As previously mentioned, Marc & Frances are enjoying a well-deserved vacation in Mexico this week. Alice & Claire are staying with Rara & Papa from Friday night to Wednesday morning, then going to stay with Frances’ mom until Marc & Frances get home on Saturday. We have had so much fun with them! Ryan and I have spent most of our time there. Ryan even had a sleepover Saturday night to Sunday, and helped the girls get ready for church on Sunday morning.
Papa is still the bishop of a young adult ward (no nursery), so Alice & Claire came to our ward. Since it is the ward where their daddy grew up, friends and neighbors (and Marc’s former teachers and advisors, as well as the parents of his friends) LOVED seeing the girls! They were little superstars! They did great in the nursery, and were so good at sharing! Rara & I stayed in nursery with them. Of course, Alice spent a lot of her time on the horsey and playing ball, and Claire spent most of her time toting around several babies.
We spent most of Sunday afternoon & evening at Rara’s & Papa’s, and helped put the girls to bed.
On Monday, I had work and Ryan had school. Rara & Papa took Alice & Claire to the park and to the Main Street Chalk Art Festival during the day.
Ryan and I felt left out of the fun, so the minute we were both done with work and school, we were back with the girls. We took them to the park, and had a lot of fun there. They both love the swings, but especially Claire. She spent the ENTIRE TIME in her swing. She would tell me that Alice was on the slide. I would ask her if she wanted to go slide. She shook her little head and said, “No. Sfing.” A few minutes later, she would point out that Alice and Ryan were playing ball. “Do YOU want to go and play ball?” (Shakes head.) “No. Sfing.” Rara took a bottle of bubbles and blew those with Alice. Claire told me that Alice was blowing bubbles. “Do YOU want to go and blow bubbles?” (Vigorous head shaking.) “No. Sfing.”
These next two tidbits are especially for Claire’s mommy & daddy, if they are reading the updates. She is developing quite the sense of humor! I guess she got a little annoyed with me asking her if she wanted to get off the swing so many times. She pretended to go to sleep. Actually, we had been in the swing for so long, it was kind of mesmerizing. I had to bend down to look at her little eyes to see if she really was asleep. When I bent down to look at her, she looked up at me and laughed and laughed. Apparently she thought it was really funny that she tricked me! Earlier in the day she helped Rara unload the dishwasher, and apparently took off with one of those plastic leaf plates. She played with it on the princess table and the floor for a while. When I got there, she had it on the floor, and was playing with it. Rara took Alice upstairs, and Claire SAT on the plate and started to spin around on it! I said, “Claire, we don’t sit on plates!” Her response? “Funny!” Yep, it was funny. I laughed pretty hard.
We miss having them around, and we’re excited to see them again on Sunday!
The game was especially fun, since they played Ryan’s friend Zachary’s team. I had a lot of fun visiting with Zachary's mom. Ryan played very well, and scored two goals!
When the game was over and Ryan came to the sidelines, the girls treated him like a celebrity! “RY-AH!!! RY-AH!!!” They both wanted him to hold them. They love Ryan so much! And Ryan is such a great “big cousin” and helper!
After church, we enjoyed a great dinner at Rara’s and Papa’s. Marc & Frances & the girls got there before we did, and took some darling pictures of Frances and the girls.
And here’s the group photo of the moms and their kiddos (except Rara’s other kiddo, who wasn’t thrilled to participate).
Even though I was still feeling pretty yucky (obviously…look at the picture), we had a fun day!
There was a basketball booth with a very long line. But he wanted to do it. As we stood in line, a teenager and his dad were in line ahead of us. They were trash-talking each other about who would make the most shots. The son went first. He only made about 3 or 4 out of his 10 tries. The dad had a lot of fun with that, but then only made about 5 or 6 out of his 10 tries (after saying, “Let me show you how it’s done.”). They left. Ryan was next. He made his first six shots IN A ROW!!! He missed his 7th shot. He then made his last three shots! I kept thinking how much I wished that the teenager and his dad had stuck around so Ryan could “show them how it’s done.” The man running the booth was amazed! He said that Ryan had BY FAR the longest streak and the highest number of shots for the whole day.
