Father's Day Weekend recap!

  This Father's Day was so fun. We like to stretch holidays into entire weekends in our household. So this means James gets to pick all the activities for the weekend (including where to eat and when to start his day, ha!) We started the festivities on Friday night. After James got off work we took the girls to see Madagascar 3 and then got some indian food.
 
Saturday I made chocolate chip pancakes and lattes and let James sleep in. (It didn't help that this was a rare weekend that Violet decided to wake up at 6am both days! ahhh!) Anyway, back to James. ;) So after stuffing our faces on chocolate chip pancakes we decided to try to burn it off at the gym for an hour- side by side elliptical machine workouts baby! Now that's what I call love! After our strenuous workout session for all of a mere 45 minutes we picked up Penelope from kids corner and took her to her first ballet class! These classes encourage parent participation if needed, and since it was her first class Pen needed a little motivation at times and that's when dad stepped in. She LOVED it! So cute.      

After ballet we all went out for sushi and then took the girls home for their naps. We decided to hire a sitter so we could have an early night out just the two of us. It is so nice not having to do the bed time routine and just bail! I love summer and that everything stays so light out as well. One thing I miss now that I'm a parent is sometimes just getting out in the DAYtime and enjoying being downtown without the kids. So we decided to park downtown and take the water shuttle to the pier for a little wine tasting over the water. So nice and relaxing! Afterwards we went to hibachi. Its been ages since we've done a hibachi dinner and it sure did hit the spot!

Sunday we went to breakfast at Esaus's in Carp with James's dad and his little brother and sister. I love Carp it is so cute and festive. Penelope loved playing at the little park near the beach.Then we took the kids to see my parents and brother. We were hoping to swim but it was way too cold.

It was a fantastic weekend and I loved celebrating James. He is such a patient, loving, hard-working totally devoted dad. He soaks up those girls every chance he gets, and you can tell just how much joy he gets from being a dad. I remember way back when were just dating thinking how cool it would be to see him as a dad one day because I watched how other kids responded to him, and how much his little brother and sister loved him. Dad's don't get enough credit these days. There is a lot of pressure to provide and fulfill all of their family's needs, and I know so many super star dads that just impress me so much.

Happy Father's Day!!!!

wine tasting at the Deep Sea tasting room on the pier

hibachi baby!

feel that heat?!

how stinkin' cute are they?!

It was also my brother Eric's first father's day.
He is such an amazing dad.
I'm so proud of him.

Father's Day Weekend

Father's Day Weekend was so much fun.

On Saturday we joined Penelope for her first ballet class. 

It's a parent-tot class so James jumped in for most of it to show Pen a few things. ;)

Later that night James and I went out for a little wine tasting on the pier- you couldn't pick a more relaxing spot to linger. Then we walked up State Street in a blurry state to have dinner at Something's Fishy. We hadn't been there in forever so it really hit the spot. On Sunday we met up with his dad, brother and sister in the morning at his dad's favorite breakfast spot- Esau's in Carp. To top it all off we paid my dad a little visit later that day. All in all, a very fun dad weekend. 

James you blow me away at how great of a dad you are. 

So loving, patient, nurturing, fun and hard working. 

I am in awe.

love you baby bear

all that dancing is exhausting!

princess dance!

practicing her moves

wine tasting on the pier!

my brother Eric and my dad's house

James's dad gregg with his brother Patrick and sis Isabella

something's fishy!

onion volcano!

Penelope is 2 1/2!

Pen is now 2 1/2 and I can't believe how much of a "big girl" she is becoming already. 

I am truly loving this age. Its so much easier to explain things to her and rationalize with her. It makes for far fewer tantrums too. ;) It's so cool being able to take her all over town and do big girl things, like having a snack on State Street, or going to the movies or a trip to the toy store. It is soooo much fun! Ever since Pen was a baby we have always been "on the move"- so now just like her mama she loves getting out and about, or as she likes to call it "go in the beep beep." Her vocabulary has really taken off and now she is forming full and complete sentences, so for instance when she used to say "milk" now its "I want more milk." Of course we like to encourage a "please" with that as well. ;)

Its funny when the baby is crying and Penelope will start singing "twinkle twinkle" to her. Its become her new go-to for fixing anyone's ailments.

One of Penelope's favorite things to do is put diapers on babies. I think everything stuffed in my house now has a diaper on it. If that girl can find a way she will! She spends most of her free time figuring out how to dress and undress her dollys. She also insists someone chalk draw Mickey Mouse when we're outside. Other faves of Pen's include digging for "pokeys" aka, roly poly's, going to the movies and restaurants, Mickey mouse, music class and her "baby sissy." Penelope absolutely loves her baby sissy and is the first one to make sure that baby sissy knows who the real boss around here is. Boy are we in for some good times. :)

Pen insisted I hang out in this house with her at her Growing Times Class-there's my head in the skylight.
She wanted to look for pokeys.

girl after my own heart

getting some quality time with Nana

digging for pokeys at school

her school sent me this pic as well- she could do this for hours!

 playing Piano with bud Sammy

playing piano with sissy

kickin in at the beach with sissy

all the baby toys have become popular again!
She fights for a turn at this every time her sister is in it!

Violet Mae turns 7 months!

Yay! Violet Mae turned 7 months on May 16th.

Here is a little recap of what she's been up to the last month. 

Violet started scooting and wiggling forward over the last few weeks and in recent days has accomplished full military crawling status. I am very happy for this new accomplishment because I know Violet has been dying to play with her sister. She watches her all the time and cracks up at Penelope's funny antics. No one could have prepared me for how wonderful it would be to watch the two of them interact and play. 

Violet Mae has always been very vocal, but on May 11 I woke up to the sounds of her babbling in her crib. She has using consonants in her babbles so they sound more like "da-da" "ba-ba."

She also loves to make a funny spitting sound with her lips. I will have try to get a video of it because there is no real way to describe it, but its so funny because she will just play with her toys forever and crawl along the floor making this funny sound, as happy as can be. So silly!

Violet continues to be very grabby- anything and everything in sight has potential to become Violets~

Here is what she currently loves:

-bathtime with sissy

-sissy

-chasing after her pink squishy ball

-any toy she can get her hands on

-sweet potatoes and butternut squash

-ripping moms glasses off

-peek a boo

-laughing

-sissy- (oh yeah I already listed that, but hey she is Penelope's biggest fan)

Her last check up was April 19 

and at her appointment she weighed 15 pounds 8 oz and was 26 inches tall.

at the doctors

still at docs-she is so silly!

hiking with bud Brody

 playing with sissy

 babbling