Natalie's 6th Birthday Party (Part II)

This year for Natalie's birthday, we decided to do it at home.  Grant, unfortunately will never be able to have a birthday party like this since his birthday is in October.  But Natalie's is in the beautiful month of June, so what the heck... let's just have an "at home" party.  She decided on a butterfly theme.  A lot of my friends asked me if I was crazy.  Crazy?  What do you mean?  Having 10 little girls come over for a party isn't crazy!  Exploring Pinterest at length for birthday party ideas isn't crazy!

  

Please note in the above picture several things:  One, we rented that table and chairs.  But that centerpiece?  That's all me!  My MacGuyver-like centerpiece consisted of some green moss, some big sticks from the backyard that the kids helped me find, some butterflies found on Amazon.com, and a glue gun.

 We broke out the slip and slide and the inflatable kiddie pool.  Not much room in there, but it was a warm day and they just liked splashing around.

 

There were also games!  How cute is my husband here?  Sorry ladies, he's taken.  A 40 something year old man playing water balloon toss with a bunch of 6-year-olds.  Super sexy.  Oh and please note his calves.  That's one of the reasons I married him... boo ya.

Let the games continue!  Next up was a rousing couple of rounds of  "Simon Says" which, because we were dealing with little girls here, became, "Simonetta Says."  Here, Morgan leads the girls (and Todd of course) in a round of "Simonetta Says crouch down on the ground!"

 One of my favorite moments of the day.  Lili's little sister Ava and Natalie's little brother Grant playing on the swingset.  Ava decided that she wanted to push Grant on the swing!  She's a bit older than Grant (by 6 months or so) but it was so sweet and motherly! And he totally let her!

The ladies (and Grant) having some pizza for lunch.  Major faux pas by Mommy... totally expected to get some gluten free pizza at Bill's Pizzeria here in Natick.  But it turns out they're closed on Sundays.  Whoops.  So Nick's Pizza hooked us up with some pizzas (not gluten free, but if we had to choose a non-gluten free pizza in Natick, Nick's would be it!)  Side note:  Heather V and I may or may not have had some of this pizza.  

Lili and the rest of the girls singing happy birthday to Natalie!  Bagel Bistrol in Westborough was once again our go-to place for birthday treats.  Can't beat it.  In addition, you can see on the table behind Lili that we had set up an ice cream sundae bar with vanilla and chocolate ice cream, and all of the delicious toppings!  Another side note:  Heather V and I may also have made ourselves some ice cream sundaes and helped ourselves to a cupcake.

 I'm not entirely certain what Natalie is doing here, but I think it was going something like this:  "So I was like, 'Ma! If you don't get me those Bagel Bistro cupcakes, I'm gonna whack ya like Tony Soprano, capiche?'"  Silly girl.  I hope you had a great 6th birthday party!  Happy birthday Bugaboo!

July Trip to Maine

If you've been following this blog for a while, you know that we go to Maine every summer to my sister-in-law Helen's house (and her husband Gordie, because let's face it, this is more Gordie's house than anyone elses!)

Going to Maine means one thing:  Boating!

Here are Grant and Natalie chillin' by the rocks near Blueberry Island in the middle of Mousam Lake.  It was a beautiful sunny day!

You know it's nearly impossible to get a good family picture.  This was our best one- at least 3 out of 4 people are looking at the camera!

Our family is so large, that we have to take TWO boats out when we go out on the lake.  GoGo got a new boat - so Grant, Seth, Nauni, GoGo, KK and I went out on one boat.  

But we mixed it up on the way back.  And Uncle Gordie ALWAYS lets Grant drive the boat for a while!  

 Going to Maine also means we need to get a serious fire started.  The kids and Bean helped out GoGo with getting a good one going the first night we were there.

 We broke out the sparklers that we had left over from 4th of July.  Grant couldn't have one, I guess!

 Three generations of Bailey men roasting marshmallows over the fire.  These guys are about as cute as it comes!

 The next day:  MORE BOATING.  It wasn't sunny, nor was it particularly warm, but of course, everyone wanted to go out anyway.  GoGo and Seth went tubing, until Uncle Gordie hit a bump and Seth practically bit his lip off.  Yikes!

So GoGo says, "Let me show you all how it's done!"  Believe it or not, he never let go of the tube!

Not to be outdone, Todd decided to take a turn.  Good thing this man is strong!

BAM!  No blood here.  And less surprising, Todd never flew off of the tube either.  Cause he's a stud.

And he's a good dad and uncle.  Natalie wanted to go tubing, but after seeing Seth's fat lip, she didn't want to have anything to do with going fast.  So Todd and Seth went with her as Uncle Gordie brought the boat (slowly) back to the dock.

Nauni wanted to give Natalie a manicure, but of course, Grant wanted a part of that too.  She didn't paint his nails, but she did clip them and clean them up!  He probably needed it!

Little buddy and Daddy.   These guys are so cute.  We couldn't be out in California for the CrossFit Games (which CFNE came in 2nd this year in the affiliate "team" division!) so we wore our "sea of red" shirts anyway!

 And look at this super cool new toy we discovered in Uncle Gordie's newly built garage!  Whaaaaaaaaa????  Yes please.  Grant was ALL OVER this.  Daddy took him four wheeling up and down the dirt road outside of Uncle Gordie and Nauni's house.  He went several times, in fact!

Thumbs up dude.  Four wheeling is bad ass.

Not to be outdone by her little brother, even Natalie wanted in on this.  Todd went a little faster with her though!

 Being the good mother and role model that I am, I had to show my kids that even mommies can go four wheeling too.  Mommies are tough and strong and like to have fun!

I have a good idea.  Let's start another fire.  These kids look like they've done this before.

 Of course... Maine means one other thing:  A LOT of drinking.  I don't know that this picture needs any other caption.