Squeezing in More Summer

It's hard to believe it's August already.  I feel like we need to squeeze in as much summer in the next few weeks as we can, especially with MiniM.E. starting preschool in the fall and Baby#2 arriving shortly after.  

But despite my need to cram in tons of summer activities, after all the company we had MiniM.E. was SO worn out and caught a pretty nasty cold.  So Tuesday this was how she spent the day:

Of course, even though she seemed incredibly sick Tuesday, kids bounce back fast, and by Wednesday she was back in action, ready to go.

taking Flowery Dolly on a stroll down Broadway

riding the horse

snack at Starbucks

a carousel ride

with friends

just sitting around at the park

at our "old playground"

 We were out all day running around and playing until almost 4pm.  At which time, of course, she took a much needed nap... and then stayed up way too late!

Yesterday after a very involved play kitchen session, we headed to the beach, but it was one of those days where MiniM.E. needed me most of the time and I took zero beach photos...

When we got home I made up for it by taking a picture of her watching a crazy thunderstorm that popped up.

And today, Happy Friday!  Sadly, MiniM.E.'s cold is mine to deal with now, but we made the most of the gorgeous weather and went blueberry picking (should have been called blueberry eating, for the toddlers).  MiniM.E. was enjoying herself until she realized she wanted a snack other than handfuls of blueberries.  "I wish we could have gone Cheerio picking!"

After the short-lived picking we went a few minutes down the road to Hudson's Crossing Play Garden where there were slides built into the hills, tunnels to explore, stones to jump on, stumps to balance across and lots more to discover in a mostly natural play area.

Meamaw and Grandpa Visit

Last weekend Meamaw and Grandpa visited from North Carolina.

They came late Friday night, after Bob got out of work, and were going to head straight for the ballet at SPAC so MiniM.E. and I decided to check out Family Night before the ballet.  We'd gone last year for a family night not attached to a performance and had a great time.  Unfortunately, we were expecting the same thing this year and allotted two hours to play before the ballet.  With only free ice cream, balloon animals and some instruments to see, we were done with Family Night by 6:30.  MiniM.E. was a good sport and we walked around a lot with her new giraffe buddy and waited patiently for Meamaw and Grandpa to arrive with Daddy.

Meamaw and Grandpa arrived shortly before the ballet and we joined them for a tasty snack and stayed for the first 45 minutes.  MiniM.E. was really into the ballerinas (though she insisted she wanted to see REAL ballerinas... like in tutus and wondered when it was her turn to go up and dance on stage with them).

Even though she had to dance from our lawn seats, she did a great job mimicking what was going on on stage.

Saturday we went to Big Trucks Day.  It was just as it sounds.  A lot of BIG trucks.  We realized almost immediately we should have brought ear muffs for the honking horns, but other than having to work with a tricky pair we were given that were a wee bit to big for little ears, it was a good time.

After big trucks we took a stroll downtown to visit the ducks at the park, go on the carousel and have lunch.

Sunday we spent a quiet morning around the house.  MiniM.E. and I went out in the afternoon while Meamaw and Grandpa and Daddy went to the racetrack and then we met up for dinner at the Circus Cafe.  The best part of the evening was the giant plate of cotton candy!

After dinner we took another stroll downtown and Meamaw and Grandpa watched another carousel ride and said goodbye to the ducks before they had to leave Monday.

See you next time Meamaw and Grandpa!

Just the End of July

I absolutely cannot believe it is August.  I really don't know where the summer went.  Here's our last week of July...

End of Week Visitors

At the end of last week (Thursday-Sunday) we had C. & H. stay with us from NH.  As you probably remember from many of my other posts, H. and MiniM.E. are almost the same age and C. and I were middle school/ high school friends who reconnected when we found out we were both due in the fall of 2011.

We met up at Malta Family Night, which promised pony rides, face painting, bounce houses and free food.  All of which were there, but unfortunately "free" meant hundreds of people and with one face painter, two ponies, two bounce houses, and one grill, EVERYTHING had a line at least half an hour long.  We started with a 45 minute wait for the pony ride, finally suiting up as it was almost our turn:

MiniM.E. was dragged out of the car from a much needed nap which was fantastic as she was really docile while waiting in line for almost an hour, but didn't add up to a very happy kid on a pony:

Can't pass up a good bath time photo:

Friday we went to Moreau Lake for the day:

And finished off the afternoon with some backyard play time:

 Saturday it was off to the sprayground:

And downtown:

Followed by another round of backyard play:

Sunday we just hung around the house and played as C. & H. packed up to leave.  We had a great time with a live in playmate (though by day 4 the kids were at each other's throats!).  Thanks for coming C. & H.!