Abby, Zoë and Enzo

Jen, aka "Louise" came for a visit today.  We actually haven't seen her for about a year, since she was pregnant with her son, Malachi.  He just turned a year old this past weekend, and she has another on the way.  Abby and Zoë were kind enough to compare our bellies.  Jen is due a couple of weeks after Auntie Reanna, so we're all in a row and all having boys.  The girls were very interested in Malachi, but also not big fans of him taking their toys... I guess that's something we'll have to work on.

Today Abby and Zoë wanted to do 'school lessons' so I was making stuff up for them to do on the big writing board.  While I was doing this with Abby I saw a fruit fly buzzing around her and I tried to 'clap' it, but missed.  Later on Abby was lying on the floor doing her own writing board lessons and she saw the pesky little fruit fly again.  I saw her clap her hands together and then a look of great accomplishment came over her face.  She jumped up exclaiming, "I squashed the fruit fly!"  For the rest of the evening she has been bringing up how cool it was when she clapped the fly and giving us play by plays of what happened.

The first part of the day wasn't so exciting for the girls, they just accompanied us on some errands; taking stuff back to the library, stopping at the post office, and then the bank.  Though they did like getting to go into the bank because they played with the train set and got to pick a jolly rancher to have after nap.  Later on we broke out the 'early learning' puzzle sets that Aunt Barbara got for us a while back.  We haven't done them in a while, so it was almost new all over.  The girls put the matches together so quickly, and can guess the words by looking at the picture, so I had to make it a little more challenging.  We did two sets of puzzle pieces: the 'around the house' set and the 'first words' set.  Since both girls were doing so much guessing, I had them say each letter once they found the match and put the puzzle card together, then sound out the word.

We got a couple of things at Golden Harvest while our laundry was drying, then we went to Wal-Mart.  The actual shopping didn't take all that long since we didn't need much, but then the check out took seriously half an hour.  The woman was having a very difficult time with our items for some reason.  Luckily Chris had the girls entertained by talking with them about the nail salon.  There were a few girls in there, a couple who were done and had their nails drying and another who was getting hers filed and painted, so Abby and Zoë had plenty to watch.

Yesterday when the girls were saying bye to Grampy, they were quite upset about not being able to see him for a while.  Little did they know that Grampy had planned to surprise them this morning by having us take them to IHOP (we didn't tell them where we were going) and he met us in the parking lot.  They sure were surprised and thought it was a funny trick.

Grampy came over this morning in time to go to church with the girls and I.  When Abby and Zoë learned that Grampy would be with us all day long, they were so excited, since he usually has to leave earlier.  When we got home from church, Caitlin and Matt were here.  They'd been up at the White Mountains and had lunch with us and Grampy on their way back home.  We ate at Ruby Tuesday's, which the girls haven't been to before.  After lunch we came home and said good-bye to Caitlin and Matt (and Sage) and then the little ladies had a nap.  Both Abby and Zoë kept mentioning how exciting it was that Grampy was going to be with us all day.  They were even more excited when, at dinner time, Grampy mentioned that he had a hanckering for Dairy Queen and wondered if there were any in this area.  We told him there was one just a few minutes away and, since no one was hungry for an actual dinner anyway, we all went and got some ice cream.  As soon as we pulled up at DQ, it started pouring.  Grampy and I got in line to get our stuff (the girls got to have kiddie soft serve cones with a cherry dip) and then got to scurry back to the car with it.

Abby and Zoë have been saying this non stop lately.  They'll pick some random memory and say, "Remember when we were three..."  It doesn't matter if the memory is from a few months ago or years ago, they've decided that everything that didn't just happen yesterday, happened when they were three.  I will say, though, they do have quite a good memory and remember things from years ago, which amazes me.

Today was the last of the scheduled ultrasounds.  Everything is looking good still.  Enzo was being quite photogenic today... and active.  If all goes as it seems it will, today's view is the last time we'll see him for a while.  The cervix is still pretty much unchanged, which makes about eight weeks with the same measurement.

Chris took Elizabeth down to the airport this afternoon and then came back to get Abby and Zoë to the dentist.  After the dentist we drove over to the hotel to see what Heather, Bill, and the kids were up to.  Eli had a belly ache so Heather stayed with him while Bill and his girls came out to Applebee's with us.  After dinner, Sarah rode back with us to our house while Bill and Cassie brought some food to Heather and then they all came to play at the house.  Before long it was bed time and time to say good-bye.  After everyone was gone, Zoë was just so upset.  Crying, she said to me, "Everyone keeps leaving and leaving and leaving!"  We still had the air mattress set up in their room so we let them sleep on it tonight, which helped ease the tears a bit.

This morning we took a drive up into Maine, along Long Sands beach and up to Nubble Light House, to show Bill and Heather some of the sights.  They really got their tirp full, getting to see three states in as many days.  On the way back we stopped in Kittery for some lunch.  Bill, Heather, and the kids ended up stopping at the McDonald's down the road from where we ate at Bob's Clam Hut.  Auntie Elizabeth was very happy with her 'Bob and Betty' basket (served by Betty herself), which hit the spot for her last day here.

Heather, Bill, and their kids came up today for a couple day visit.  They arrived to their hotel around dinner time, so we met them and all had dinner at I.H.O.P. , taking advantage of their kids eat free night.  They came over to the house for a little while after.  All of the girls got right in on playing together and any shyness that there was at dinner time was gone in a flash.

It was an overcast morning, but the water carnival wasn't canceled so we all went over to check it out.  We had the girls do all of the events that were out of the water first.  It began raining once they'd hit pretty much all of non-water games so we decided to go home for a snack and then see what the weather did.  It did end up stopping pretty soon after we got home, so Elizabeth and I donned rain coats and brought the girls back to the pool.  They did the shallow end obstacle course, a 'treasure hunt', 'frog on a log' and bobbed for apples.  It was a good thing that Elizabeth and I had rain coats on because it started raining again.  We let the girls do a balloon toss and then brought them back home.

Earlier today Elizabeth helped the girls get fitted with some tattoos that she'd brought for them.  Both of the girls chose Little Mermaid tattoos, one on each forearm.  Later on we went to the park with bread, and cereal.  Unfortunately we didn't see too many birds.  Eventually, on the far side of the park, we saw a couple of pigeons and sprinkled some cereal out for them.  Slowly more and more began to show up, although not nearly as much as we normally see.

We received a post card from Celeste today...

We said our good-bye's to Nonna last night after the girls had a good hour in the pool (with relatives - the Stutzman's - who gave them so much attention) and some dinner with Nonno, Aunt Barbara, Uncle Rich, and Auntie Elizabeth.  Nonna was heading back to PA early this morning with Aunt Cyndi, Uncle Marc, and Uncle Dan.  I had put Abby and Zoë in their sleeping bags on the floor to sleep, while Chris and I each hogged a bed to ourselves.  Abby woke up a little after 2:00 a.m. having had a small accident, and while I cleaned that up Abby had crawled into bed with Daddy, which is where she slept the rest of the night.  Zoë crawled into bed with me, but not until about 6:00 this morning.

With the girls up bright and early, we relaxed and watched a little bit of t.v. and then got ready to head out.  We said good-bye to Nonno Ernie, and also to Bill and Sarah whom we saw in the lobby, and then headed out for home.  First we stopped for some breakfast on the road, then dropped Auntie Elizabeth's rental car off and she rode with us back up to the house.  The girls and I took a nice nap around 1:00, and took it easy playing inside for the rest of the day.

None of us got much sleep last night, but the girls woke up early nonetheless.  After Daddy took the girls down for an early morning beach run, we went down to have breakfast at the buffet with Nonna.  Once we were done, we headed over to Matt's and arrived about 9:00 a.m.  I started on the girls hair right away.  At 10:00 Caitlin's sister-in-law Sharon came over with her kids Dylan (the ring bearer) and Erin (another flower girl) so that I could follow them over the Caitlin's parents house.  I was just finishing up Abby's hair when they arrived, but hadn't done Zoë's curls yet, so I grabbed the curling Iron and finished over there.  Pretty soon hair-do's were done and 'Cinderella dresses' were on and it was time to head to the ceremony site.

There was only a few minutes to wait before Abby and Zoë were cued to head down the aisle.  There was some grass they had to walk through before getting to the actual aisle.  Both girls began to get nervous as they got closer.  They were holding hands, then letting go, then Zoë just stopped.  Abby kept trying to get ahold of Zoë to get her to walk, but then gave up and just went down herself.  Zoë walked a little ways, then threw back her head in laughter and turned and walked back towards me.  I walked closer and tried to urge her down, then I walked around to the front, but she wasn't budging.  Finally Matt went down and took her hand and walked with her down the aisle.  It was hot, but the girls sat very nicely and watched Caitlin and Matt get married.  We had a couple of pictures there, and then went to the Red Lion Inn for the reception.

We had hors d'oeuvres and milled around chatting, and then once Matt and Caitlin arrived and said their hello's, we went downstairs to begin the food.  In between courses we took some photos, then there was the cake cutting, and then some dancing.  Despite how tired the girls were, they didn't want to leave the dance floor.  Finally at about 4:00, we headed out to go back to the hotel.

We couldn't get Abby and Zoë off the dance floor.  They were over tired, having little sleep the night before, an early morning job on the beach, and no nap. We were surprised they still had some energy left for dancing, but they did, and they cut it up.  Here's proof...

Abby and Zoë woke up early this morning.  Laura had a horrible night's sleep, so I quickly got dressed, scooped up the girls in their PJs and flip flops, and headed down to the beach.  We saw Cousin Bill down in the lobby who accompanied us to the beach.  The beach was almost empty, and the sun hadn't burnt off the overcast yet.  The girls took the opportunity to run all the way down the beach and back.  Without Mommy around to reign them in, they took off and didn't turn back until I was almost out of site.  I was slightly shocked, because they usually keep close, but they just kept running and running.  Nothing like an early morning jog to get the juices flowing.

We arrived to the barbeque right around 6:00 this evening.  We hung out and said hello for a few minutes before pretty much everyone had arrived and we got some dinner.  Abby and Zoë ate a little of what we served them, but then were off to play with Sarah, Cassie, Dylan, and Erin.  Finally we had to pull them away from their games, which was met with tears from Zoë, to get them back to the hotel for a bath and bed.

The girls love to visit hotels.  It is always a special treat.  Today we left Portsmouth for Hull Beach.  It was super hot in Portsmouth, and the temperature kept rising all the way through Massachusettes.  We were delayed through the tunnel almost an hour.  During the trip the car was reporting the outside temperature over 110, heat index.  Nonna rode with Aunt Elizabeth and we all arrived at the hotel around 4:30.  The girls immediately cooled off in the air conditioned room and watched cartoons before getting ready for the pre-wedding BBQ.

The girls had a large cheering section today for their last swim lesson.  They did some of the usual games, but they also went under the rope, with the help of Brooke.  The first time around, Abby went under but didn't get the timing quite right with the holding of the breath and I think also got water up her nose.  Zoë saw some coughing and sputtering from her sister and then wasn't so eager to swim under the rope.  After many tries to get started, Brooke eventually just hopped Zoë over the line.  Zoë was bummed afterwards, so Brooke promised that she'd help Zoë do it after class.  When it was noodle time, Abby did a great job keeping her feet off of the bottom and swimming the whole time, she also did really well with her form when on the kick board, even though she doesn't get much of anywhere.  Zoë could work on form, but does motor around pretty well.  After the kids were dismissed, Brooke took Zoë back over to the line and finally, after a few attempts, Zoë went underneath.  Once they had their towels, they got to go get their certificates and choose a lollipop.

When we got back from our appointment, we saw Auntie Elizabeth's rental car in the driveway.  Apparently she had just pulled in.  It was lunch time, and we'd been told we were going to Sake for lunch so Abby and Zoë stayed in the car while I went in to gather everyone.  We headed over to the restaurant, got a window seat, and chatted.  Both of the girls were so excited to see Elizabeth and they mentioned how long she's been in California.

Auntie had surprises for them at home too.  They got these 'little miss' phones that talk to each other.  It's like the old tin can concept, except instead of cans they are little phones.  The wire connecting the phones is really long so the girls were able to be in separate rooms talking to each other.  They were laughing and laughing, they thought it was so funny.  They just wanted to play with those for the rest of the day.  After nap they got more surprises, some strawberry shortcake hair things, some crazy lip gloss set, and stick on tattoos - Nemo and Little Mermaid.

Abby and Zoë had a re-certification appointment over at the Community Campus, which meant that they got to take their first ride in their new booster seats.  They had been using their convertible car seat in the belt positioning booster mode, but we got the new seats because they are much more narrow and will allow for company in the back seat in a few months.  Being that their old seats were so wide, and the girls so not wide, the seat belt is actually positioned much better in these seats, and the girls really do feel like big girls riding in them.

The girls were so afraid that they were going to get a finger prick to test their iron levels today, even though I assured them that I didn't think they'd be needing one since they had one last time.  Abby and Zoë played while I got checked in, then they each got to choose a book.  Abby chose "Dancing in the Wings" by Debbie Allen and Zoë chose "The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams.  We read the books and then it was time for the girls to get weighed and measured.  This would also be the 'station' where they'd get finger pricks should they need them, so neither of the girls were in a hurry to get over there.  I questioned the woman immediately about this and she let them know that there would be no finger pricking.  Abby weighed in at 32.4 pounds and her height was 40 inches even.  Zoë was 32.6 pounds and 40 ¹/₄ inches.  That puts them both in the 25th percentile for height and just above the 10th for weight.  After this we had to sit and wait a little bit more, so Abby sat beside me quietly reading her book, and Zoë played with the toys.  When the nutritionist came over to get me, so told Abby that she was the perfect role model sitting there reading her book.  The nutritionist was also very impressed with our green smoothies, and how much the girls drink of them (16oz.) and said that she could see how healthy we were by looking at us.

This afternoon Abby and Zoë had to go in for their second hep A shots.  They have been dreading this day since we went last month to get it done and were told we needed to wait until this month.  They heard me make the call before swimming and did not forget that they had that appointment later on.  We got to the office and waited a bit, then Abby had to go potty.  While Abby and I were in the bathroom, Zoë had been called in so when Abby and I came out of the bathroom we saw Zoë walking out of the room with a bandaid and lollipop... (we'd had them each choose a dum dum lolly before going, that they'd be able to have afterwards) and no tears!  Abby was nervous to go in, but Daddy scooped her up onto his lap and she was done super fast with no tears as well.  She got her bandaid and lolly and we were on our way.

Nonna decided that they should get a little something besides just a lollipop, so we went to Dunkin' Donuts and both of the girls decided that they wanted a strawberry donut.  Back in the car Abby asked Daddy, "Daddy, since we did such a big kid job, can we get our new big kid boosters?"  We've been checking out the high back boosters and been talking about them, so the girls knew that they'd most likely be getting new seats.  Sure enough, we were close enough to Wal-Mart that Daddy said okay and we went over and got the seats.

We got to go to the movie theater yet again, this time with Nonna.  We saw 'Wallace and Grommit in the Were Rabbit', with the same cartoon preview as last time.  No popcorn this time, but Zoë snuggled up with Nonna the whole time, while Abby sat up very interested in the movie, but making sure she was holding Nonna's hand.

After the movie we walked over to Chipotle and got some lunch, which we brought outside to eat.  Abby and Zoë were bummed that we weren't going to Sake for lunch, but they got over it.  They were preoccupied with the Coldstone Creamery next door though.  We passed on the ice cream from the shop and they each got mini cones at home instead.

I saw Dr. Mcglaughlin today for a routine check-up.  I'm 28 weeks and three days along.  Little Enzo was active as usual and didn't want to put up with the Dr. trying to hear his heartbeat.  Everything is looking good, both baby and I are measuring right on track.  Also, I passed my glucose test 'with flying colors' and was well above what was wanted for the iron level.  I now start going every two weeks, so I'll be back there when I'm a little over 30 weeks.

Today was 'safety day' at swim class.  The first thing I noticed was that the life vests were new from last year, which was much needed.  For one part of the class, they went to the deeper end to practice swimming on their fronts and backs with their vests on.  This, Zoë was a bit scared of and begged Brooke to keep a hold of her.  The thing the girls thought was the coolest was that they got to 'save Brooke'.  They went back to their normal area and each got a turn putting on the lifeguard 'noodle' and sliding it out to Brooke in the water and telling her what to do so that they could pull her in to the side.

The girls and I went to church this morning, then we had some home made deep dish pizzas for lunch and after nap we got ready to head to the beach with Tom, Sue, Jack and Anna.  We all piled into the car and a couple of minutes later our friends pulled up. We all drove over to Rye Beach.  It was more full than when we usually go, but it was low tide so that was nice.  It was super, super windy though and we were all kind of chilly.  Abby and Zoë had a fun time helping Daddy fly the kite that Tom and Sue had brought up, and they played in the sand and a little in the waves.  After a while we all decided to go to a playground in town since it was so chilly on the sand.  Once the kids were all tuckered out, we headed over to Friday's to have some dinner before saying good-bye to the Vollaro's.

Nonna and I took the girls to the Midas in North Hampton today, because there was a note from Steve's Auto Body shop that they noticed there was damage to a part we'd just had replaced at Midas.  At Midas they checked it out and sure enough, the part was ripped so they ordered a new one and got to work.  Meanwhile, we all went around the corner to the bookstore.  We looked at a few things, then had a snack.  Abby and Zoë split a cinnamon bun, Nonna had a complex brownie, and I had a slice of pound cake.  Afterwords we read books, looked at 'Gigi' stuff, watched some Veggie Tales... and got antsy.  The car took under two hours, which was good because the girls were getting antsy.  Even better, I didn't have to pay since it was the auto shop's mistake.

We got Melanie for our lab technician, which is who we were hoping to get.  Even though she did measurements and everything last time, she still took a few minutes to check out the baby since Nonna was with us today.  She told us that we're going to have to bring him in to see her after I have him so she can meet the little guy she's been 'seeing' so often.  My cervix measured pretty much the same as last time, 3.5 , so all is looking good still.  My next ultrasound in two weeks will be the last one.

I also had to go to the lab to drink a glucose drink and then come back an hour later to get blood drawn.  One vial along with the glucose drink was to check for gestational diabetes and the other was to check my iron levels.  I should know the results on Monday.

We went out to the Olive Garden tonight for dinner, Nonna had brought gift cards along, much to the delight of Abby and Zoë.  At the end of the meal Zoë wanted to introduce herself to the waitress, so then Abby did as well and then they told her how old they were and guessed her age (luckily she was young and not offended).

After dinner Nonna and Daddy stopped into Shaw's and Nonna picked up special treats.  She got two little single serve containers of store brand 'dippin dots' for the girls and then klondike bars as well.

Zoë and Abby are just making the news left and right lately.  We've had a bunch of people telling us that they saw the girls in the paper, but we hadn't yet seen it.  The picture is from the day we were in Market Square with Grandma Cindy and Papa Norm.  Chris was waiting outside the jewelery store, where I was trying to get my watch back put on, with Abby and Zoë and the photographer - yes the same one from the reading kick off day, who is the same one from the snow picture during winter - stopped and asked Chris if he could photo Abby and Zoë.  Chris agreed and told the man that he's gotten the girls a few times and then proceeded to refresh the man's memory.  Sure enough Abby and Zoë got a big picture in the Portsmouth Herald... both the weekday and weekend editions.  On the weekend edition they were on page three.  A mom from swim class gave us the paper this morning, then at the ultrasound our technician had clipped the picture out for us (yes, we have quite the relationship with her after seeing her so many times) and then our neighbor Barbara gave us the whole weekend paper with the photo.

- photo will be posted soon

Abby and Zoë knew all day long that Chris was going to be going to the airport to pick Nonna up and they were just preoccupied with this fact.  Unfortunately Daddy had to leave for the airport when it was time for Zoë and Abby to be getting ready for bed, which meant not seeing Nonna until tomorrow morning.    To pass the time, we spent a while at the library this afternoon.  The had all sorts of plans, and helped me get ready for Nonna's arrival.  They helped me with re-making the 'guest bed' and sweeping up in the room and other little tasks that had to be done with one set of guests leaving and another arriving.  They were excitedly telling Chris that they were helping me get ready for Nonna.

Zoë and Abby were very excited to have some surprises for Daddy on his birthday.  Yesterday we sat out on the porch and I did their hand and footprints on card paper.  I was planning to do the footprints for Father's day, like I do every year, but Abby ruined the surprise the day before, so I told him he wasn't getting any this year... we surprised him with them for his birthday instead.  This morning the prints were dry, so the girls were able to finish up making the cards.  After they finished we got started on making him breakfast: an egg sandwich, cantaloupe pieces, and gatorade, and put it on the tray with the cards to bring him breakfast in bed.  When we walked into the bedroom, Abby and Zoë sang the 'happy birthday' song and gave him the cards.  For the rest of the day the girls asked if we were going to have cake.  Abby said, "but it's someone's birthday, we have to have cake!"

Knowing that today is the day our company is due to leave, the girls kept asking all morning, whenever either Papa Norm or Grandma Cindy would leave the room, "Are you leaving now?"  We had time to go into town this morning and have a treat at Breaking New grounds, as well as run a couple of errands, and then on to Sake for lunch.  We got back home and spent some time hanging out before nap time.  The girls were pouting as they said good-bye and headed up to sleep.  When Zoë woke up from nap, she was crying and sad from the moment she opened her eyes.  Luckily the promise of having a 'fudgee' and grapes for snack cheered her up.  Thanks for lots of fun Grandma Cindy and Papa Norm.

Before swim class this morning, I made up some salads and drinks and put it all to chill while the girls had their lesson.  As soon as the class was over, we stopped back at the house to pack up our things and headed to the beach with Grandma Cindy, Papa Norm, and Auntie Reanna.  Abby and Zoë had a blast at the beach today.  They helped to build sand castles, had some lunch in the shade of the umbrella, and got to play out in the deeper water with Papa Norm.  Abby also thought she was pretty funny, sneaking up on Zoë and dumping a container of water on her.  Once she saw how fun that was, she continued to do it, then sneaked up on Grandma Cindy too.  Zoë grabbed some seaweed to do some payback sneak attacks.

After an hour and a half or so, Norm took Chris, myself, and the girls back to the house so they could nap and then went back to the beach, where Grandma Cindy and Auntie Reanna were getting in some more sand time.  Later on in the evening, we all went to Shalimar Indian restaurant to meet up with Uncle Tommy and Liz as well as Uncle Corey.  We all had some yummy dinner and then went back to our house for dessert.

Here are a couple of pictures that Papa Norm did while waiting for us to wake up this morning.  He actually was just finishing up Abby and Zoë's when we came down.  When he started doing Enzo's, the girls were right there giving him advice on colors.  Abby and Zoë named Enzo's picture, "The Enzo Bus"

It was a nice night for the fireworks, and we decided to try a new spot.  We went across from the Fish Market and climbed the guardrail to sit on our picnic blanket in the grass.  Daddy was the super mosquito swatter and caught all of the little buggers that tried to land on us.  We were all done up anyhow, with very little skin showing, but those things tried nonetheless.  Daddy got them all though, I don't think any of us got any bites. (Besides the two Zoë picked up earlier in the day at the playground)

Once the fireworks started, the girls were in awe, and really enjoyed them this year.  Zoë said "If I were a firework, I'd be - wow - I'd be a monkey firework."  Then Abby replied, "If I were a firework, I'd be nice and big and colorful".  I told Zoë what the finale fireworks meant and then she kept asking if the ones we were seeing were "the finalians".  The girls also thought that the fireworks would put Enzo to sleep, as long as we sang to him.

Believe it or not, the girls still had swim lessons today.  This was even more surprising because it had rained overnight and was still raining off and on this morning until about 9:15.  I called the pool and they said that the 9:30 and 10:00 a.m. lessons were cancelled, but that the 10:30 lessons were still on.  I was surprised that most of the kids in Abby and Zoë's class showed up, even so their group was the only group in the whole pool... until a few levels up got in down at the other end.

The weather ended up clearing and it turned out to be a pretty decent day.  We went over to Reanna and Corey's and played in the back yard and ate dinner out there too.  We had a funny game of 'red rover', and also taught the girls how to play leap frog together. There was a plethora of other made up games to keep Abby and Zoë occupied.  After everyone's dinner had settled, Daddy made milkshakes to go around.  Oreo cookie for the adults and a strawberry, blueberry fruity one for Abby and Zoë, which they had requested.

Zoë and Abby were really looking forward to the fireworks tonight, but unfortunately they got rained out.  The girls did get to wear their flag dresses and we went to the playground this afternoon.  We kept wondering about the weather, as it was a very warm day, but we could tell that thunderstorms were on the way.

At around 8:00 or so tonight, I set the girls up with a movie and snack, since we still weren't sure if the fireworks were off or on, and then we started getting them ready for bed.  At 9:15, when the fireworks were supposed to begin, they were in their beds but we were all awake listening to see if they would be doing the fireworks, since there had been on and off thunderstorms.  It turned out there weren't any, so hopefully the rain date of Saturday works out.

Not only did Papa Norm and Daddy insist that I take a motorized cart so I wouldn't be on my feet so long, Papa Norm also took the girls down the cereal aisle to let them choose whichever cereal they wanted, junk or not.  Zoë chose Capn Cruch Berries and Abby chose Froot Loops.  Abby and Zoë had a grand time shopping in the store with relatives, even Auntie Reanna was with us.

Papa Norm and Grandma Cindy came along to swim lessons today, and the girls wanted to show them their stuff.  Also, we saw Anna Claire and Andrea walking into the pool area as we were.  When they saw us, they realized that they had actually come a half hour late and missed their class, so they asked Brooke if she could join our class.  With an audience of relatives, plus a friend in the class, the girls were all about trying to go underwater more.  Abby was so excited about getting her face in the water and so focused on trying again and again, that she wasn't always paying attention to what the rest of the class was doing.  When they were doing 'supermans' off the side of the pool, Zoë decided to try and do it on her own, which meant her 'leaps and bounds' were underwater. 

After we were done at the pool, we decided to just head to the beach, except it was high tide.  We went into Maine to go to long sands beach.  It was so packed, everywhere we tried was so full.  We finally got parked and chose a spot on the beach and ended up seeing Angie and her kids, Kayla and Hunter.  We played for a while and then ate lunch at Sand and Surf.

The cinema in Newington is participating in the free family film festival, where every week during the summer, on Tuesdays and Wednesday mornings, they offer two children's film choices (old releases) and you pick one of them - one's g and one is pg - and watch it for free.  You have to get there early enough, as it is first come first serve, so once they fill up that's it.

We all piled in to the big rental and headed over to Newington to meet Reanna at the theater.  All the way over, and for the rest of the day, the girls couldn't get over how cool they thought this vehicle was.  They were sitting in the back, third row of seating, and kept saying it was so neat and that it looked like an airplane.  It was really funny.  We got to the movie theater and said at the box office that we were wanting to see the free movie, Surf's Up, and were pointed in the right direction.  I went to get some seats while the girls lured Papa Norm and Daddy to the concession stand.  Even with never having been to the movies before, these two couldn't miss the food stand.  After getting everyone seated, and then taking the girls out for a potty break before the movie, I noticed a woman grabbing these booster seat type things from a stack beside the door, so I grabbed a couple and went back to our seats.  They were just a hard plastic thing, with Velcro on the bottom, but it did help to get the girls view up over the seats in front of them.  They were sitting on either side of Papa Norm, who was holding the big tub of popcorn.  They were so mesmerized with the screen, even when it was just a little pre-movie cartoon, that when Chris and I held the popcorn for a couple of minutes, neither of them had noticed that we'd taken the bucket and they both reached over to Papa Norm's lap without looking, at the same time, to reach for more popcorn.  Their hands searched for a moment, then they looked and noticed that their beloved popcorn was missing.  It was hilarious.  The girls enjoyed the movie, and only got up once during it, to potty, and then sat and awed and giggled through the rest of it.

After the movie, we went over the Panera for lunch, and since it is such a nice day today, we sat at the tables outside.  Later we're due to go to Auntie's for dinner, so the girls will get plenty of more outside time when they are running around the back yard.