Pool day and pedicures with Sona

Sona, with Cora and Quinn (turned playing).

Swimming update: At this point both girls are really brave. Quinn Prefers that we let go of her when in The water. I think if I would chance it, the kid can probably swim. Cora can jump in or push-off and surface on her own, but she won't take a breath til we grab her. Both want us about 5 to 6 feet out when they jump in or push off from the steps, and both want to go all the way under. They both belly flop. Both will jump in wearing just the cheap  dollar-store tube (neither like swimmies or puddle-jumpers). 

I give Landon the credit for these skills. I'm in the water with them more, but he's the swim instructor. I coddle; he pushes, then they push me to scoot further out like daddy does. 

Both are able to recover when they fall under in the 1.5 foot pool. Cora prefers to leap across pool over and over, going under again and again. 

Teamwork for Sona and Quinn.

Right after a Quinny flop. 

Balancing like sea horses on the noodles. Cora was letting go and balancing and swimming pretty far like this. It was Sona's idea.

I can't believe it was mid-July before we got these two buddies together.

I suspect Quinn will love being with them next year at ECDC.

In the bathroom after swimming, Cora barked "it's cold in here! Someone needs to turn that ECDC off!!!" 

Little girl finger nail polish. Gifted by Miss Courtney. Definitely a winner way to get three little girls to dry off after a couple hours of swimming. 

Beautiful!

I felt great in the pool and played hard, then got out and had my 3 most noteworthy contractions yet. This isn'tmy  preferred pedicure for a moment like this , but it's more memorable then anything I could get from a Vietnamese shop.

Linda captured this moment. Cora wanted to know what these snacks were for. I preferred this pool over the county park because there is less distraction from learnig to swim AND there isn't a snack bar so we could carry in our own snacks. We'd managed to avoid the snack machine. 

For today, Cora was convinced that these snacks were only for the swim team. Wish me luck. 

Say sea monster!

Then Cora insisted they scream, as she said, "Mia and Papaw cause they're on the way to our house!!!"

I'm halfway to fully dilated and having regular contractions (it's 5 am and my contractions have been a somewhat regular 5 min apart since late afternoon yesterday... So I'm up blogging and eating cereal). 

I know when the baby comes, my summer with the girls will be over. Excited for baby, but I've had so much fun woth them at the pool and the beach. 

Quinn, napping in her birthday suit

Literally, her birthday suit :)

And this NEVER happens. 

Rainy days make us happy.

Impromptu cupcakes for the Merritt kids

Foster's my big buddy! I've trained home to say "quinny's pretty"... I love it!

We missed both Foster and Presley's bday parties this weekend, so when Mandy said she had leftover cupcakes, we decided to throw an impromptu party as our play date excuse this week.

  Cupcakes on the porch. 

Babies and pocketbooks.

Landon hooked the girls' carriers to their bicycles. 

And push toys. Presley's was hooked up too- I missed getting a pic of her.

And foster found the one puddle if water on the whole property.

4th of July kick-off

We joined the Sullivan and Groeber crew on Daniel Island for the bicycle parade and firework festival. 

Cora would want you to know that she wasn't smiling here. Not one Ioana, not for a second. Quinn sat on her hand.

Quinn was over the trauma at this point - Cora wanted it to be clear that trauma had been inflicted. 

We got to Seven Farms just as the parade was going by. I had brought the single-wide and planned for Cora to walk (Landon met us there much later), but realized that we were a) still pretty far from the main event, and b) the best way to get there was to hop in the parade. They were WAY less miserable then they looked here. In fact, I'd describe the parade as pretty fun. By this pic they were ready to get out. That's my blanket and picnic basket on top. 

By the way - take notice of Cora's beloved "ups". Grandma M bought those summer of 2012, and Cora's wore these shoes every single time we've let her ever since. They've been her favorite. We cut the strap off the back when she first outgrew them, and tried to replace them as her feet have grown, but all other shoes paled in comparison to her "ups". They broke last week. Landon glued to appease her, but they quickly gave way. Ah, "ups", we'll miss you rascals. 

Back to the festivities...

The Groeber kids are 6, 4, 2, and on-the-way, with their younger three perfectly aligned with our kids. The Sullivan's perfectly align with the Groebers, and Kate and Cora have become fast friends. 

I love little girls!

There was free face painting. Cora and her daddy waited in line for, seriously , hours (at least one hour) to get her face painted. From the look on her face, it was totally worth it. 

Folks were nice enough to let Quinny take advantage of Cora's patience for some quick arm art.

She was really proud, too.

It's never lost on me the sacrifices that were made, especially by our grandfathers and great-uncles, in order to secure our freedom to do things like sit in a field and enjoy a breeze and a glass of wine and some watermelon and cheese and a local shmokle band. 

Ah, the wonder of it all. Dusk fell and the fireworks began and my two were delightful. 

I didn't get other pics. Quinn liked the show, but this year, Cora loved it. Absolutely loved it. There were comments about the colors and her favorites and which ones she thinks daddy likes and exclamations for Quinny to look and questions about whether fireworks come from fire... I didn't grab my phone to capture her face (I doubt I could have anyways) but there was a look of complete wonder.

Fireworks timed to patriotic music.

Pregnant with munchkin #3 while holding a sweaty-from-play munchkin #1 with my very best friend a few feet away holding munchkin #2.

Very grateful.

Happy Birthday, America!

What better way to celebrate then a pool set-up for friends to drop-in (I didn't have my camera when Maelin and Guage dropped by)...

Big E in from Furman...

A nap delayed by a treat for peeing on the potty...

A stop by the fireworks stand for fireworks to entertain daddy... I mean, the kids...

A neighborhood front yard pizza party...

A line-up of Snap Pop throwers

(Calvert, ?, Kate, Cora, Presley, Maelin, Gauge, Taylor)...

And the World's best sister to begin the evening with some smoke-bombing worm-growing fun. 

The girls liked (not loved) the front yard firework show. Further towards the harbor, somebody was setting off thousands of dollars of back-yard fireworks. The big ones looked like they were exploding in the vicinity of our house. In the minds of the neighborhood boys, Landon was setting those off, too.

Happy birthday, America!

Hurry home baby!

Weve spent the last 6 weeks renovating the girls big girl room, then the baby's little baby room. 

All finished! 

Here's the best pic of the girls room... The comforters are all white. Landon did all the trim. 

He also added built ins to their closet. 

He's so handy.

For the baby's room we painted the furniture, then added trim.

There were many late nights of the girls falling asleep on the couch while daddy hammered and nailed upstairs. I didn't mind the cuddle time.

Three bedrooms already to go... And two little girls manage to crawl in bed with us nearly every night. 

I don't mind the cuddle time, but with my belly, there isn't much room for me!