DANCE PARTY!

I don't recall exactly how it happened, but one day between dinner and bed-time, I thought to give something a try.

I fired up Youtube on our TV.

Pulled up a video of the song and routine from one of those dancing video games (Just Dance) and the two of you- and the two of us- were hooked!

We danced to YMCA that night.

And we've been doing dance parties pretty much every night ever since.

What the fox say?
Ghostbusters
I want you back by "baby" Michael Jackson
Moana
In the hall of the pixel king
I was made for loving you by KISS
Happy by Pharell Williams
Despicable Me
Mama Mia by Abba

...and the list goes on and on... we've been sweating and grooving through the end of summer through early fall together. Learning to dance together. Not step on each others toes. Have fun and stretch and leap and look silly without caring what anyone else thinks.

You two can surely bust a move!

Julia- here's your current favorite song to dance to: Starships by Nikki Minaj:

Aidan- You've been digging one Uncle Joe showed you: Animals:

Julia and Aidan's Sweet Shop

One day after dinner, Julia, you had an idea!

You asked me if I had any cardboard. 

I did! 

You asked me to set it up just the way you wanted.

I did!

Then you got to work.

At dinner you asked us for help spelling a few words, and then presented us all with MENUS:

Then you needed a partner. You asked Aidan if he could help you and if he wanted to play. 

He did!

So the two of you discussed the plan, got the crayons and markers and got to work:

Before your Mommy and I knew it, the two of you had built a RESTAURANT in our LIVING Room!

Presenting: Julia and Aidan's Sweet Shop!

The restaurant walls were decorated 100% by you, with designs of ice cream cones, cupcakes, and other delicious sweets and treats. 

This restaurant promised to serve REAL food! And the two of you got to work - by yourselves- grabbing bowls, and waters, and pickles, and cheese, and grapes from the fridge to stock your restaurant's kitchen.

Special care was taken to make sure that two four-legged friends couldn't invade the kitchen.

...but...there appeared to be two other pests in the kitchen who ate the rest of the food. 'Who?' you may ask. Let's find out the answer to that, and many more of the mysteries and joys of Julia and Aidan's Sweet Shop in this informative commercial for the restaurant:

 You guys crack us up and inspire us with your creativity. It is so much fun being your dad or your customer...even if you ate all my dinner!

Swimmingly Summer: The Back-yard Pool

Summer 2016. We graduated from the annual traditional small inflatable swimming pool, in which we all spent many hours of fun, to a large- and I mean large- giant, cool, pump-included, actually chlorinated swimming pool!

I love swimming. A lot. And so, very kindly, your wonderful Mommy, Yaya, and Baba (and you guys too!) got some gravel, leveled our covered sand-pit area and put together the pool for us as an early Father's Day present! 

And it was such a glorious sight!

And what fun it has been! 

Our first swim was pretty epic:

I impressed you all with my Olympic-style diving:

And then in you both go...

...and ...  you were in the pool for the rest of the summer!

We splished and splashed. I sang songs like "we are the champions" as I threw you. You dove. We played 'whirlpool' and rode on the giant, yellow "gir-raft." You goggled up and dove for things on the bottom. We looked up and studied "horn nuts".  We picked grapes and blackberries straight from the fines and snacked while we swam. We floated and went on journey. You learned how to play Marco Polo. We learned what "skunky" and "skinny dipping" meant.  It. Was. Awesome.

We had lunches on the picnic table in the shade in between swims:

But it wasn't just the three of us in the pool! You had many co-swimmers, including Mommy, Yaya, Mimi, Pops, neighbors and friends!

Swim parties. Splashing Around. Floating and dreaming with your parents and grandparents. These are the elements of an endless, ethereal summer. The pool is still up and we hopefully will get a few more months out of it before it gets too cold to swim. School is starting soon, and for the first time, you both will be full-time students. I can't believe you're growing up so quickly. But we'll always have our pool, and our sweet summer- and as long as you want me to swim with you, I'll be by your sides.