Another week of summer gone by

These are not in the right order but I can't be bothered switching them.

Friday we met Kayla and a little boy she was watching at the Natick Mall.  The ducks were a big hit!

 Saturday we braved the possibility of rain and headed to the zoo.  Caroline loved this lion statue.  Tessa loved watching the real lions.

 Caroline didn't sleep well last night (that is putting it nicely).  This is her this morning bubba in mouth (we never let her walk around with it in) trying to climb on my lap, there was a lot of, "up up mama up".

 This afternoon making "hot chocolate".  And then Caroline drank it.  And didn't really seem to care...moments later Tessa got mad at Caroline for flinging the mud.  She kicked Caroline in the stomach (has never done that before).  Got sent to time out, where she proceeded to fall and scuff her knee.  Needless to say, within 5 minutes of this picture they were both crying.

 Last week we had 20+ people over for a make you own sundae playdate.  I did a package of water balloons, the boys loved them.  I'll have to do them again for Tessa, as she only got 1, and was treating it like it was a prized possession.

 Playing with the IPad.

 Passed out on the way to Grampa's.

 

 First picture taken with the new IPhone.  I dared to go to the bathroom by myself...yup, that is a whole box of multigrain Cheerios. 

 

The last week or so

A cloudy day at the beach, Caroline is still in her pajamas...we did put her in her bathing suit although she never really got wet.  The water was FREEZING!  I know its Massachusetts, but man it was cold.  Tessa did go in a little bit, but we were not exactly encouraging her.

 Hot day at the petting zoo.  Caroline has gotten a little bit braver in the last few months.  She fed the horse her carrot and was SO proud!  She kept saying, "I did it, I did it!"  And Tessa was a super big sister congratulating her.  (If only every moment could be so sweet)

 A hot, hot, hot day.  I convinced the kids to go outside by telling Tessa we could play with the sprinkler in front of the swings.  (The ground is so brown because we've had a water ban forever...clearly we are violating the ban by using the sprinkler, but the kids have to stay cool somehow!)

 Our first green pepper.

 Story time with Daddy!

 Flume ride at Canobie Lake Park.  We were lucky enough to go with Mimi and her company, Brainshark, to the amusement park on Wednesday.  Tessa was SO excited.  She went on lots of rides!  Caroline was pretty good, she went on two rides, which is big for her.

 Caroline in front of our house.  This will probably be the only picture in front of our house.  We never use the front door.  Caroline climbed up here the other day so I thought I should get some pictures.

 Today we got to join Nana at Butterfly Place.  Tessa had asked me repeatedly if a butterfly would land on her.  I had told her she would have to wait and see.  Well she got her wish, and within seconds of one landing on her, Nana had one on her, and I did too.  No butterflies on Caroline, but maybe thats because I was holding her and she is the biggest squirmer. (I tried to circle them because they are HARD to see)

 And yes, I NEED a haircut!

Bubble Man

Tonight we went to the town common for the "Bubble Man" and then a concert.  Tessa had a blast...Caroline was afraid of the Bubble Man.  She loved the bubbles, but once she saw him she started spinning saying, "Mama, mama, mama"  and would run off.  Then she would come back for the bubbles, see the man, repeat.

Walking the Dog/Cat

Summer Recap Strawberry Picking

We took the girls strawberry picking the Saturday before Father's Day.  Tessa was very good, and kept reminding us (mostly Caroline) that you can't eat the strawberries until you take them home and eat them.  This was obviously lost on the 18 month old...she normally eats no fruit, so we let her eat the strawberries in the field, and of course once we got home she didn't eat another one.

 Strawberry all over her face...oh and just a couple of scrapes from falling off the swing the day before

 Feeding the goats

The small farm also had bunnies, ducks, and chickens.

For Father's day we went to Grampa's house (Tim's dad).  Tessa was thrilled that she got to make strawberry shortcake with the strawberries she picked from the field.  We had a nice time with Grampa, Uncle Dan, Uncle Kevin, and Kayla.  Tessa got to practice on her new bike at the playground in back of Grampa's house (this reminds me I need to take a video...she is getting fast and wants to try and take the training wheels off...we will see how that goes).

Summer Recap (Maryland Part 2)

Friday we spent the morning at Padonia Park with Trish, Kelly, and kids.  Unfortunately the water wasn't warm, but I think the adults were the only ones that really noticed.  After lunch at Chick Fil A and quick naps we headed to Evan's birthday party.

Evan in the middle, next to Tessa.

 Balloon time

 Here is Caroline...being a handful...as usual.

 Westley

 Calvin

 Calvin and Tessa

 Unfortunately Tessa "hurt" her leg while jumping on something.  She reacted poorly, I'm going to guess from all the over stimulation and lack of sleep.  We thought we were going to have to leave the party early, but she thankfully pulled it together so we could stay.

The next morning we headed to Dunkin Donuts for munchkins and then met Trish and her boys at Oregon Ridge playground.  We were there by 9:00...I'm pretty sure thats a first.  Although the hotel suite was spacious it was still very difficult with Caroline.  She could open all the doors, and was found repeatedly with her hand in the toilets, GROSS.  So we tried to spend as little time in our room as possible.  After playing at the playground for quite a while we headed back to wash up and get changed, and then we were off to Charlie's party.

Charlie had a really cool party, they had a guy come with all kinds of animals.  Unfortunately I didn't get to see them all because Caroline was once again being a handful.  But thankfully Linsey's yard has enough going on that I could easily distract her.  The animals I did see were: bunny, duck, turtle, snake, ferret, and spider.  I'm sure there were many more that I forget or didnt see.

 The birthday boy shaking the ferret.

 Cupcakes!

 Kelly and Avery

 Daddy and Caroline

 Later that night we our old babysitter Kate come and watch the kids so we could go out to dinner with the adults.  I'm dressed, and the kids are watching TV.  Pretty much any picture where they are sitting still involves the tv.

The next morning Tessa had one of her friends from nursery school, Erin, come and swim at the hotel pool with us.  We then got a quick lunch, not Chick Fil A much to Tessa's sadness because they aren't open on Sunday, and started our drive home.  We will never try to drive home on a Sunday in the summer again.  Traffic, traffic, traffic.

We had such a great time in Maryland, and we were lucky enough to see all of our friends.  Some of them we only got to see briefly, but it was still better than nothing.  We are hoping to be back to visit sometime in October.

Oh, and while we were there we checked on our townhouse.  The renters are taking a good job of it, so hopefully they will decide to sign a lease for another year.  We also got to see our old neighbors which Tessa loved.  She really missed Mr Mark and his dogs. 

It was very interesting to me what Tessa remembered and what she didn't.  She remembered most of the people from Maryland and their houses, playgrounds etc.  But she didn't remember our old neighborhood.  Couldn't pick our house out from the rest of the townhouses.  She forgot about the elementary school that we probably went to a couple hundred times to go on the playground.