Balloon Rally

We got up before sunrise today and headed to The Great Prosser Balloon Rally where we met up with Anja, Liisa, Mimmu and Iso. We arrived just as the first envelopes were filling up.You could get right up to the balloons and watch them take off. It was worth the loss of sleep.Helena all bundled up.Nora looking casual.Henry got to sit in the driver's seat of the fire engine parked at the airfield.Once all the balloons were up we headed to our favorite coffee shop for a hot drink. Nora and Henry had chai and split a toasted bagel.
We capped off the morning with the dog show. Nora has been looking forward to this all month. When we were talking about fall coming a few weeks ago she asked, "When is the dog show?"

Now we just need an invitation to the ball

Today the mailman brought Nora a princess dress from my aunt Pat. She is thrilled. She wanted it inside her tent for rest time but we compromised on having it right outside so that she could peek at it. Anyone need a flower girl?

Helena : 7 months

She is still gaining weight, 6.1 K (about 13.5 lbs) this morning at her weigh-in. She eats avocado, sweet potato, rice cereal, applesauce, oatmeal, green beans, and peas.
She is a roller. Nora and Henry were typical "back to sleep" babies that did not like being on their stomachs. Helena has always been pretty content on her tummy and has rolled back and forth with ease for a while now. In the last few weeks she has been covering a lot of ground with the rolling, wiggling and kicking, but today was the first time I have noticed her intentionally rolling to get somewhere. We still think that she might be our first crawler, we shall see.

Siblings

It is fun to compare the kids to each other and everyone sees different ways they resemble each other. Here are the other two at somewhere around 6 months.

Henry
Nora had the most hair.

Picking Fruit

We have been having perfect weather lately, warm but not too warm. We went and picked huge peaches and apples at a local orchard today. The kids thought getting the fruit was fun but the mud puddles and sticks were almost as exciting. Afterward we had a "Costco lunch with friends." What could be better? A group photo of the event can be seen here on Andrea's blog.

Trio

Outside

Ilse is an independent sitter now so she loaned Helena her Bumbo.

A little fatter

Last Wednesday Helena weighed in at 11 lb 11 oz (5.32 K) and today she was up to 12 lb 6 oz (5.64 K). She isn't back up on the growth curve yet, but at least we are headed in the right direction.