We have been trying to stay cool and keeping busy with some fun activities. We've gone to the Children's Museum now twice in the past two weeks. The museum just opened in June, and is only about 40% complete at this point. For our first trip, it was just Rylie and me, but last week, we had a special treat spending the day with Cousin Jordyn. The girls had a ball together, and while they missed Micah (the third muskateer) I am sure he was probably happier to get a break from them :-)
A few pictures of Rylie and Jordyn enjoying the museum.
The girls loved the supermarket exhibit. You can go shopping, check the stockroom, and Jordyn even checked us out!

The kitchen exhibit was another big hit. Iron Chef 3 and under Competition :-)
"Uh oh!"

There was another exhibit where you could paint a house. Rylie preferred to paint her shoes :-)
The tunnels were a lot of fun to climb through. We went back to this section of the museum three times! Rylie's Garden
We are always looking for new activities for Rylie to learn different and new things. So the newest addition to the Tennen Family's Backyard: Rylie's Garden. So far, we have basil and tomatoes. Next week we'll be adding peppers.

Our little gardener!Rylie was very involved in the planting process. Thankfully at school she has learned "Pat, Pat, Pat" from when they do art projects. This came in handy as we tried to explain to her that she needed to pat the soil down. She seemed to think it was more of a sandbox and preferred digging and moving soil from one place to another.

Once everything was planted, Rylie watered all of her plants. While it seemed at first the plants may drown (if that is possible in Arizona in August) Rylie definitely gets an A for effort, and is getting better each day. The truth is, while it would be nice to actually get some produce out of this garden, more importantly, we really just hope the garden will allow Rylie to learn about nature and grow a sense of pride in her accomplishments. We now water the garden every morning before we leave and every afternoon when we come home.

K-Stan Cousins

Rylie's friend, Caroline, has appeared on this blog before. As you may recall, Caroline is from Kyrgyzstan and the girls are only a few weeks apart. We were so excited to spend time with Caroline and her family again. We really enjoy hanging out with her parents, and all four of us love to watch the two girls together. They are really like 2 peas in a pod. It is a very special friendship they have, one that we look forward to watching develop throughout the years. They have become more interactive in their play. (Much of their interaction this weekend revolved around Caroline taking grapes and raisins from Rylie, and Rylie taking watermelon and cookie pieces from Caroline!)

After an afternoon at the pool, we hit Havana Cafe for dinner.

The mac & cheese could only keep the girls in their highchairs for so long. Climbing on the fireplace was much more fun!

Kisses for one another!

Love to everyone....