May to June

Hello Again!
Time certainly flies around here! To catch everyone up on our busy family life...
* Amelia turned one year old on May 30! We had a quiet family celebration with dinner, cake and gifts. Hannah helped design and bake the strawberry teddy-bear cake with chocolate frosting. Amelia preferred her cheerios to the cake, actually... definitely the oddball in the family if she doesn't have a sweet tooth...
* Amelia took her first steps the week following her birthday, and is becoming steadier on her feet with each passing day. She really seems to enjoy her new found freedom, and likes to make even more trouble and messes wherever she toddles. Her new favorite trick is to pull all of the tissues out of the Kleenex box, and toss them around while laughing hysterically.
* Hannah had her first dance recital in the middle of May, and though her class is on break until August she continues to dance around in her ballet skirt proclaiming, "I'm a ballerina! Dance me, Daddy!"
* Hannah is also participating in the summer reading program via Mommy's library, and has already earned a "Catch the Reading Bug" bookmark, tattoo and pencil. She has always had a fondness for reading, but it is wonderful to watch her love of books grow. We also attend the story times and special programs each week, just us three girls, and sometimes have picnics on the library lawn after. Hannah enjoys these picnics, as she gets a small carton of chocolate milk in her sack lunch. ;)
* This coming Tuesday, Mommy and Hannah will attend a special program, "Meet the Real D.W," where Marc Brown's sister, the real-life inspiration for D.W. of the Arthur series, will read to us, etc. We're going to bring one of our own books in case Hannah can add another autographed book to her collection. It's a Mommy-Hannah date!
* Eric is increasingly busy with the 113th Army Band this summer, as well as online classes and his Public Affairs Office work. He had a few ads he designed for the band published in local papers recently, and looks forward to his next graphic design project. We're very proud of his work.
* Amanda is still working part-time at the library as a tech, and is enjoying it very much. The summer season is busy, so she's even happier to come home at the end of the day than usual. But as it provides time for professional growth, as well as first dibs on all the good, new books and movies, the hard work is well worth the effort.
And that's about all...