A Happy First Birthday Party

What A Happy Mess

Sometimes I am surprised at how much I have changed as a mom over the past four and a half years. The first time around it's something totally new and there is so much pressure to do it right and be the best. The second time around I am much more laid back.

The other day MiniM.E. asked if we could bring water into the sandbox. First time mom would have thought of the wet sand sticking to all the little body parts and immediately said, "of course not!", but second time around mom agreed immediately. Think of how much more time they might play in the sandbox if water is involved!!

So today when this happened and I started to feel uptight first time mom starting to say, "hold on! this isn't how we do things!", I sat back and took photos instead.

What A Week

Our summer is filling up quickly, as it always does. I imagine weeks of lazy days with nothing planned, just spontaneously driving up to the lake or lounging by the pool... and then I remember I have kids.

But this last week was about as close to a lazy summer week as we could get.  We stayed home most of the week, played in the yard, swam in the kiddie pool out back with some friends and just hung around.  It was actually very nice and relaxing... if you don't take into account that I also decided to potty train starting Monday.

I have to admit, the first few days were extremely rocky. By the end of the day Tuesday I thought I was crazy for trying to train LittleL.G. so young and by Wednesday I'd thrown in the towel and had her back in diapers.

But she had a different idea of how it was going to play out. I put a diaper on her Wednesday and dinner and she stayed dry until Thursday morning- possibly out of the fear that I would make her use the dreaded potty. But after that she was (almost) accident free from then on (there was that one incident where she peed on the bridge at the playground, but I don't think I would have used that public bathroom at her age either and Mommy forgot the potty in the car). I'd like to take all the credit, but she pretty much trained herself.

So that was our week.

So proud of LittleL.G.!

We finally left the house Thursday to go to our favorite Milton playground.

And Friday we dropped Daddy off at work and went to a playground nearby.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Daddy and Grumpy and Grandpa in NC... and to all the dads out there!

We are finishing up a great long weekend at Gram and Grumpy's house with a beautiful day for swimming and a rib dinner for the guys.

Since we will be leaving tonight, we had a nice bonfire with marshmallows and some sparklers- a special treat for Gram and Grumpy's!

Learning to Swim

MiniM.E. has two New Year's Resolutions that she's been working on for a while now.  Her first was learning to read and I'm excited to say that she is well on her way.  We are far beyond "See the fat cat." and she is able to read simple stories from her McGuffy's Primer and recognizes words she sees around.

This weekend she has been making some solid progress on swimming too! Just in time for swimming lessons to start in a week.

LittleL.G. isn't quite as big a fan of the big pool and prefers the hot tub and the kiddie pool on the deck.

MiniM.E. is so much more comfortable in the water she even went down the big slide!

The Friendly Farm

Today we all drove to the Friendly Farm for our annual visit. This was our fourth year visiting in the early summer. Last year we took Auntie Jen with us and this year we took Grumpy and Daddy for the first time. It is such a great farm that is is more than worth the hour plus drive. All the animals are friendly and accessible. Most of them are okay to hold or pick up and the girls were able to feed most of them too!

holding the baby chicks

feeding a goat

holding a goat

feeding a goat a bottle

feeding the baby calf

watering down the pig

Our First Trip to NH of the Summer

Gram came to NY to see MiniM.E.'s recital and we left with her to go back to NH Wednesday evening. It's always exciting to go to NH for the first time in the summer when the pool is open and the weather is nice and we can swim and play outside all day.  

The plan was to have the girls sleep on the way.  50% success.

Thursday we swam and played outside.

And Thursday evening after work Daddy came to meet us.

Today we went to the trampoline park in Nashua for toddler time.

Our Second Dance Recital

Last night was MiniM.E.'s second dance recital. Her first recital was a huge deal as it celebrated some big firsts for her. The second time around she was like a seasoned pro- just the tiniest bit of nerves and so excited to dance on stage! She's really grown a lot in the past 6 months!

MiniM.E. is already looking forward to dance next year.  And LittleL.G. too! She can start when she's two and is already excited about it.