It seems like in the last month or so there is a big difference in the learning and comprehension skills of all the trio.  Now when something happens to one of the kids, they or their siblings can recall the event and talk about it later in the day or the next day.  One day Mommy took the kids for a walk around the neighborhood and since Jonathan and Anna cannot seem to agree on the same pace when walking while holding hands, Anna inevitably tripped and fell on her knees.  Her knees were scrapped up a bit.  Later that day Daddy asked Anna what happened.  Anna didn't respond, buy Lydia points out the front window and says "street.  Anna fall down."  When we asked again the next day, they still remembered.

When we stopped by Aunt Bobbi's house on July 4th, Aunt Debbie was asking Jonathan what he had been up to.  He was excited to tell her about jumping on the trampoline (which he was still laying on).  All three of the kids had a good time jumping on the trampoline.  Anna buddied up with Alex, and Jonathan and Lydia played with Amber.  Of course all they would eat from the food that was available was potato chips.  We tried to make some Mac-n-Cheese that we brought along just to get them to eat something, and they didn't really want that either.  After Bobbi's house, we stopped over to Bryan, Theresa, and Noah's house since they're only a couple blocks away.  Bryan had to work on the 5th, so we knew we'd have to see him the night of the 4th.

On the 5th, Theresa and Noah joined us at Delgroso Park.  We think the kids enjoyed the rides a little more this year than they did last fall.  Of course some of the photos of Lydia don't always look like she is having fun.  Sometimes she keeps a poker-face on.  But she really does enjoy herself too.  After we were done at the park, we stopped up at Grandma and Pappy's place for awhile before heading home.

This month Daddy tried to take the kids to some of the county parks that are close by himself in the evenings.  Jonh Rudy park had a nice playset for them.  The unfortunate thing is that the playset is completely out in the open, with no shade anywhere close.  So once the kids had played for about 40 minutes, Daddy had them walk up to the pavillions that were not too far to get into the shade and drink some water we brought.  Daddy was concerned whether they would get back in the van and leave willinging.  To Daddy's surprise, once we reach the parking lot Lydia (who is usually the most resistant to leaving) starts happily saying "bye slide, bye slide".  Once the kids were buckled into their seats, Jonathan says "Go see Grandma".  He knew we were going home and that Grandma Johnson was there.

Today (August 1) we went to the free picnic for all Wellspan employee families.  Thanks to some of Mommies coworkers, we knew to bring a box lid to help carry our food for everyone from the tent to whereever we would eat.  And were also instructed to bring a blanket to put down for eating.  We have a blanket we keep in the van, and Mommy got a box lid from work so we were prepared.  What we were not prepared for was the heat.  It was around 87 degrees and very high humidity.  The food was ok, but of course all the kids would eat were the potato chips.  Even Jonathan, who likes hot dogs at home, didn't like the hot dogs they had there.  Lydia sat down at the face painting area and let the lady paint balloons on her wrist.  Jonathan sat down at the next station and let them paint an Elmo on his arm.  Anna wanted nothing to do with that even after seeing Lydia and Jonathans paintings.  There were a few games we had them try.  One game you were supposed to toss a softball into these square wooden boxes.  Well, Anna and Lydia walked up to the boxes and threw them in from about 2 inches away.  Needless to say, they try to give everyone something so they each got these stuffed lions with long arms and legs.  Then we tried a ring toss game, and they didn't really understand that one either.  But they gave all of them a big yellow stuffed duck.  We went into the hall where a DJ was playing, and depending on the song Lydia or Anna would dance a litle bit.  We were surprised that the kids did fairly well in the next building for the wellness fair.  It was really crowded.  But they stayed close to us and didn't complain.  We then tried the Bingo hall.  But after several games where we kept getting down to one number left and they would announce to clear the cards, we gave up and left for the day.

For those of you looking for the July pictures, you will need to wait a little longer.  We took over 400 pictures in July and Daddy hasn't begun processing and organizing them yet.  So it may be a few days until they are put up.