We moved!. . .

and I've finally got the pictures up of the new (new to us anyway) house that we're renting out in Lorton. Enjoy:)

First, the exterior:

Backyard

Side yard

Other side yard

Welcome inside! here's the entry/ living room

(we got the couches for a great deal on craig's list)

Eat in kitchen area

Kitchen (tiny, but big enough for the semi-homemade/5 minute meals that I'm now famous for)

Office/space where we stuck some odds and ends for the time being:)

Downstairs bathroom

Playroom

a few ikea and home depot buys made this room complete

On to the upstairs

Area between the bedrooms and bathroom

Upstairs bathroom

Master bedroom

until we get a dresser this love seat is the storage area for Will's t-shirts, casual pants, hats, etc. . .

Guest room (more furniture pending)

The girl's room

(what you see above Lily's bed is a pre-existing bunk bed, which I turned into a canopy-haha!)

Well there you have it! Stay tuned for more details/updates about our new place coming soon:)

Reccenter tennis lessons- outcome tbd:)

OK, I'm pretty sure that Lily was not destined to be a tennis prodigy, as coordination, unfortunately, has always been her downfall. Regardless, she looks pretty darn cute while she is working so hard to follow instructions from her tennis instructor:) and I think Lily is learning a lot! I think the instructor is learning a lot too, BTW- as, you can see in the first lesson, they are using real tennis balls and in the next lesson they used primarily bean bags;)

I must say, she's got good form.

Here are a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure:

In this first one, she was supposed to run up, put the bean bag on her racquet and then run back without dropping it. Well, she didn't drop it- he he!

She did better at this exercise. Its called walk/stop the dog.

Water breakthroughs!

Wow! We had an amazing evening at the pool!! First of all, Sophie actually got in the pool!!! She started out on daddy's lap (screaming at the top of her lungs at first, of course;) ) and then was so proud of herself that she even wanted to wear the water wings to "jump" into Will's arms. Take a look:

Onto the next amazing order of breakthrough business: Lily swam without her water wings on in 3.5 feet deep water for the first time ever! Though she has been able to swim in very shallow water, until today she was too afraid to attempt this in the 3.5 feet deep water at our pool. BTW- Bebop you were right, peer pressure did the trick!- Cousin Paige visited yesterday and her fearlessness in the water totally inspired Lily (more pictures of their day to come soon). Here she is swimming from ledge to ledge in the 3.5 feet deep:)

This is one very determined little girl! Not 10 minutes later, here she is jumping into the water and swimming back to daddy:) *notice how she breaks into a little doggy paddling briefly during her swim- you have no idea how hard that has been for her to get, in terms of coordination(remember that one legged kick from last summer:) )

Lily the fish

A lot has changed since last summer for Lily. She went from being petrified of the deep end of the pool(anything over 3 feet) to swimming happily around the entire pool with her little water wings.Oh yeah, she also kicks with both legs now. Phew- that was a bit worrisome. Here's a video of her enjoying a leisurely swim on her back.

(Notice Sophie sitting poolside with her feet in the water. Yep, that's about as far as she'll get into the "big pool". Oh well, maybe next year!)

 

and here is Lily's latest achievement: jumping into the pool!

Art lessons

Lily and Sophie are taking a fun class together this summer called Preschool Picasso's. It is the first actual class that Sophie has been able to participate in- so glad she finally gets to be included, rather than just sitting out and watching her big sis have all the fun! Luckily they have a very nice teacher who doesn't mind being amidst a very big mess:)

This is their first masterpiece. They created a self portrait(Sophie on the left and Lily on the right) by first tracing each other and then decorating themselves however they chose.

This week they created blown paint art work with collage on top:

Lily also came across a Learn to Draw DVD at the library last week. She had the best time watching this DVD and drawing along with the teacher. Please enjoy her animal portrait masterpieces, as well:

Dog with leash in mouth with dog house in background

Elephant spraying water in front of circus tent

Under water scene including brother and sister fish, diving fish, and starfish

Parot on swing with beach in the background

More playtime at the Hesselton's!

Here's what Lily and Sophie have come up with during playtime in the past few months. Its been quite cute to watch, especially since Sophie is getting more involved these days:)

1. Library

Here Lily is pretending to work the library counter. Jingle the horse is being used as her desk, Bob the builder computer subs for the real thing, a toy scanner was used to scan the barcodes of the books, and I even let her stamp the books with a real stamp pad- it was almost all dried up anyway, so I figured it couldn't cause too much trouble:)

Sophie, the new employee was in training here.

2. Restaurant

Waitress Lily

3. Dress up

Most recent Disney princess costume: Aurora from Sleeping Beauty

4. Lite Brite (remember those?!)

Now they have the flat screen version, but they are not nearly as bright as they used to be- darn those safety regulations!

5. Mommy and baby pretend play

Sophie is very big into taking care of her little baby monkey, Bum Bum. She's giving him a ride in a "boat" in this pic:)

6. The fortress!

7. Books

They still love them just as much as ever.

8. Conducting an orchestra

(jingle again comes in handy, as he makes a mighty fine music stand)

Memorial Day weekend

The girls had a fun Memorial day weekend. First, here's some cute pic of the girls at a birthday party for Lily's school friend. Next, are some more cute pics of the girls at Grammy and Bebop's house for a special pool surprise. Enjoy!

The party was all the way out at Watkins regional park- but, hey, anything for a friend:)

Sophie really enjoyed the cake!

On to Grammy and Bebop's house. . .

Thanks for the cute matching bathing suits, grammy!

Yes, grammy and bebop have down-sized a bit, but the girls had just as much fun as in the old pool!

Sophie's doing the breast stroke:)

and Bebop helped her down the cool slide a lot!- it did take some skill.

Lily had a great time watching all the bubbles floating into the air.

She had an even better time watching them hit Sophie's head- hehe:)

One bubble blower survived the day- not bad for these two crazy kiddos!