A peaceful Tuesday afternoon

Chef Marlie and Daddy making pizza

Samantha and I enjoying some lemonade

Practicing sand castle building for the beach

Always the ham Samantha - she prefers to dump things out of the table

Sota - always a willing participant for a photo opp

We enjoyed the day hanging out and playing with our new toy - the girls and I went and got a sand and water table. They have already played with it enough to make it worth it - and it will definitely be great for a long time (it raises up as Sam gets taller)!

I do have to say, though, after the first play time with it, I questioned what in the world I was thinking. We have been so used to a deck that enters into the kitchen/living room - that's exactly what we have now. BIG DIFFERENCE - our old house had linoleum/hardwood - here we have linoleum/carpet . . . oh the sand . . .

Anyway - after hanging out for a while we headed to Old Chicago. This will be our Tuesday tradition for dinner now because it's "Make Your Own Pizza" night for the kiddos. After some experiences I've had lately trying to let Sam help in the kitchen, I decided this would be an activity just for Marlie now - and she enjoyed doing it and insisted on wearing her chef's hat :) We were even fortunate to have the good looking manager on duty stop by to help her out! And she got the very special honor of going back and tossing hers in the oven (not the standard in case you ever go!).