The Gabrielsen Seven

The Gabrielsen Seven

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Bikes, NASA, and Ballet

 These two LOVE each other!
 Grace painted Alice's nails the other day.
 Then she painted her own. She was pretty proud of herself, and surprised that I let her.
 Grace and her two best friends. All 6 years old, all blond, all in the same primary class. Too bad they don't live very close to each other or go to the same school.
 Alice in bed with her ladybug pillow pet.
 We went on a walk to see the outside of Grace's new school on Sunday. It looks nice.
 The playground was great!
 On Monday, we got little bikes for the girls on craigslist. They're boy bikes, but super cheap. Alice needs lots of help.
 Charlie loved watching it all from his spot in the grass.
Grace took to it right away and loved it. She rode back and forth on the sidewalk in front of our house.
 Alice freaked out any time she wanted on or off the bike, and she didn't trust the training wheels to keep the bike up. She also has a hard time pedaling.
 Grace rode a bunch more the next day.
 It was hot this week, so we set up the kiddie pool. The kids loved it.
 We had to hang towels all along the railing to provide shade.
 Everyone's smiling!
 Drying off inside.
 Charlie was excited when we visited Paul at NASA on Thursday. Here we are at the guard shack to check in.
 I got my visitor's badge!
 Paul showed us where he works, and we had a nice visit with his boss.
 His office.
 NASA TV studio. (He doesn't work there, but wanted to show us a bunch of cool stuff on NASA campus.) We had a nice time visiting Daddy at work.
 Friday night was Grace's final ballet performance. She was so excited!
 I did her hair and make-up to make her feel like a real ballerina.
 Alice was excited for the performance too.
 A hug for good luck:)
 We got there a little early, so Alice ran around and danced in the studio.
 Warm-ups at the bar.





 Good looking group.



 They performed some dances from Sleeping Beauty.

 She had a partner for one of the dances: Joanna.

 So proud of her! She did great!
 Charlie was super cute today.
 People at church can't get enough of him, especially kids.
 How did we get these beautiful children?
 Alice insisted on a single picture.
 So did Grace.
 I cut Paul's hair last night, so I figured he needed a picture too.
 And I hate to be left out.
Okay, last one, let's go to church!

Sunday, July 21, 2013

One hot week

 Paul got to lead 2 tour groups at NASA last week. They saw mirrors that will be on the James Webb Space Telescope (the successor to the Hubble), launching in 2018. The picture is a model of what it will look like.
 He also saw this multiscale magnetometer. Something about solar winds, earth's magnetic field, physics - real important stuff.
 Space environment simulator for testing satellite components.
 Alice is our little clown. She loves doing silly faces at the table.
 She cracks us up.
 Grace tries to do it too.
 Pretty funny-looking.
 Charlie's too cute to be funny.
 I stand corrected.
 But seriously, how cute is that?
 Or that? Love that giant head!
 Irresistible!
 The girls have read books constantly this week. We may have gone a little overboard at the library.
 Oh, all tuckered out.

 Grace started her ballet class this week. I bought her a leotard, but made her wear the Dora tights she already had (from Grandma Lu).
 She was pretty excited!
 She's got 10 other girls and 1 boy in the class. She's the only one who's never done ballet before.
She was so excited to show us all her positions when she got home.
 Sorry, couldn't resist.
 We've been having a massive heat wave all week, with real feels up to 120. Then, without warning and against the weather forecast, it started pouring rain. I ran out there and got soaking wet just standing in it. Paul soon joined me and we walked to the mailbox, then sat on the porch enjoying being cool for once.
 Paul got his bike in working order on Saturday. It just needed some WD-40. It will cut his commute in half!
 Grace kept saying all day that she was a teenager, since we said she looked like one.
 I hate her to grow up so fast:(
 Setting the scene for a comic surprise.
 This is her "grumpy face". (Check out that sweaty red face. The heat came back.)
 It was all an act!
 Fun in the drain field. So green!
Paul's bike is too tall for me. I haven't ridden a bike since I was 11 or something. We love where we live!