A Surprise Visit from Mrs. O'Shea

MiniM.E. wasn't the biggest fan of going to preschool at the start. Or really, ever. There were lots of tears shed and lots of mornings of begging not to go. Even though once she was there, she always had a good time. But despite the dislike of actually going to preschool, MiniM.E. loved her preschool teacher, Mrs. O'Shea.

Even after her two years of preschool, we still tried to keep in touch and would sometimes get together for coffee at the bookstore.

But then the "worst thing that could ever happen" to MiniM.E. happened: Mrs. O'Shea moved away. There were tears for days.

MiniM.E. and Mrs. O'Shea have been pen pals since she left about a year ago, and MiniM.E. hasn't let a week go by without asking when Mrs. O'Shea is coming to visit.

Mrs. O'Shea did finally come back to visit and she and I decided to surprise MiniM.E. by meeting out for breakfast and a walk.

MiniM.E. was so excited to see one of her most favorite people in the whole world. And it was great to catch up. Maybe next time we'll have to take a road trip to visit her!

Congress Park, Playground and the Beach

Memorial Day Weekend with C & H

We started our weekend together by caravanning back to NY and stopping on the way at a fantastic pizza place where we ordered to go and ate out on the back patio. 

The weather looked pretty terrible Sunday morning so we spent the morning hanging around the house and decided to brave the Great Escape in the afternoon. While it wasn't the most beautiful day to visit, at least it wasn't crowded.

 

Monday we had reservations for a private tour at the Dakota Ridge Llama Farm. Such a fantastic morning and totally worth doing if you are in the area. They also offer treks with llamas for bigger kids.

We got to pet and brush a llama.

 Everyone got to walk Mike, the llama

 
And then we fed him some snacks. 

We thought the baby llamas were super cute and we were allowed to go in and pet and hang out with them!

One of the mama llamas loved kisses.

On the way home we stopped at Stewart's for ice cream and possibly the most memorable part of C & H's visit was the chicken that joined us!

A Quick Trip To NH

Wednesday after all our crazy Wednesday afternoon activities we got into the car and headed to Gram and Grumpy's for a quick trip. Unfortunately poor BabySlimJim woke up from his nap with a high fever (roseola??) but no other symptoms. 

Here he is after his nap on Thursday. Poor little guy.

The girls had a great time here though, lots of jumping on the trampoline, swinging on the swing set, zip lining, hot tubbing, bug finding and baby-pooling. We all even braved the (freezing) cold and jumped in the pool!

The girls tried to get BabySlimJim to play and be happy...

And by today he seems improved and even though he's not back to himself yet we got a few smiles and he seemed to at least enjoy a few things.

Later today we caravan back with C & H who are coming to visit for the rest of the long weekend!

It Feels Like Summer!

We had two beautiful days to be outside this week. We spent one at Moreau Lake and one at the spray park.

 

It feels so nice to have the lazy, play outside, relaxed days of summer back!