Our computer has been broken the past few days so I haven't been able to upload some of the videos and pictures we have, so here they are now!

We finished a week of VBS last week. I took Erika with me every day while I taught one of the Bible lessons and she joined the preschool class. My mom was able to come visit during the week so she and Laurel stayed home and played. This was Erika's second year of VBS and she did great! During their closing program, she sang a cute little song with her class. Of course, the quality of our digital camera was not stellar, so you have to believe me that she did a great job!

Laurel has been into feeding her babies, puppies, or whatever she has lately. I took some video of her feeding her baby and as soon as I started filming, she wanted to see the picture instead of feeding her baby anymore. This morning, she was feeding her stuffed puppy and when I asked her to feed her puppy so I could film it, she started to feed her real puppy! He was sad that it was only fake food.

Erika helped her daddy wash the van this weekend. We have about three very clean spots on it where she kept washing over and over. Her favorite part of washing the car was when Matt would spray her with the water to get all the soap off her arms.

*Ok, it's been two days of trying to load the videos and the silly blog says there is an error. So, enjoy the pictures and I'll try and get the videos to load later!

Baby Shower

This weekend, the girls and I drove down to Corvallis to visit Grandpa and Grandma Hammar and play hostesses to my sister-in-law for her baby shower. We had a really fun time.....especially since the girls' cousins just got a brand new, adorable Jack Russell terrier puppy named PJ. Laurel spent most of her time looking out the window at the puppy, or telling everyone she saw, "Puppy! Puppy!"
The shower was very fun and Elisabeth and her soon-to-be son received a ton of very nice gifts. That kid is going to be very well dressed! I asked her if I could make her cake for the party as I really enjoy that lately. Her nursery theme is a hippo/leafy theme so I designed my cake around that. This was actually the second design concept, as my first try didn't work out quite as well as it did in my mind. But, the results were a hit in both taste and looks!

My sister-in-law and future nephew!

The cake, with fondant leaves and chocolate molded hippos.

Must Be Summertime

We had a beautiful weekend! The sun came out for the entire time and it was super warm. We went to Portland for the Grand Floral Parade on Saturday morning. There were a ton of people there, but it was really fun and we found a good seating/let the girls run around place. Erika and Laurel had a good time because they are people watchers and there was a lot to see. They liked the parade okay, but their favorite activity was watching the helium balloons float away when little kids let go of them. Always a good time.

Saturday after dinner, and right before bath time, the girls enjoyed a summer treat in the backyard. It is so nice to have a yard that we can play in now that Matt has mostly completed the landscaping. It is awesome! I'll have to post pictures of it soon. But, for now, here are our little cuties getting very messy!

Bible Verse

Here are some pictures of a Hammar family favorite activity.

Horsey rides!

And this is what it looks like when Erika tries to throw her sister off the horsey!

We are working with Erika on learning Bible verses. I found this really cool website that has Bible verses set to common nursery songs. Her first memory verse was this one:

"Children, obey your parents in everything. For this pleases the Lord." Colossians 3:20

Okay, so she knows the Bible verse......now we are trying to get her to put it into practice!

We had a Hammar family weekend o' fun over the long weekend. We started by going to the Portland Children's Museum on Saturday morning. It was a super fun place for the girls to run around in! They had all sorts of different exhibits including a grocery store/restaurant play place, a hospital play area, a fun with water exhibit, a theater and all sorts of other things. The girls loved exploring/touching/playing with everything! We are super excited to go back.
After we were done at the museum, we walked across the street to the zoo. We only made it about halfway through the animals before the rain started pouring so we ran to the car and headed home.
On Sunday afternoon, we drove to Silver Falls State Park and took the girls hiking. Erika seemed to enjoy it a lot, but I think the paths were a bit too rough and rocky for Laurel. She didn't like getting jostled so much. But, they both were big troopers and did really well! I think we might wait a while before going on another hiking adventure, though.
Monday was cold and rainy so we didn't do a whole lot. We played outside on the swing set and trampoline when the weather finally cleared up after naptime.
It was a really fun weekend and it is so nice to have all sorts of different activities for the girls to do in our area!

Laurel and Erika in the ambulance simulator activity.

The water area was by far the big hit with the girls.

Laurel dressed like a dinosaur in the theater area.

And Erika painted on her face.

Laurel and the goat at the zoo. The goat is just starting to eat the zoo employee's shorts. Then, he tried to start eating Erika's dress at which point we left the goat exhibit.

Erika wasn't quite sure she liked the goat.

Laurel and Daddy at Silver Falls.

A couple of the paths went behind the waterfalls, which was really cool! Erika said she was taking a shower.

Erika describing the waterfall.

Umbrella strollers aren't the best for hiking trails.