swimming, biking, and playing

We took the girls to Marble Falls this weekend for some swimming. It's getting close to 100 degrees now almost everyday, so swimming is a must! We swam in the lake and then found this great city pool that has a diving board. The deep end was closed for cleaning when we first arrived, but once it opened Larkin and Willa were one of the first ones in line to use the board. It was their first time (you hardly ever see pools with diving boards anymore!) and they LOVED it! Willa went maybe 5 times and then quit because she kept getting water up her nose. Larkin easily jumped over 20 times and was diving and doing cannonballs in no time.

Willa

Larkin

Larkin has learned how to ride Willa's bike without training wheels! True to her personality (stubborn as all hell), she refused any help from anyone and figured it out on her own. We took the training wheels and pedals off the bike first so that she could learn how to balance. She rode it for a few hours each day in the house. Then after about a week or two she finally agreed to try it with the pedals back on. I told her that we'd probably need to hold the back of her bike to help her balance, but she wouldn't let us and refused to even try if we came anywhere near her. She figured it out though and within a matter of minutes was biking all around our house!

Willa wanted her bike back and Larkin's bike is still a bit big for her to ride safely without training wheels, so we're back to training wheels for now.

Here's a cute pic of them biking around our neighborhood. They're just now big enough to follow directions enough to ride in the neighborhood instead of just in empty parking lots or biking trails. The first time they biked around the 'hood they said, "That was the best bike ride EVER!! Let's do that everyday!" And since then, we pretty much have!
The girls love to bake--here they are making yeast bread and homemade butter. The small glass jar is the butter. They had to shake-shake-shake the cream for close to 20 minutes before it turned into butter. After about 2 minutes ("This takes forever!") they thought for sure they were done! They stuck with it though and were so shocked when suddenly the cream started thickening and then turned into a huge clump of butter!


Bathtime
I've been meaning to take/post a picture about bathtime for quite a while now. Aunt Jaime gave the girls these little Disney dolls last summer, and the girls use them in the bath and play with them EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. There's not many toys you can say that about. It's so funny to just sit back and listen to them play (they usually do not want us to listen at all and tell us to get out while they play dolls-the bathtub they use is connected to our master bedroom, so usually I just sit in bed and watch/listen to them from a distance.)
Everyday there's a new storyline. Sometimes dolls are swimming in the ocean and trying to avoid the sharks, or lining up to dance with the prince, or talking endlessly to each other about little things like birthday parties or balls. They almost always play together and have their dolls interact with each other, and usually play for at least 15 minutes straight. The only thing they disagree on though is who gets the prince! We only have one of him and he is always fought over. He had to be packed away for a few weeks due to all the arguing!