Exciting Weekend

Yesterday was the last day of swim lessons for the summer, and Julia finished up in style, graduating out of Level 2 and into Level 3, as well as jumping off the diving board all by herself for the first time ever.  It was such an exciting experience for her that she wanted to announce it from the tallest towers, instructing me not to utter a WORD to anyone until she could tell them personally about her big jump.  Now that she has told everyone we've come into contact with, it's fnally safe for me to broadcast the news to the rest of you electronically.

After her thrilling last swim experience, Julia decided she was ready to reach another new milestone.  "Mama, can I have strawberries with sugar on them for my lunch, but I don't want you to cut them up and I want the green leaves still on them because now that I can jump off the diving board I think I don't need the strawberries cut up anymore."

Because one has everything to do with the other.

Today has been a pool-free day, though filled with lots of other excitements for the kids.  We are down visiting Yiayia in Connecticut for her birthday, with Aunties Shannon and Caitlyn here as well, so Julia and Madeleine have been the center of attention all day long.  Not only that, but their aunties helped them build a GIANT FANTASY FORT, under which they have been playing baby dolls, Barbies and Barbie convertables, and Little People much of the afternoon:

The girls also got to get their hair cut by stylist Auntie Shannon.  For Madeleine, it was her very first haircut, and she sat in the barber's chair like a pro:

Since she is still utterly unable to tell her aunties apart, this what Madeleine had to say about the whole haircut experience: "Um...Caitlyn cut my hair!"

Thanks to both girls dirtying their underwear and outfits (Madelene by pooping in hers, Julia by sitting on a gummy fruit snack, which subsequently melted and stuck her dress to her underwear), they were temporarily without their regular clothes.  Not a problem, however, because that opened up the door to a grand old DANCE PARTAY!!!  I don't even have words to describe the whole ordeal so I'll just show you the pictures.

Some memorable quotes from the dance party:

1)
ME: Julia, I wanna hear you sing along to "Call Me Maybe" while you dance!
JULIA: Uh, Mama, we can't sing, because we're just really FOCUSING on our DANCE.

2)
JULIA: Um, Auntie Caitlyn, one time when we were driving home from the liquor store I had some SMARTIES, and I was pretending they were a TRUMPET!
CAITLYN: Driving home from the WHAT?
JULIA: The LIQUOR STORE!

3)
ME: Julia, are you ready to dance?
JULIA: No, I'm not ready to dance, I'm ready to FUNK IT UP!

All right.  Funk it!