Party Girl

Last night Chloe had a party in her crib .... and she invited her best friends.

Looks like everyone had a good time.

Maybe TOO good a time.... :)

A Party, the Phillies & Surviving the Heat

This past weekend was a scorcher.  Friday, Saturday & Sunday were all well over 100 degree days ... with heat indices up to 115 ....

Of course this was the weekend of Chad's 40th Birthday Party ... and it was OUTSIDE, folks.  After I got used to being coated in sweat, it actually wasn't so  bad.  There was a breeze and we were under a covered pavilion, so it was all okay.  We only had one family not come because of the heat.

It was really fun to have a lot of our friends and some of our family all in one place.  Chad's parents really wanted to be there but his sister just had a baby and that kind of messed up that plan.  In a good way, it messed up that plan, just to clarify!!!

 I put out a few pictures of Chad through the years.

This was about the extent of my decorating, other than a Happy Birthday banner that kept falling down.

I mentioned getting some balloons and Chad said "why do we need balloons?" so I said to myself "forget it."  It was just one more thing to do ... that I didn't have to do after all!

Chad blowing out his candles. 

Surrounded by many eager children just dying to eat some of that big cake!

 Chad wanted to have a wiffle ball game with friends.  That pretty much went by the wayside given the heat.  But then he and some of the guys ended up just hitting the ball and playing frisbee anyhow.  (Once it cooled down to a relaxing 99 degrees....)

 

I don't know what is going on in this picture but it makes me laugh every time I look at it!

Audrey and some of her friends.

I don't think the heat fazed the kids at. all.

Oh to be a kid again!

 

Andrew & Jess brought their 3 week old baby to the party in the heat.

In true kid fashion, he seemed oblivious to the fact that it was hot out!

Most of our awesome neighbors were able to make it!

I'm not sure what Brian is doing with Thomas here, but I will vouch for the fact that Thomas is indeed still alive. :)

My Dad helped clean all the frosting off of Chloe. :)

She loves her Pop-pop!

Audrey looks great here and I look like I am melting...

Despite the heat, I think most everyone had a good time.

Okay, maybe not our friend Katie who was 3 days from her due date ... but she still came.  What a friend!

So for Chad's birthday, I got him tickets to see the Phillies (my favorite team) play the Padres (Chad's favorite team)!

Can you believe that after I planned this out in advance and bought the tickets (I thought I was so clever and such a great wife for thinking of this) ... well, then a business acquaintance offered Chad 4 tickets to the very same game?

The only difference is that his tickets were WAY better than the ones I got.  :(

Like, 4th row from the field tickets.

Anyhow, we ended up sitting in the awesome seats and giving away my tickets to a neighbor. 

But the nice thing is that my neighbor got to take his son to his very first Phillies game!  I am so happy about that.  

I told you they  were good seats.

Again, it was EXTREMELY hot.  So hot, they were giving out water & ice for free.  (This from the stadium that charges $5 for a hot dog ).  But about halfway through the game a bunch of clouds rolled in and brought a nice breeze along with them.  It made it much more bearable!

We had a really fun time. 

And woo hoo!  The Phillies won!  (Sorry Chad!)

And just for fun:  This afternoon Audrey & Chloe disappeared into Audrey's room for about 20 minutes.  When they came out this is what Chloe looked like - in full princess attire, complete with makeup and nail polish and a new hairdo. (and of course with her baby in hand)....

I think Chloe is like Audrey's own personal doll baby. :)

Best Friends

 "Baby Chloe" now goes everywhere with us ....

 Chloe feeds her baby bottles, sings her lullabies, kisses her good night and sleeps with her in her crib,   ...

... and she puts a diaper on her, gently wraps her up in blankets, and takes her outside every day for walks in the stroller.  She also refuses to let her wear clothes... I'm hoping that will change soon...

So sweet to see Chloe's little nurturing tendencies.  A true friend, indeed.

Oh. So. Tired.

SOOOOOO many awesome fun things have been going on around here!!!

I have started about a dozen blog posts and then I just can't get it together to finish any of them ....I am too tired.

First we went on vacation.  I know!  I never even put up any pics from our week in Ocean City!!!

So here you go - proof we were there :)

Then next up was 4th of July festivities, which included 2 different celebrations.  Those I did manage to blog about. 

The next weekend our friends the Voges' came for a visit from Illinois.  What is greater than having old friends visit??  I took a lot of pictures, but - yeah, they never made it on the blog either.  I had to recover from all that fun as well. ;)

So here you go - a little proof they were here.

THEN:  (drumroll, please) .... my husband turned 40 on Monday!  Wasn't it just yesterday that we were sweethearts in our 20's???  I wanted to do a whole special blog post about his birthday.... and look at me.  I am so delinquent!

We are having his "big" party next weekend so maybe I'll do a post then.  Or maybe I will still be tired and recovering from that event too.... 

And today my sweet little Chloe Elizabeth turned 2!  We had cupcakes with a few neighbors yesterday and then today my family came over to celebrate.  She has now discovered presents and cake and the birthday song and it was so fun to see her enjoy all these things ....

But guess what?  I am still oh so tired.

Tired .... but happy. :)

My cup runneth over!

Lazy summer mornings...

... are perfect for reading.

This morning after breakfast Audrey was talking to me about the book she started reading last night.  Then she said to me "Mommy, do you think I should read and find out what happens next?"

I said (in a low key, non-pressured kind of way, because of course if I got too excited that would ruin it) ... "Why, I think that would be a great idea." 

I had to sneak to take the pictures.  But she was so engrossed in her mystery that she didn't even notice.

This from the kid who earlier in the summer acted upset when I told her I would require her to read for 15 minutes each afternoon!  We are now going on 30 minutes of reading straight. :)

 

I think we have discovered the joy of reading!

Happy 4th!

We came back from vacation just in time for some 4th of July fun!

On Sunday evening our neighborhood had its annual fireworks extravaganza .... which includes lots of desserts, chatting, and of course, fireworks.  It also - for our neighborhood - includes making geysers out of mentos and diet coke.  Yes, you read that right.  In case you are unfamiliar with this, here's a little video to help you get the picture:

{Obviously, the kids think this is GREAT fun.}

Getting ready for the show to start

Doing sparklers...

Don't worry they were closely supervised ...

Aren't they purty?

The next day (the 4th) we had no real plans so we invited over a few friends who were also without plans ... what is it about impromptu fun that is just so... fun? 

We all commented how this was the first 4th that we could remember where it wasn't miserably hot and humid and we actually enjoyed being outside!  (Heat and humidity are my LEAST favorite things about summer, can you tell??)

 I can't believe this cutie is 4 months old already!

 Audrey got busy organizing games for all the kiddos.  (She was in her glory.... people thinking all her ideas were wonderful ... haha)  Actually she mostly did a great job of keeping the kids occupied!

"Mr. Chad" broke out the sparklers and they were a hit.

 

 I love this.  Carter is too busy watching other people... he doesn't even realize his sparkler is burned out.

 No, we did not give this chick a sparkler.  No way. 

We also did a few fireworks.  Just because ... well, because it is July 4th and that's what you're supposed to do, right?

 

This picture cracks me up.   Run Chad run!

We had to do fireworks before dark because there were a few little ones who needed to get to bed!

As dark approached I took Audrey & Carter to the "big" fireworks in town.

We went over to our neighbor's church parking lot and had a perfect view of the fireworks ... and it only took us 5 minutes to get home. 

Happy Birthday America!