

C'est la vie...  :)

Kamikaze Hamster?

Yesterday I found Juliette's new little hamster in this fairly compromising position. I can' decide if I think he's a little adventurer, a victim, or attempting to put himself out of the misery of being one of J's little pets?

Play and lingo

Happy summer!  At long last the season of outdoor fun and frolic is upon us.  Of course we only have about one week before the heat is too unbearable to actually be outdoors... but Las Chicas Chenhalls are enjoying these lazy summer days as much as possible while we can.

We've joined Gigi and Grandpa Bob on several camping outings already...

The action shot of the swings below is actually a relic now:  those swings were removed between that camping trip and the one we just took last weekend -- much to our two heroines' dismay.

Back at home, we've also gotten outside for play as much as we can.... the Princess Pool made a reappearance again this year and it was given a whole new appreciation since Magdalenne has recently declared that she IS a princess (and sometimes a Mommy). 

We also brought out a yet-unused wedding present (believe-it-or-not):  a Darth Vader sprinkler!  I can't imagine why Chen and I haven't had the opportunity to bust out that little gem previously...  Well, the other day I literally dusted off Darth -- or, as he is better known around our house:  "Koo Chee".  (Chen has only himself to blame for this nickname for his favorite evil villain.  A few years ago I gave him a Darth Vader pancake flipper, and every time he takes it out to use it, he shows it to the girls and makes the noise Darth Vader makes through his mask (yup, you guessed it:  "Koo Chee, Koo Chee") which prompted Magdalenne to in turn refer to the Dark Lord as "Koo Chee" much to my delight and Chen's chagrin.  It's particularly funny when we're out in public, at Target say, where Darth Vader is featured, and Magdalenne excitedly points and squeals:  "Koo Chee!  Koo Chee!")  Anyhoo... back to the sprinkler:

I have to admit -- it was hilarious.  Darth and the Dark Side fought the sunshine and girly squeals with squirts of water and a flimsy red plastic light saber.  Oh, and did I mention that his cape is made of fabric so it actually blew in the wind?

The whole thing just cracked me up, as you'll hear in the video below:

Back indoors, while Magdalenne has recently discovered her true calling as a Princess, Juliette remains true to her calling as an animal whisperer.

When she's not princessing about, Magdalenne has also taken to her other self-appointed role as a Mommy.  

And what do Mommies do, according to Miss Magdalenne?  

Mostly, they wrap up their babies in blankies.

Here she's wrapped the two toy mermaids we have in the bathtub...

While I have an explanation for why we call Darth Vader "Koo Chee" these mermaids' pseudonym completely eludes me. They were a gift from my mom during one of the girls' visits to Manitowoc and when they brought them home, the girls (mostly Magdalenne) were already referring to the dolls as their "Principals".  Say what???  I have NO idea, but that is now what we all call them:  the Principals.  And here they, the two Principals, at rest on the edge of the bathtub, covered in a wet washcloth.  And why not?

And last but not least, the other baby of the house that Magdalenne mothers on occasion (when I'm not up to the task!):

Yup, she's got Chen right where she wants him -- all wrapped up with no place to go.  :)

Have a great week, everyone!!