July 4th Celebration 2015

Again this year we celebrated July 4th by having a picnic with friends at Wavney Park in New Canaan, CT.  It was such a perfect night to be with each other and be patriotic!  The fireworks were amazing as usual!

Silly Faced.

Snuggles with Daddy.

This girl has many faces.

Playing soccer.  They found a patch of grass that no one had occupied yet.

Lots of people.  Loads of people usually come right before the fireworks begin.

1

Adeline and Katie. Friends from school!

I am so glad I remembered to bring glow sticks!  They kept the kids occupied while waiting for fireworks to begin.

BBQ in full effect.

Hope you all had an amazing Fourth of July!

Birthday Take One

I should have thought this through a little bit better but we decided to celebrate Katie's 4th birthday early this year.  Our reasoning being that we weren't sure when No. 3 would make her appearance and we didn't want to be in the hospital and miss Katie's real birthday.  In hindsight we could have waited....it's not like Katie knew exactly what day her birthday would fall on this year.  But in the end we celebrated her birthday 3 separate times; and I'm okay with that.  I'd celebrate this little one everyday if I got the chance.

She wanted a rainbow cake with a pink balloon.

Happiest of Birthdays darling.

clearly not the best photo taken by Mikey but it captured the moment nonetheless.

Putting on her own candles.

Getting ready to blow!

I may be biased but I think she is the most gorgeous 4 year old inside and out.

And what do we do when we are four but get our ears pierced.  It's a family tradition and she was excited and ready for it.  She even picked out the earrings she wanted.  She amazed me at how good she did.  The whole process was quick and according to Katie, painless.  I asked her if she wants to do it again and she gave a definitive "No."  Glad we got through it with no tears and she walked away with a new puppy.

Newly pierced ears.

Kitty, meet Puppy.

Katie, and I and Baby E at 25 weeks.

Randomness in June 2015

Here's some photos from almost everything else we did in June.

The kids have been very active at working in their summer workbooks.  It's a joy to watch them do some pages with ease and learn new things on other pages.

Wahoo- We've got a grill!

Master Lego Builder!

We took Jack and Maddie shopping with us so their mom could get some moving boxes unpacked.  They are friends of ours that moved from the city to a neighboring town.

 We took the kids to the Sibling Class held at Greenwich Hospital.  The instructor seemed very impressed with how much my kids knew.  Of course Mikey being himself, asked a million questions and had an answer for almost all questions the instructor asked.  He knew what an umbilical cord was and also knew that the babies get a Vitamin K shot in their foot....all things that the instructor was impressed with.  We also saw the babies in the nursery and got a tour of the maternity ward.  Below the kids are getting their Sibling Class Completion Certificate.  I can't wait to see how these two will react to the newest addition.




Morning sibling love.



Awwww.  If only they were this loving all the time!

 I've been trying my hardest to tire these kids out.  Especially on very hot days; I try to get them out of the door early in the am.  This particular day we took them to the enormous playground at Stillwater School.  They have everything there!

Sweat beading off her face.  It was a scorcher.

Stop growing up!  She can do most things now at the playgrounds we visit.

He's always the first one to make a new friend.  Typically it goes something like this "Hi, my name is Michael.  What's your name?  Want to be friends?"

Such a big helper.  He's helping me sterilize all the pumping materials.

He was so focused and very careful. 

Fearless!



Success- He's tuckered out.

And so is she!

We celebrated our anniversary earlier this month, but that doesn't stop us from doing things for each other on a regular basis.  Like tonight - I made some lobster but took that extra step to de-shell it for Scott.

More sibling love.  Usually it's Mikey that gives Katie hugs.

Dance time.

Oh yeah.

His dance moves usually include some karate in it too!

Our patio set arrived and the kids enjoy doing their crafts outside on it.

We found this awesome website that teaches kids how to draw in a fun way.  Here's Anger from the movie Inside Out.

Hugs for Bailey.

We got rained out the first time we tried to have people for a BBQ and the following weekend was a washout too.  Here are the kids watching a movie.

My girlfriend took the kids for a few hours so I could be lazy and sit on my butt.  She did a good job of keeping them busy because Katie and Maddie passed out on the bed.



We are outside every chance we can get!

Swimming time at Jack and Maddie's pool.



Post swimming snuggles with Mommy.

First Day of Camp!

I signed up Michael again for summer camp at the Stamford Nature Center and the best part was that Katie is now old enough for summer camp too!  Wahoo!!  They both will be going 4 out of the 6 weeks.  Each week is a different theme and includes walks in the woods, trips to the farm to learn about all sorts of animals, crafts, playground, snack and story time as well as some free play time. 
They will attend M-F for 3 hours in the morning which will give me some much needed time to keep up with the housework, grocery shopping, cooking, nesting and resting!

She's excited!

Ready for the 1st day of camp!

Okay, enough.  Let's go inside!

Okay, one more photo!