Basking in the Sun

It was a gorgeous weekend for some family fun! We are in the midst of packing and preparing for our upcoming move (pending some final details) but the gorgeous weather prompted us to spend more time outdoors than in these past few days.

I took Gloria and Leo to Dairy Days in Shelburne on Saturday. We got to indulge in some free Bart's Ice Cream and maple milk as well as some of Hagar Farm's famous fried dough with maple cream, YUM! Gloria and Leo loved seeing the baby goats. We also made a cow craft and some butter. In the evening, Tom spent some quality time with Leo while G and I went to see Madagascar 3. Gloria loved the movie!! We had a great girl's night out together.

Today was a low-key day. I took the kiddos to a play at the Energy Park today where we also got to enjoy some music and dancing. We had a picnic and basked in the sun (and shade) for the afternoon. We needed some nice quiet time together.

This evening we took a trip to the new house to meet up with our Realtor about a few things. We've been hesitant to say much about the house because things really aren't quite finalized. Crazy, we know! It is all on the buyer's end for our house. It has been an incredibly frustrating roller coaster ride this past month but hopefully we are close to getting off! We had a good time visiting the house tonight and letting G run around in the backyard a bit. It is what sold us on the house really. We even discovered that there are blueberry bushes there! Sweet! :) We love the new house and are so excited to move in and start making it our own.

As soon as we get the final word that we are clear on the sale of our house, we'll be in full moving mode! After all, we are suppose to have the closing this Friday! Eek!

Mover and Shaker

No doubt Gloria loves to dance! Our little girl dances every day at home. When it comes time to perform, she is no stranger to putting on a show! :) She loves it!

Gloria had her dance recital Friday night and Saturday afternoon. The show was called "Thoroughly Modern Millie." It was very cute and the cast did an amazing job! We loved watching all the dancers, young and old. Gloria was mesmerized by the older kids, she thought they were so cool!

Gloria did such a great job dancing! We were so proud of her!!! She had a lot of fun up there on stage and I think it shows. :) Here is a video of her shaking her tushie (as she says)! She is the one right in the middle. I will post more pics soon but thought the video would be fun to share.

We had a wonderful weekend all together. We spent today celebrating the moms in our lives. I made breakfast for my mom and dad, spent the day with my kiddos, visited great Grandma, did some shopping for myself then we had dinner with Tom's parents. Busy day but nice. We love our moms and I love being a mom! There is nothing more important to me than that!

We hope you all had a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother's Day to you mamas out there! :)

Pink-e-Fied!

Our GEM loves all things Pink!! It was only appropriate that we go see the Musical Pinkalicious! My good friend Liz and I had a girl's day with Gloria Saturday. We went and saw Pinkalicious at Yankee Candle. It was a smaller musical put on by Ja'Duke Performing Arts Center (the same school Gloria goes to). What a great show! We all had a great time and Gloria was thrilled to get a pink cupcake at the end. :) Gloria had been talking about going for weeks! Then after the show, she was excited to tell everyone about it. She was too cute.



The three of us were ready in our pink outfits!! :) We had so much fun! There are a few more pics in our April album if you'd like to see them.

The rest of the weekend was a busy but fun one. I got to enjoy some adult girl time with some good friends, Gloria had a birthday party at the Y which was fun! Gloria said, as we were leaving the party, "That was a really great party mom!" haha She had a great time with her friends. Thank you Sara and Sean for having us!! :)

Tom and Gloria spent a special day together today. They went up to the camp to go fishing. That has been their thing lately. Gloria loves it!! Tom caught a few fish too. Gloria thought she wanted to take one home to eat it but I think she got sad about the idea of the poor thing dying so she told daddy to put it back in the river! We are happy to report that the fish was alive and well. :) Tom and G have such a great time fishing together, love it!

Leo and I took a road trip today to Vermont with my friend/business partner Lauren. We went to Apple Hill Inn, a gorgeous B&B in Woodstock, Vermont. We had a meeting with owner for business purposes and got a tour of the grounds. Gorgeous! It was a really inspiring trip which wasn't what I expected. This woman is amazing! She told us all sorts of stories about her and her business and how she built it from the ground up. Quite impressive! We will hopefully get to work with her on some weddings at the Inn.

It was a busy weekend that topped a busy week. Tom and I have been looking at houses left and right. As some of you know, we sold our house. It happened really fast...3 weeks! We are thrilled that it happened quickly but are busy trying to find our new home. We have faith that the right one will come at the right time. :)

Have a great week!

February Pictures

I know we are already well into March but I wanted to post that I have uploaded a bunch of new photos into our February 2012 album. Below are a few of my favorites! :)


Gloria playing dress up with my friend Amanda. What a good sport! :)


Leo is getting so big!


Gloria doing her make up before church. She wasn't happy when I made her take it off before she really did leave the house!


Leo loves squash!


Tom and I went to my friend Jenny's 40th birthday bash. It was fun to get all dressed up! The theme was Glam Slam Spectacular! :)


Finally some snow!! :)

Party Time!!

Leo is six months old! So hard to believe, the time has just flown by. He is doing super well! He is so good natured, a very happy little man. He truly is! This boy is just so sweet! He is developing very quickly. He has found his vocal chords and has been babbling away. He is saying "da da" and "ga ga" and making all sorts of fun screeching sounds! He is sitting up on his own (with an occasional toppling over) and he is starting to scoot ever so slightly while on the floor. He is so good with his hand eye coordination, loves playing with all sorts of objects, materials and, of course, he explores everything with his mouth! He loves to be tickled, just like his sister and he thinks Bridgette is so much fun to watch.

Leo had his six month appointment on Wednesday. He was a super star! He got one shot this time around, more to come with the next appointment. He didn't even flinch! What a trooper. He charmed the nurses and the doctor and was so cooperative. He weighed in at 16 lb 6 oz (you would never know he was a 10 lb baby!) and he measured at 27 1/2 inches tall. He is a healthy boy and we are thrilled! The only thing he has a bit of is eczema but hopefully we'll get rid of that very soon.

We were so excited about Leo turning six months that we decided to throw a half birthday party for him! :) Ever since the day Leo was born, Gloria has been asking when we were going to have a birthday party for him. She was so confused why we didn't do anything when he was born. So...I thought a party was in order. We were planning to start him on solids on his six month mark so it was perfect to celebrate that as well. He has been exclusively fed breast milk up to this point so starting solids was a big deal.

We were all excited to celebrate! I didn't go nuts though with props and such, just used some spare things around the house but Gloria and I did make cupcakes together. :) Gloria was so excited about this party ever since I had mentioned it to her. I said she could wear a party dress, which made her day! I made mini crustless quiches and smoothies for dinner...always love breakfast for dinner! We even sang happy birthday to Leo (at Gloria's request). We had SO much fun together! It was the perfect family night!



To see some photos from Leo's 1/2 birthday party, visit our February 2012 album. I've also posted some pics in Leo's 6 Month album of him.

We are excited to celebrate Valentine's Day coming up. Gloria has a fun week ahead of her at school and we'll do some fun things at home as well. Gloria and I spent this weekend making special Valentine's Day gifts for our loved ones and Gloria can't wait to give them away! :)

Have a fantastic week and much love to you all!

New Year

2012 is off to a fun start. We've had a great year so far (besides our household being sick at the moment but we won't dwell on that.) We've got a lot going on these days but I wanted to make sure I posted about our New Year's Eve because it meant so much to me and Gloria.

It was just us girls this year. I took Gloria down to First Night in Northampton on Saturday. We got to see a puppet show and dance to some live music. We did some shopping and played in a few of the stores that had activities. Lastly, we got to watch fireworks! It was the best fireworks display I've seen in a very long time. Gloria and I were in awe!

I loved every minute of hanging out with Gloria on this special night. Tom had suggested we go and he would stay home with Leo for a guy's night in. I'm so glad we went! Gloria and I hadn't had quality time, just us, in a while. It was so special. I hope she'll remember it when she is older. As I held Gloria in my arms while watching the fireworks, I couldn't help but cry a little. I just couldn't believe another year had passed us by and our baby girl was growing so quickly! 2011 was a fantastic year for us and I feel so very blessed. I was in awe of our lives together and it brings so much joy to my heart!

I took a few pics from our night together, they don't do the time we had together justice. The memories are there though and that's enough for me. I love my family and I thank God for them every day! Visit our New Year's 2012 album to see a few photos.



I actually took this picture by accident but I love it (even though the quality is bad)! I had gotten the camera ready to take a pic of Gloria and I together at the end of the fireworks but they kept going after I pulled the phone out. I hit the button by accident and this is what it took. I love the look on our faces...we were loving the fireworks! :)

Speedy Season

The Holiday season just zoomed by! December was packed with so much! Gloria's dance recital, family Christmas parties, birthdays, Christmas, we have had an amazing month!

Earlier in the month, Tom and I had a great night out together when we went out to my work Christmas party at the Putney Inn. The food was delicious and I was so excited to get out and dance! :) We had a great time with everyone! We also celebrated my mom's birthday this month as well as mine. We took my mom out for breakfast that morning then Tom took me to The Farm Table for dinner which was really good. We tried Oysters Rockefeller, which was interesting. They were okay, but I wouldn't have them again. :) It was a great birthday!

Then, of course, there was Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at Dave and Irene's and then stopped by Matt and Tricia's for a bit after that. Christmas Day started at 5:00 AM since Tom had to work at 6:30. (boo!) Gloria was not impressed with getting up that early, Santa or no Santa! :) I can't say I blame her. Once she was with it though, she was thrilled to get up and see what was in store for her on Christmas morning. Her hope was that she was going to get a Princess Fishing pole from Santa. Good thing Santa brought her one! ;) She was so excited!! It was the only thing she asked for from Santa. In fact, Santa brought daddy a fishing pole too! Gloria and Tom can't wait to go fishing together this summer! Leo was up and alert too and got into crinkling paper and drooling all over his new goodies. :) We had a lot of fun together before daddy had to head off to work. After he left, we spent some time playing together then it was off to church for a bit then home to prepare for Christmas dinner. The family was all coming over to our house for Christmas. We had a fun evening with everyone—my family and Tom's parents.

Some of my favorite Christmas Day moments included Gloria telling us to "Go away" when we were trying to wake her up so early, sleeping in her new Princess Tent during her nap and her excitement about playing her new game, Candyland. Leo had such a good day too, although he had no clue what all the commotion was about. He was perfectly content hanging out in someone's arms which wasn't a problem with so many people around. :)

We've uploaded many new photos to our December 2011 album as well as our Christmas album. I can't believe another year has flown by! More to come...

Happy Holidays!!

Take Note

I was outside yesterday with Gloria raking leaves, well...trying to rake leaves. We ended up having a leaf fight with lots of giggles, tickles and running around. Gloria says to me after we got inside the house, "Mommy, that was so much fun!" I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. I want to bottle this all up and hold onto it forever! How am I ever going to be able to remember all these wonderful moments? This is what I think to myself. It is nuts how often these thoughts enter my mind. No wonder I'm a freak with a camera! I somehow think I can capture every amazing moment on film. I can't though. Mostly because my most favorite moments happen when there isn't a camera around. :)

I think the same thing with Leo as I listen to him squeal and make all his baby noises. I watch him and his focus on things as he learns. Right now he is working his leg muscles, using his legs to push his butt up into the air. Already a strong boy! Where did the first 3 months go? They went by in the blink of an eye. I think the best thing I can do is to truly be in the moment and present in it, enjoying every beautiful minute!

I keep a journal for both kids. I try to write in it as often as I can. I write about silly, nonsense things. I write about milestones or things said to make us laugh or cry. I write as though Leo and Gloria are reading the journal entries many years from now. I write 'to' them instead of about them. Letters to my kids I suppose. Sound cheesy perhaps but I hope they'll be important to my kids some day. Hopefully I can keep up on them. It is the only way I know how to even slightly capture the wonderful world of being their parents!

Leo was 3-months-old November 8th. He has changed so much! What a beautiful, amazing little man he is!

A Big Fat Mess

I had a great day with both my kiddos yesterday. We didn't do anything out of the ordinary. We made pancakes together, played outside, did a few art projects, etc. At one point Gloria said to me, "Thank you mommy!" and I replied, for what? She then said, "For having a Gloria, Leo and mommy day!" That meant so much to me to hear! I just love her!

Before Leo was born I dreaded the day I'd have to leave him and Gloria and go back to work. It makes me so sad to be away from both of them so much. The weeks leading up to this point have been difficult. I don't have to tell you that, I'm sure you know. I've done my best to keep it together but, I'm afraid, I'm not very good at that. :) This morning I spent some time by myself. Leo was at my parent's house and I dropped Gloria off at school. I picked up some coffee and some breakfast and went down by the river and sat. I enjoyed my breakfast, thought about how life was going to be from now on, tried to give myself a pep talk, and...I had a little cry. Okay, that's a lie. I had a big cry! Yes, I'm a big baby. I was hoping that was the end of my fit until I went to the bank and lost it there! So embarrassing. I was opening a bank account for Leo and something just set me off. When the lady tried to console me and asked questions about my kids, it just made it worse. Dear Lord, I thought to myself, how am I going to get through the day tomorrow?!

So, yes, I go back to work tomorrow. As hard as it is, there are things I do look forward to. I am looking forward to seeing my friends and getting back into design work. I've missed working on my projects. From what I hear, there are many more for me to take on! Oh, and did I mention? I was promoted while I was on maternity leave! Tomorrow I start my new position. Definitely some things to look forward to there. :)

It wasn't easy when I went back to work after Gloria was born, or after I found a job after a year and a half of being laid off, and it isn't easy now. What I do know is that I will survive, my kids will survive and my husband will survive. We make it work and we do the best we can. One of my friends commented, "Hang in there. You've created a beautiful, loving family — that's an amazing thing!" That made me feel really good!

Even though I have been sad here and there, I have tried to keep my focus on the more positive things in front of me and stay in the moment. A recent quote that I came across really helped me through some of the hard days.

It says...You can't change the past but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future.

So true!

Thank you everyone for your support and love! I couldn't be the mom I am without all of you! Especially my hubby and my parents! I know that Leo and Gloria are in good hands while I'm at work. I'm so grateful!

Trick-or-Treats!

Gloria finally got a chance to go trick-or-treating for Halloween. As I mentioned, Greenfield's trick-or-treating was post-poned. We went Saturday night and Gloria was ready! We dressed both kiddos up. Gloria was the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio and Leo was Pinocchio. :)

We had been planning these costumes for months! Gloria wanted to be a fairy for Halloween so when I asked her what she thought of dressing up as the Blue Fairy and having Leo dress up as Pinocchio she said, "Good idea mommy!" haha She was very excited!

I hadn't actually seen any costumes for these characters and thought, well, I'll just make them! So I did. Keep in mind, I do not sew! Or, at least, I didn't before now. I've always been intimidated by sewing. I knew I had to deliver though since I promised this costume to Gloria. I finished the costumes and after getting G all dressed up in hers a few days before Halloween, she admired herself in the mirror and said to me, "Thank you for this beautiful costume mommy." Oh goodness, melted my heart! Making her costume was so worth hearing her say that and seeing her excitement! She was grinning from ear to ear!



It was fun watching Gloria trick-or-treating. She was too cute! She was pretty shy about it at first. She had the "trick-or-treat" part down but it was the timing we had to work on. I told her that she was suppose to say it after I knocked on the door for her. Well, I should have been more clear. As soon as I knocked, she would say "trick-or-treat" loud and clear but before the door had been opened. Then, she turned really shy and you could barely hear a word she said. Too funny! By the end of the night though, she was doing great! She even asked one lady what her name was. haha She is such a friendly little girl. We ended the night at auntie Liz and uncle Corey's house which GEM and Leo enjoyed. Gloria even got to hand out candy. I think she loved that more than going out to get candy! :)

Gloria had some fun Halloween activities at school too which she loved! I think she is going to be a big fan of Halloween when she is older, she just loves it! All the decorations, the fun and, of course, dressing up. :)

Lots of photos in our Halloween album to take a look at.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! For us, Halloween will extend into November. Trick-or-treating was rescheduled in Greenfield due to the storm and all the damage and danger of downed power lines and such. Probably the best thing. We want all the kids to be safe! So we'll look forward to trick-or-treating next Saturday! :)

We still had a fun Halloween though. We made more Halloween cookies, went sledding and had hot dog mummies for supper. Gloria loved it!

In lieu of Halloween photos, here are some fun and incredibly artistic carved pumpkins to take a look at. We carved pumpkins this year but they are no way as good as these! haha The artist who did them is Ray Villafane. Pretty impressive!



I am happy we had such a great family day together today, especially since it was the last day of paternity leave for Tom. He starts back at work tomorrow and we are all very sad. :( It has been wonderful to share so much time together at home with our baby boy and to celebrate the time together as a family. We are heartbroken that the time has come to an end but we feel very fortunate to have had the time off that he did. We hope daddy has a great first day at work tomorrow and we'll all look forward to his coming home at the end of the day! :)

Snowtober?

That is what people keep calling this month, Snowtober. I don't ever remember having snow in October! Last night's storm will certainly be a memorable one! We actually didn't get hit as hard as many in Massachusetts, I think about 12 inches? The difficult part for people in Greenfield is the loss of power. So many people lost power and continue to be without it. I think the last I checked there were over 650,000 customers in Massachusetts alone without power. NUTS! We only lost power for about 3 hours today which is nothing compared to many people in town. We are very fortunate to have gotten it back so quickly. I think living next to a nursing home does have its perks. They generally get the power running back up pretty quickly because of them.

I have to say that I've never been so nervous in a snow storm before. Since the snow was so heavy and the leaves were still on the trees, branches were getting weighed down quite a bit. In many cases, they broke right off!! We had two trees in our back yard completely loose their tops! Good thing they were far from the house. We heard the cracking and crashing which was scary. I was so nervous I insisted on all of us sleeping in the spare room in our basement! Haha! It put me a little more at ease. Thank God nothing came down on our house or cars (we have a lot of trees close to us!). When I went out this morning, the sagging trees were creepy! I am in shock that more didn't come down.

Our thoughts go out to all those who were affected by the storm and continue to have to deal with the effects of it. Hang in there!

It was nice to at least wake up to a warmer, sunnier day. It helped to melt off a lot of the snow off the trees which is good. To make the best of the day, we spent it playing in the snow, making Halloween cookies and baking yummy pear bread and apple/pear pie! We are hoping for a warmer day tomorrow for Halloween! Gloria can't wait to go Trick-or-Treating!!

More updates to come as well as lots and lots of photos! In the meantime, here is a picture of Leo checking out his very first snow storm yesterday. :)

Catch Up

I'm trying to catch up on pictures and videos from September. I've posted more pics in our September album if you want to take a look. There are new pics in the beginning of the album then some at the end. Somehow I had uploaded the fair pics before some earlier ones. Oh well. Lots more coming too! We've been very busy enjoying the fall season (in between all the rain!). We've had a lot of fun so far! We are really looking forward to the rest of the month of October. I can't believe how quickly it is going by though!

Fair Days Again

Last week/weekend was the Franklin County Fair. The fair kicked off with a parade on Thursday. We loved having people over at the house to watch. Liz, Dawn, Bre and my parents joined us. We had a blast! It was so much fun to watch the girls collect all the candy, they were so excited! haha

Over the weekend, we took LJ and GEM to the fair. I was especially excited about going this year since Tom and I were both out of work and could actually spend the day! It was also exciting for the fact that Gloria would be able to ride more rides! And that she did!! Our little girl is such a thrill seeker. She loves going on all the rides, big and small. The faster the better too! I think she rode every ride she was big enough for.

We enjoyed all that the fair had to offer. The shows, the rides and, of course, loved the food! Gotta love Hagar's Farm fried dough with maple butter! We got it twice! haha Gloria got to try her first caramel apple, delish! We had two fun days spent at the fair together. Leo was a champ, slept most of the time but blessed us with some smiles and coos here and there throughout the day. We got to see lots of people who haven't met our baby boy yet which was nice and Gloria was a proud big sis to show off her lil bro.

Yet again, we took our "must have" photo at the fair. Hopefully we can keep this up over the years. I love looking back on them. If you'd like to see more photos from our Fair Days, visit our September album.

We've been very busy these past few weeks and I will have lots more photos and videos to share so stay tuned.

2011


2010


2009


2008

Tales from the Crib

Leo is just over three weeks old now and the time has flown by! I can't believe he'll already be a month old on Monday!

We've been pretty busy here at home getting used to our new schedule of having two kiddos. We are all adjusting, especially Gloria. She has been an amazing little helper! When she hears Leo crying, she is quick to respond. She'll rub his belly or sing to him, it is so sweet. She is struggling with the change in her own ways though. Bedtime has been really tough but we are getting closer to things being back to normal...we hope! :) Overall though, we are all doing so great! Leo is awake more often now, not so much a sleepy newborn anymore. We love seeing his big beautiful eyes open and alert!

The last three weeks have been also busy with visitors of family and friends. Lots of people coming to meet Leo. It was especially great to have my best friend Kimmy and her husband Paul up here the weekend after Leo was born. They had planned to visit during that weekend for a few months so it worked out perfectly that I had just had Leo earlier that week. :) We had such a great visit, much too short, but it was awesome to have them here!

I've posted many more photos from the first few weeks after Leo was born. Visit our August 2011 album to see them.

Leo's Two Weeks

Leo is two and a half weeks old at this point and he is doing so well! What an easy going, sweet boy he is! He is sleeping really well, nursing great and just all around a beautiful little guy!

We took Leo to his 2 week appointment on Tuesday and he had a perfect report! He has started to gain some weight from his 1 week appointment which is good. He also grew a half inch! He is in the high 80th percentiles for both his weight and height.

We are so proud of our sweet Leo James! He is one very special little man. We couldn't be happier!

Leo at 5 days old. :)

Gloria and Leo

I'm still working on getting the birth story written and uploading more pics but in the meantime, here is a video of Gloria getting to know Leo the day he was born. She is so in love with her baby brother! :)

Welcome Baby Leo James!!

He is here!! Our little...uh...I mean BIG boy is here!!! We are so very excited to announce the birth of Leo James born on August 8th, 2011. He was born at 10:27 AM at the hospital (barely) weighing in at a whopping 10 lbs. 6 oz! Like I said, BIG boy! We keep calling him our chunky monkey. :) He is 21 1/2 inches long and a super star baby!

We'll post more about the birth and our family soon but we just wanted to share our big news with everyone. We are doing very well, all four of us. Gloria is especially proud to have her baby brother here at last! We are home, happy and so very much in love with our new little family member! Thank you everyone for all the support, encouragement and the love! xoxo

Here are just a few photos of our big boy! Definitely more to come. :)


Leo James...our big boy with a full head of hair!


Gloria meeting Leo for the first time. :)


Our very happy family!


Leo and his very proud mommy ready to go home. :)

Girl Time

Gee, I wrote out this post and I guess I never published it. Oops!! :) This post was from Sunday.

Gloria and I had a fun girl's day today. Since Tom had to work a double shift today, I decided today was going to be a designated girl's day! Gloria was all about it! :) We painted eachother's nails, snuggled, had some park time, read some princess books and had a movie night. I'm so glad we are able to have this time together. It really is so very special!

Besides our girl's day today, we had an fabulous weekend with friends! Liz joined us for some fun at the lake on Saturday. A perfect day to be beach side! Then we made some very spontaneous plans with our friends the Renauds to have a low-key BBQ at the camp. It was fun hanging out at the river the kids and taking walks. We even got a chance to roast marshmallows! Yum!

I love weekends where you don't really make any plans and they turn out to be the best!

Visit our July 2011 album for pics from our weekend but also some other fun adventures that I'm just getting caught up on now. :)

In pregnancy news, I'm now 39 weeks pregnant and still hanging in there. Or at least, baby boy is hanging in there! ;) I will be doing shorter days at work this week in hopes of trying to take it easy a bit. My body is definitely telling me to slow down, not something I'm used to doing. One thing I learned from being pregnant the first time around was that I need to take care of myself, first and foremost so that is what I'm trying doing.

We'll keep you posted as things progress. Thank you for all the support and notes of encouragement! We are really lucky to have you all in our lives! xoxo Hopefully we'll have baby news to share very soon!

Fourth of July Festivities!

We had such a busy holiday weekend for the fourth but it was totally worth it!

Saturday was clean out day! We had a tag sale at our house and were thrilled to get rid of lots of STUFF! We did really well too...got rid of most everything. It is so nice to free up some space in our basement. After all, we need to make room for one more in our house! :)

We were able to enjoy the evening portion of Saturday at a few parties. We stopped by Tom's parent's house to visit some family and friends. It was great to see everyone! Gloria had fun with her friend Janine and she even got to play a little with her cousins Teagan and Brady!

After we visited for a bit, we headed to Barney and Shannon's house for their annual Fourth of July BBQ. We always have a blast with the crew and all the kiddos. The party keeps growing as we keep multiplying! ;) After sunset, we all headed to watch the fireworks. It was a long day but worth every minute of it! It was such a memorable day!

Sunday we headed to another Independence Day party at uncle Frank's camp. We try to attend this party every year because it is just so much fun! We love getting a chance to visit with everyone. Gloria was very excited to make a new friend too. She bonded with a 6-year-old girl. They were two peas in a pod! Too cute! This year, we ended up staying for the parade they have. We usually head home in order to get G into bed but we thought she could handle the late night this year. She did great and was thrilled with the parade! :) We are so grateful to Frank and Prescilla for hosting such a great party!

Monday was our last event of the weekend. Gloria was especially excited about this one because it was a party for her dear friend Bre! Bre turned 3-years-old on the Fourth and her parents invited us over to celebrate! We had a blast!

We ended the weekend with some family time Monday evening which was really nice. We had homemade strawberry shortcake for dessert and roasted marshmallows by the fire. It was the perfect ending to a fun-filled weekend!

It was an awesome weekend but we were zonked by the end. We need a holiday weekend from our holiday weekend! ;)

Visit our Fourth of July album to see many photos from our weekend. I just love this photo below. It captures the joy of the weekend! :)