Princess Party

We went to the Princess Party in Wellesley again this year with Heather and her girls.  This year though, it had rained... a lot... in the morning hours of the day of the party.  So they moved it indoors, but by the time the party started, the weather was absolutely beautiful!

Here are Ava and Natalie waiting to get sparkly tattoos.   I think they are discussing strategy here.

Afterward, Natalie and the girls (here with Lili) had some face painting done.  Looking good ladies!  Natalie is showing us her sparkly tattoo on her hand.

And of course, you can't be a true princess without a manicure!

Next up, Natalie wanted to color a picture.  I think we had some snacks somewhere in between here too (juice box, cookies and cupcakes!)

Once she was done with the picture, she took it over to the princesses, Ariel and Cinderella and they both "autographed" the picture.  Then she got her own picture with the pretty princesses!

Next up was the limbo!  Nothing says "graceful princess" like doing the limbo!  Here, Natalie is using the skills that she learned in Maine this summer to show everyone how to do the limbo!

There was also a lot of group dancing going on!  I had to miss the Bucs-Pats game (what Colleen???) but it was worth it to see the happiness on that little girl's face! 

Mommy's Birthday

I'm getting to the point in my life where I'd just be totally ok with skipping over my birthday. Sure, I love cake, and having my family take me out to dinner, as they did this year by taking me to the Sherborn Inn, but another year older?  No thanks!  But unfortunately, the kids LOVE birthdays. They love giving gifts (especially Natalie) and they LOVE cupcakes and ice cream. So I can't ignore my birthday.

And of course, they want to help me open EVERY birthday present.  Here they are helping me open my BRAND SPANKING NEW pair of purple inov-8 f-lite 230s! YES!  I've been wanting these babies for a couple of years now.  So happy.  I also got a great new Pats shirt, and Natalie made me a heart necklace out of fuse beads.  You can see I'm wearing it in the picture below.  I also got a bracelet (see it in the picture above!)

Hooray for cupcakes and ice cream!

Guys Trip to Fenway

Todd's brother Steve came up to take their dad to Fenway for a Sox game in mid September.  Look at these handsome guys!  What you don't get from this picture is scale... these guys are giants.

Before the game, they went up to the Green Monstah to check out batting practice. 

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

They were able to catch an awesome game!  John Lackey threw a one-hitter!  And the Sox clinched the playoffs! 

Natalie's New Bed

Well, we finally got Natalie a new bed.  I was kind of hoping to wait until we moved to a new house (our OWN house) where we could decorate her room as we wanted to.  Plus, since our house was originally built in 1880, all of the rooms have oddly shaped walls and ceilings.  So there's no great place to put her bed.

But we wound up putting it in the corner underneath the skylights, which she doesn't really like.  But she IS 6-years-old now, so it was definitely time to get her into a full bed.  She can't wait to have her first sleep over!

Natalie's Summer Spent at Camp

Natalie went to Pilgrim Day Camp this summer and she had such a great time!  In fact, now that school is back in session, she keeps telling me that she wants to go back to camp and wishes that life could just be spent going to summer camp year round!

Natalie with some of the girls from her camp.  You'll notice second from the right is her friend Gaby, who she's known since they went to daycare together as toddlers!

Music time for the campers!

Inflatable waterslides and inflatable bouncy castle fun was also had at Pilgrim Day Camp.

Natalie in the woods with her fellow campers.  Notice they're all in their bathing suits. All. Day. Long.  This suit, by the end the summer, was disgusting.  Covered in dirt and sunscreen that no washing machine would be able to get out.

The campers did lots of arts and crafts too- Natalie and her group (Block Hill) made some paper plate crabs!

In the morning, Natalie had swim lessons, but the afternoon brought free swim (which was her favorite part of the day, my little fishy!)

Wheeeeeee!  Someone can't WAIT to go back to camp next summer!

First Day of School 2013

My babies are growing up too fast! Natalie has started 1st grade, and Grant is now in the Chipmunk room at FACE preschool. 

Here they are on the first day of school, all ready to go!  (Actually, this was the first day of Natalie's school, which started on a Wednesday this year.  Grant actually started the Monday before this!)

 Mommy, can we do a silly face????

Natalie walking her little brother to his "first day" of school in the Chipmunk room.

OK, now that the formalities are over (thanks for being sweet to each other for 20 seconds!)... Natalie and Grant wanted to race each other on the long sidewalk up to the front door of FACE.  3-2-1-GO!

This picture shows how competitive they are with each other, each of them trying to push the other out of the way.  Boy, this is a disaster waiting to happen!

Big girl on her big first day of 1st grade.  Lots to learn this year!  Let's get after it!

Natalie's Drawing of our Family

Natalie drew this picture of our family.  She draws these from time to time, but I wanted to remember what her 6-year-old family drawings were like when I am old and gray.  Please note:  Grant has a truck on his shirt (typical); I finally have brown hair (she used to always draw me with black hair); Natalie is wearing purple and pink, and somehow, I'm nearly as tall as Todd! I love her drawings!

Grant on a Tractor

As you all know, my grandmother passed away last summer in Indiana.  As my dad prepares to sell my grandmother's farm, he loaded a bunch of things onto a Uhaul truck and drove them to Massachusetts so we would be able to have furniture, toys and other things that gave us so many wonderful memories of time spent on the farm.  This little brown tractor was one that we used to ride around on my grandparents farm when Cory and I were little.  So many great memories, and it's so fun to see Grant enjoying it as well!  I'm sure my grandparents would be so thrilled to see the excitement on his face when he rides it!

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.