Water babies

Here are a few shots of the girls enjoying the summer tradition of running through the sprinkler. Funny thing is, you don't have to teach kids how to do this. I borrowed one of my mom's sprinklers that shoots up in the air really high and goes back and forth from left to right and the girls loved it. I was hoping Mom still had the clown sprinkler thing that we played with as kids, but somehow it managed to die and get thrown away. Oh well, a plain sprinkler was just as good.

Kidist running full bore toward the water.

Meskerem enjoying the water.

After running through the water for a little while, they lay on their towels to "warm up" and dry off.

Kidist pondering the world from her beach towel.

Meskerem has found the good life.

Surprise Photos

One of the most fun things to do after I get home from work is to look at the camera and see what the girls have been doing that day. I am so glad that my mom and the nanny both make sure to grab the camera and take pictures. Here is a selection of the "surprise" photos found in my camera.

Here the girls are all duded out in their new painting smocks so they can paint pictures in the garage.

Here they are having fun with their new sand buckets (photo edited by my dad).

Flying their kite in the backyard.

The girls built a fort under the piano. Here is Kidist peeking out.

Meskerem peeking out.

Outside their fort.

1st Annual Backyard Field Day

On July 24, my friends Emily and Chris planned a backyard "field day" for the girls and some other kids. No other kids were able to make it, so we "grown-ups" filled in and had a blast. There were relay races, balloon toss, sack races and killer duck-duck-goose. It was one of the best days we have had in awhile. To top it all off Uncle Peter was here for the festivities as well. Here are a few shots from the day. Some are less sharp than I would like, but that just shows you how fast we were all moving. :-)

Kidist and Meskerem racing in the beach ball relay.

The first event of the day (the girls even got to pick their own teams).

We all had to re-learn duck-duck-goose. Even Dot got into the mix.

This was Kidist's favorite game by far.

As you can see, she was REALLY into it.

Meskerem wasn't so thrilled with the cut-throat action so she stayed at the side and my friend Kalah got this photo of her.

It almost always ended with someone carrying Kidist.

The sack races were hysterical. The girls were the only ones that really fit in the pillow-cases, but Peter still managed to win.