Niebauer Family: Summer update

So summer is just flying by. Lets see... the past few weekends, we've done some fun stuff:
- We went to see "The Critic" at American Players Theater with friends Anna and Langdon and NO CHILDREN. It was awesome, but absurdly hot.
- We've gone to Capital Brewery a bunch of Friday nights with friends
- We've taken several hikes and bike rides. The twins are getting better with the bikerides, but still wouldn't exactly call them fans.
- We've spent a lot of time in the garden- gathering lots of cucumbers, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, kale, herbs, garlic, and now just starting to get tomatoes and we harvested a big batch of onions. Yum!
- We've also just spent time in the yard with the kids. They love the babypool and the sprinkler. They're also fans of the splashpark, which we've visited a few times. It has been pretty hot around here.
- We've enjoyed some fun boat rides with Mike's parents, but only managed to waterski once this season.
- Mike and I have had some good date nights and I've had some fun girls-night-outs.

What else to report? The twins are walking a lot more now. Mirabelle will walk clear across the room, but she is still not totally steady and often tries to go too fast and falls. Julianne is a bit more hesitant, only taking a few steps at a time and then seemingly giving up and going back to crawling. They're both starting to "talk" a lot more too. Especially Mirabelle. She says Mama, Dada, and Hi pretty consistently. And she'll say other things that sound like the right word once in a while, like "all done", though I'm not sure if she really means it yet... Julianne has been on a biting streak, which is most often inflicted on poor Mirabelle, but she's gone after Kate and Mike recently too. Mirabelle loves giving raspberries on people's bellies. Except Mikes, which seems to be a little to fuzzy for her to get a good buzz on :)

Caroline is doing great. She's still loving her "first friends" preschool program at the YMCA. She has been taking swimming lessons on and off this summer, and I am mildly annoyed that they seem to only play and she isn't making any progress, but now I've decided to just lay off and let her have fun and worry about learning to swim later.

Today I had a strange moment when I realized that her former penguin, who she named "Fiesta" in what I thought was a very amusing and creative way, was actually probably just named such because it was a "Fiesta" brand toy. (I discovered this while searching for penguins to replace Fiesta who we lost in California, but Oma already replaced fiesta with a bigger, blue one, so of course Caroline seems to love him even more than the lost one.) Anyways, I was a little disappointed that my girl wasn't as wacky and creative as I previously assumed. I suppose she's wacky and creative in many other ways :)

Mike and I are doing well. But somehow I feel like we're not taking full advantage of the summer. It is just so hard to go do all the outdoorsy things I'd like to do with all of these little ones. In a few years I think it will be a lot easier. I think we both need a little something to look forward to, though. I really want to go on vacation, but its not really feasible at the moment (for many reasons!). I think we might try to go camping as a family later this month. I want the twins to be walking pretty well before we go, so there will be less hands on dirt and sticks/rocks/bugs into mouths (wishful thinking, I know). But that will be fun. And Mike is talking about going backpacking in the grand canyon with his brother John, which I think would be great for him to get away, even if it means I'm on my own with the monsters. Speaking of which... he has a new work project that is going to have him away for 10 days! Including a weekend. Whaaat?! And then at least another week after that. I could cry. But hey, work is work, and let's just be glad we're all gainfully employed. And god bless our nanny, who might just be picking up a few extra hours there.

On the twins birthday- dinner at the grandparents