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We have a lover of all things pink in our house, so when National Pink Day came around on June 23rd, I knew we had to celebrate! I hosted a Pinkalicious Party in honor of the day.

I decided to make our reading of Pinkalicious a bit more fun. I had the girls stand-up or sit-down every time I said the word pink or cupcake. Do you know how many times those are said in this book?! Oh.my.goodness. A lot! They eventually gave up and just sat and listened.

We had some pinktastic treats: strawberry cupcakes and strawberry pink lemonade. I used these free printables for the cupcake toppers.

And of course there was a pinkerific craft! The girls painted with glue to create Pinkalicious magnets.

The girls came dressed for the occasion and had a fun time celebrating all things pink!

And Leah enjoyed getting in on the cupcake action too.

I made Molly a new A-line dress. I love the little ruffle sleeves and the contrasting border! Molly wore it on Father's Day, because as you might recall, "Yellow is Daddy's favorite color."

I was not pleased with the back construction of her dress, so I bought a new A-line dress pattern from Lily Bird Studio. I recreated the contrasting ruffle sleeve and border and made another one for Molly's friend, Allison. This pattern sewed together beautifully, so I went back and corrected the first one. Everyone ended up with pretty little dresses!

During our photo shoot, Molly was having such fun, so here's a few more happy girl photos.

Ok, I'll stop now.

I made liquid sidewalk chalk for the girls to paint the driveway. It paints like water colors, but dries bright like chalk. And it's a simple recipe - equal parts water and cornstarch, plus a few drops of food coloring.

Molly liked painting with all the different colors.

Leah had a lot of fun painting the cement, but eventually moved on to her hands, and the front door! It's a good thing the paint was washable.

Last week, I took the girls to pick the last of the strawberries at Larriland Farm. Leah had the perfect outfit for the occasion! (I won the overalls in a giveaway from Overall Baby!)

Molly had her own box to fill. Here she is counting her pickings.

Eventually, she moved on and decided to help Jake and Mrs. Josie add to their box.

Matilda was a big help to her mom too!

Leah just couldn't resist the sweet, juicy strawberries. She might have had just a few - stem, leaves and all!

The kids had a great time (as did the mommies!). It was a beautiful day to be in the field, and had it not been for my friends leaving, I might have stayed out there all morning!

We took a trip to Brookside Gardens to see some flowers, fountains, and butterflies and take some pictures. The girls had a lot of fun in the Children's Garden.

We soon found gardens with fountains (and they have a lot of fountains), and the girls loved them. When it was time to move on, it was like pulling teeth.

Leah loved using this garden wall as a balance beam. She walked up and down it for a long time.

Molly loved all the benches and insisted on lying down on most of them.

We tried to get a picture of Leah sitting on a bench, but she wouldn't have it. As soon as we sat her down, she was immediately escaping the confines of the seat.

Molly and Leah started playing hide and seek in the roses. Here's Molly hiding behind a rose bush. She has trouble keeping quiet while hiding though, as it's just so much fun.

Summer!

It's strawberry season here, so the girls and I went to a local farm to pick strawberries. Leah decided to make sure they were nice and ripe for eating!

Molly was instructed to pick only the strawberries that were red all over. Here she is showing off some of her loot. (Much like she did a few years ago!)

And the weather has warmed up enough to pull out the water table. The girls have played with it almost every day since.

We had a brief photo shoot with the girls at Grams & Pop's house. Pop is an excellent gardner (a trait that Chad nor I inherited), and we thought we'd take advantage of their backdrop. Here's Molly looking very cute. Unfortunately, Leah was supposed to be in the shot as well, but was not cooperating.

She was too interested in playing with the hydrangeas. They're just so much fun to poke.

Or running to attack Daddy!

But the favorite picture was this one. It may not show their faces well, but it's just so sweet.

Chad requested a cake for his birthday, so I made my first double layer, decorated cake. Molly insisted that it be a yellow cake with yellow frosting, and have his age on top. She's even wearing a yellow apron and yellow shirt to match.

Leah's ready for some cake!

And what do you do with leftover birthday cake? Make cake balls! Yum!

Chad snapped a few pictures of the girls last Sunday before we headed to church. Molly insisted on everyone wearing yellow in honor of Daddy's birthday because his favorite color is yellow.

Saturday was picture day for soccer. We decided to get a very minimal set (just 1 team picture) of the official pictures, and just take some of our own. This was Chad's favorite.

This was Chad standing behind the photographer when Molly was having her official picture taken.

Team Dynamo (minus 1)

And then we had a game to play!

While we like to show Molly engaged in the action, the reality is that she spends a lot more time socializing/playing with other kids. We spend a lot of time telling her to go to the ball instead of talking. This game she spent a lot of time hanging out with Emily.