A Picnic at the Park

I surprised the girls today with a picnic lunch down at the park.  It was sort-of an impromptu thing; the girls were getting antsy (meaning that they were picking fights with one another) and we needed a reason to just plain get out of the house.  I really don't care for the extremely hot and humid weather, but knew that we could find a shady spot at the park to eat.  It would be a win-win situation for everyone.

 

 

After lunch, Jack and I continued to sit in the shade while the girls were off and running to play on the playground. 

 

 

 

Frankly, I am sure that they burned off every single calorie that they consumed from lunch, but it also meant that they would be nice and tired by the time that we headed back home for naps.

 



This girl's arm strength never ceases to amaze me:

It turns out that there was some miscommunication between myself and a certain 2-year-old on how far she could go into the water.  I had explained, in great detail, that we did not have our bathing suits on and that I was not going to be "playing lifeguard" from all the way across the park (in my nicely shaded area). 

Alas, the temptation was too great. 

So, I managed to come over and monitor from a closer perspective until both of the girls were able to get cooled off and get the water out of their system.

It was such a nice time for all of us.  The breeze was greatly appreciated and the girls came back home to take wonderful naps (Jack fell asleep in the fresh air at the park). 

This is exactly what I had envisioned for my family when we first moved into this house.  I wanted to be able to go down to the park/beach whenever we wanted to (either with or without a plan) and make memories.  I wanted to pack picnic lunches and enjoy the beautiful landscaping and fresh air.  And that is just what we are doing ...

Parties Galore

The month of June was full of gatherings and parties.  Some of the time was spent with family and other times were spent with friends.  What was most noteworthy was that Samantha was invited to TWO different birthday parties for two different friends that month.  She was so excited to receive invitations in the mail (the first of many to come throughout her school years, I am sure).  And she was even more excited to be able to choose birthday gifts for her friends -- although, the first time resulted in a small breakdown upon realizing that her birthday is months away and she would have to wait for her own gifts.

The first birthday party was for her friend, Aleah.  Samantha and Aleah were in preschool together, and Aleah's mom and I were the "room moms" for the classroom this last year.  Steve took Samantha to the party and I stayed home with Sophia and Jack.  It was right during nap time and Jack was only a couple of weeks old. 

It was a pool party!

There was a Cinderella piñata, and the kids took turns pulling the string until the candy came out.

Then, they enjoyed snacks with cake and ice cream on the deck.  What a nice way to spend a warm Sunday afternoon!

Most of the kids at the party:

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Later in the month, Samantha was invited to a birthday party for her friend, Hayden.  Not only was Hayden in Samantha's preschool class this last year, she was also in her dance class.

The party was held at a Jumpin' Jax facility where the kids could spend most of the party jumping on blown-up inflatables.  There was also pizza and cupcakes for the kids.

Needless to say, Sam had a great time!

 

 

 

The guests at the party:

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Our 4th of July Festivities

We had a wonderful 4th of July holiday this year.  We managed to pack the day full of activities and ended the night feeling fulfilled.  The girls had a difficult time narrowing down each of their favorite things from the day, and that made me happy.

After a homemade waffle breakfast, we got the kids dressed so that we would be out of the door by 8:45 am.  The girls wore their bathing suits under their festive dresses, knowing that there would be water activities down at our subdivision park.  We walked down our road a little distance and waited for the annual parade that travels from the head of the subdivision, past our house and down to the park.

As usual these days, Jack was a little disinterested; but he still tried to show a little spirit for the holiday:

 

 

Watching/waiting for the parade to meet up with us so that we could join in:

 



When the parade came by, the driver of the fire truck stopped to see if the girls wanted to ride in it down to the park.  Sam was eager to jump in ...

Steve climbed in with Sam and we strongly encouraged Sophia to ride along.  As you can see, she was NOT happy about that.  I think that she was just intimidated by the huge truck (even though she has seen/been in one before).

Ultimately, Steve had to hand Sophia back out the window to me (while holding up the whole parade).  Then, Sophia just walked with Jack and me to the park.  She was content to do that, even though she kept saying, "Me miss Sammy.  Miss you, Daddy," the whole way there.

Once we finally got to the park, there were refreshments set up, as well as activities for the kids to partake in.  Samantha was already hard at work, coloring a mask.

The girls each got to choose a patriotic temporary tattoo (a favorite thing of theirs lately!).

Sporting their new tattoos -- a flag for Sophia and a firework for Samantha:

The girls then stripped down to their bathing suits so that they could enjoy some time at the beach.

One of their favorite things was decorating a cupcake.  Somehow, I got distracted and Sam overdosed on the sprinkles!

That didn't stop her from enjoying it ...

And Sophia chose blue frosting -- of course ... the messiest choice.

She managed to eat the whole thing, too.

 

That girl just makes me smile.

 

 

 

Hanging out with my little man:

 



 

 

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Afterwards, we came back to our house and let the girls run through the sprinkler.  They had been bugging us for days, but we kept putting it off because of the rain that we had for several days in a row.  Finally, we gave in and let them have the time of their lives.

 

 

 

After naps, we headed over to our friends' house so that the girls could play on their new play set and we could grill hot dogs.  It was a big hit!

 

 

 

Before we left, the girls got to do sparklers.  This was their first time with them, and they caught on to the concept pretty quickly.

 

 

 

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Finally, we came home and I worked on getting Jack ready for bed while the girls played outside with Steve and attempted to catch come fireflies.  Once Jack was settled down for the night, I joined them outside to watch the fireworks across the lake.  It was a beautiful ending to a perfect holiday ...







Happy 4th of July!

Beach Beauties

As usual, we are taking as many opportunities as we can to head down to the beach this year.  The girls are so independent now, that I can devote most of my attention to Jack while we are down there.  If I time it correctly, Jack will often nap in the stroller and I can then play with the girls.  Also, the girls choose to wear their life jackets on their own accord (something that we don't necessarily enforce, but are happy to know that they don't mind wearing them).  They like it because they can go out a little deeper and float.

Sophia was just starting to test out this whole "floating business:"

Samantha has it down-pact, and is even perfecting her back-floating now:

This girl has absolutely no fear about the water's edge:

Making the traditional mud hole:

Samantha even joins in on this, working as a team:

And the biggest source of entertainment for Sophia this day was filling up my plastic tote that I had used to transport the beach toys in:

 It was a big undertaking; and one that she took quite seriously:

While Sophia was hard at work with her shovel and plastic tote, Sam was building sand castles with her friend, Anna:

Eventually, the girls worked up quite the appetite and moseyed over to the picnic table for snacks.  What could be better?

Jack's First Baseball Game

Last week, Steve and I had an opportunity to attend our first Detroit Tigers' baseball game of the season.  Go Tigers!  We rarely miss watching a game on TV and try to go to a couple games at Comerica Park each year.  When Steve told me that a salesman offered to take us, Steve knew that I would move mountains to be able to go ... but he questioned what I would do with Jack.  There was no doubt in my mind -- the little man would be going with us and would attend his first game at 5 weeks old. 

Jack slept in his car seat the whole way down there and all through dinner.  I fed him in the van right before we went inside the park and then strapped him in my chest carrier to walk inside.  Once we got into our seats (about 20 rows back just to the left of 3rd base), Jack took turns sitting either on my lap or on Steve's lap.  If he got restless, I just nursed him discretely in my seat.  Steve took him for a couple short walks and before long, he had fallen back asleep.  He did great!

Unfortunately, the Tigers chose that night to have one of their worst games of the season.  There were 6 errors committed by the team (the last time that the Tigers did that was 31 years ago) and they lost dreadfully.  We left at the start of the 6th inning as rain was starting to move in.  It was a wise decision because we would have ended up drenched and it would have made for a very long night ...

Regardless, we were so excited to make this memory with Jack!  And to remember this event, Jack received a special certificate for his scrapbook commemorating his first Tigers' baseball game.  The first of many ...