Summer Splashin'

I found a WHALE of a deal recently on this little kiddie pool, as our other kiddie pool had a hole in it. (Lame play on words...I know.)

The kids enjoyed some splashin' fun this afternoon. We haven't had too many days of sweltering heat this summer, so they had a good time splashing around (and climbing in...and out...in again...then out...you get the picture) for awhile. Notice that the whale's blow hole is squirting water? Ya, that was pretty much Ella's favorite feature of the pool.

A busy July...

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted, though looking back on the past month I can see why! We had a very busy July. The good busy kind that makes for a fun summer. We have had something going on every weekend for the past month. Here is a peek at what we have been up to...

On the 4th of July we went to a party at one of James' co-worker's house. We had a good time, but as you can see by the pic above...Ella was ready for bed when we got home. Ryan, too...but he was a little less obvious about it!

I won tickets for July 5th to attend a B-Mets baseball (our local team) game through the Mom's group that I am part of. We invited our new-ish neighbor friends to join us. They have two little boys that Ryan just loves to play with. It was the perfect way to attend our first baseball game as a family, as we didn't have to pay for the tickets and therefore didn't feel bad leaving during the 6th inning! In fact, we were pleasantly surprised to have made it through that many innings and decided to leave just as the kids were starting to show signs of getting antsy.


Ryan and his friend Taylor


What baseball game is complete without a hot dog?


Batter up!


On the way out of the park there was a jump tent and a fun baseball/tee ball game to play. We are discovering that Ryan is quite the little ball player!

The following weekend we celebrated Ella's FIRST BIRTHDAY! Wow--I really can't believe she is a whole year old. It seems that the year has flown by. We are enjoying her emerging personality and of course applauding all of the cute little things she is learning to do. Her current tricks include walking, giving high fives, trying to put shoes on (doesn't matter whose it is...if it is a shoe, she tries to put it on!) and pushing her "babies" in the doll stroller. Her current repertoire of words include: baby, kitty, Mama and Dada (discriminately), hello, night night, shoe and ball. Oh...and she calls Ryan "YaYa"...which is pretty accurate, most of the time! ;)

Birthday cupcakes!

Ella carrying her birthday loot!

Hmm...interesting.

What do I do with this thing?

The actual tasting of the cupcake did not make for a great photo opportunity, as she basically gagged on it. I think that the frosting may have been too sweet for her!!

We spent Ella's actual birthday just the four of us, but celebrated Ella's Baptism and birthday with extended family the following weekend at Chenango Valley State Park. My family (Mom, my Uncle and his wife Sue) made the journey from Maine, as did my best friend, Sarah, and her family and Sarah's parents, who were like "second parents" to me growing up. We were only missing one of my nephews from James' side of the family, as he was participating in his last soccer tournament of the summer. We had fun celebrating together!

The baptism

The whole gang

Us

More gifts...

Chillin' after a much better (chocolate!) cupcake experience

The following weekend we had kind of a break. Well, if you consider Ryan's little neighbor friend's birthday a break. Complete with a bouncy slide, pull string pinata, and lots of rambunctious little boys, it was most certainly a busy (but fun) day. I have to proudly say (because I usually can't) that Ryan was the "last boy standing" (OK, all of them were standing) at the end of the party. He was the only one who wasn't crying, having a complete meltdown, or just down right grumpy. Don't worry though...he just saved it all up for when we got home. An early bed time did the trick and all was well again.

What better way to end an already terrific month, than to spend the last weekend with my girlfriends from college (er, minus Marcie)!? Our husbands were so kind to watch the kids all weekend while we spent some time doing fun girl things. We met up at Tara's house in Virginia and had a great time catching up. What girl's weekend would be complete without some outlet shopping, a pedicure, a chick flick, and some yummy eats!? Oh...and did I mention the staying up until 2 am? Ya...the bags that still linger under my eyes are proof positive that I am definitely not as young as I used to be (sniff).

Bridgette in the kitchen...we each brought recipes with us and took turns making meals. It was fun to try new meals and to share our favorites.

Jenn and Bridgette at Coastal Flats (we did take a night off to enjoy dinner out!)

Tara and Matt's son, Noah. I think he rather enjoyed having us around for the weekend!

We also had a mini baby shower for Jenn, who is due to have a little boy in October!

I didn't do the best job taking pictures to document our weekend together, but again, it was a fun time! Thanks to Matt and Tara for hosting (and especially to Matt for putting up with all of the hoopla in addition to taking care of their kiddos!).

Phew--I'm tired just reading through the events of the past month. We don't have much planned for August. Just hoping to relax a little before Ryan starts pre-school in the fall (a post about that will most DEFINITELY follow).