July Catch Up

July is crazy month for me, with year-end reports and such for work, and helping run our church's VBS.  But we still managed to enjoy the month.  We spent most afternoons at the town pool (the girls are both getting so much more confident in the water!), we started reading Emily her first chapter book, Adara learned to climb the 'rock wall' side of the swing set, and also to climb out of her crib (ugh).  After some 'training' (including roping her bedroom door shut) she's doing much better with going to bed.  Recently she announced, "Jesus tell you [me] 'get out my cib'."  We weren't sure if she mean that he'd told her to get out, or to not get out... but we quickly helped her clarify this, and now every time we put her to bed she says "Jesus tell you, stay in my cib!"

This past week, we had a visit from Annabel &
Tim (such an honor!!).  We hiked Balch Hill, went to Lou's for breakfast, and visited on the Green on a perfect summer morning.  

 pizza & movie night with friends

water table fun.  

"I can't come in yet mom, Adara & I are working on a project." -Emily

 Watching the girls play in the backyard while I do dishes is something I envisioned when we first looked at this house.

celebrating my new blender (thanks mom!)

my crazy kid

Westport Wedding

We took a quick weekend trip to the lake to celebrate my cousin Rob & Katy's wedding, and it was a blast! On Friday, there was a delicious dinner on the Big House lawn (so fun to see it "dressed up" for a nice dinner), complete with sparklers.   Saturday, the girls had time to play with their cousins & a trip to the Lee Park playground, and then we left the four oldest with two brave babysitters while the rest of us enjoyed the wedding at the Normandy Beach Club.  It was a beautiful day and the location right on the lake was spectacular.  Alasdair performed the wedding and did a great job despite a less than ideal sound system with a too-short microphone cord.  And of course, his officiating duties included some break dancing during the reception.

Update: I forgot to include two highlights of the wedding.  

* Just as they kissed at the end of the ceremony, the alarm for the volunteer fire department went off in town.  It lasts a long time, so they finished up the wedding with that classic Westport sound in the 'background.'  

* At the reception, the DJ played a Will Smith medley - and my parents were perplexed as to why every one of us knew every word to "that rap song" (the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song. :) 

Westport

We did a long weekend at Westport last weekend for July 4th... a holiday which for me is more about family meetings than fireworks. :)  I had to work a lot, but it's nice to do that in a place where there is family to play with the kiddos and I can take breaks on the paddle board!  It was also nice to connect with some Stonysides cousins who have kids around the same ages as ours; connections we look forward to developing.

We christened the fire pit that my mom built and got the news that "Rosalie's baby sister" was born!  Evianna Hope Ware arrived on July 7th.

Sparah Wedding

Last weekend, we traveled to Portland, Maine for wedding #2 of 6 this year.  My "little" cousin Spencer married a great girl and we were honored for Emily to be one of their flower girls.  She was a little more hesitant than the last time around since there weren't as many familiar faces, but she did a great job.  You can see a little in this video that she took her job very seriously, without being pulled off task when the other (18mo old) flower girl headed back up the aisle and the ring bearer tried to chase her down and bring her back. :)   Unfortunately, she spiked a high fever after the wedding and we had to leave the reception before dinner to bring her back to the hotel for bed.  Even so, a great time catching up with family and old friends.

Some of Spencer's cousins on the other side are also good friends of our family - although it sounds complicated!  Spencer's parents are Wayne & Katrina (my dad's sister).  Wayne's brother Rick was my dad's roommate and college, and he married my mom's roommate, Susan. R & S are parents to Katie, Meredith and Jenna... to whom we aren't related, but we share cousins.  Did you follow that?  Anyways, both Katie and her husband and Meredith and her husband have also ended up living right in the same area as we did in PA, so we had a lot of fun catching up.

(Meredith holding Katie's daughter Claire)

My cousin Karen has three girls, who were very kind to mine.

 (this little piggy)

And, possibly my new favorite pictures of Adara with my dad:

McCunes

The McCunes were in the area for a wedding last month and we got them for a couple days!  So much fun!  A hike up Balch Hill, a swim in the river from the Mink Brook trail, and a picnic on the green as the Baker Bells were playing the alma mater.  Perfection.

Chatterbox

Adara is at the stage of talking where I repeat everything she says because it's so cute!  That, and she says things over and over until I do. :)  She talks constantly, narrating the world around her, veering into unintelligible when she gets too excited.  She wants to know what/who everything is, "Wassat Mommyy?"  "Oo-sat Mommy?" and has an opinion about most of it, "I wan go fwings [swings] now Mommy, I wan go fwings now."   She wants attention all the time - today she made Emily ["Wach dis Umily!"] watch her take each bite of oatmeal, which Emily kindly complied with, "What a big girl you are Adara." each time.  I forgot how much fun this age is!

A few nights ago she was crying in her crib, so I went it to see what was wrong.  She rested her head on my shoulder while I asked her "Are you hot?" (yes) "Are you cold? (yes)  "Does something hurt? (long pause...) "I sad.  Cy-in. [crying] Want mommy."  How can I be stern about bedtime with that kind of heart-melting answer?  

Never wanting to be left out of anything, one of her trademark phrases is "I wan come too."  I first really noticed it when Emily was leaving on a trip with my parents.  I leaned Adara into the car to and asked her if she wanted to say goodbye to Emily.  "No!  I wan come too!"
Another time recently she was croupy and couldn't sleep, and as I rocked her back to sleep in for the zillionth time at 2am, I lay her back down and she immediately woke up.  I told her calmly that Mommy was going back to bed and she needed to lie down and go to sleep (this actually often works with her!)... she sleepily lifted up her arms and said through her tears "I wan come too mama!" I couldn't leave her behind.

She calls peanut butter & jelly "pillyjelly".

She refers to herself sometimes as Dari, but if you ask her her name, she refuses to answer, or yells "Aloe-Emily-Jill!" (our friends' names..this somehow became her joke and she laughs every time).  But tonight after she said that, I asked her "Is your name Adara?" and she said, "No!  I Baby Kafryn Goves Tickle Elicious!"
Apparently she's been listening when we refer to Emily's self-proclaimed full name.

She wants to be one of the big kids.  She follows Emily and her friends around the playground with no fear.  "I cime side Mommy. [climb slide]."  "I big kid."

She loves her baby doll, and is very into taking care of her.  "Where baby go?" "Where baby go bottle?"  "I change baby di-puh"

That reminds me... she is also determined to potty train herself.  She went through a phase of being interested last winter, which waned... but she's started up again, with a lot of success this week.  And also a lot of taking her diaper off at night and going to the bathroom in her crib.  Sigh.

Party

We decided Emily was old enough to get into the idea of a birthday party, and I think the anticipation and planning was as fun for her as the actual event.  We had Granny, Aunt Becky and Uncle Brian here, and 5 adults to manage 10 children was just right. :)

Getting Ready...

The girls love to 'help' mow the lawn.

Party Time...

 Crazy kiddos

(Sylvie, Alex, Emily, Henry, Austin, Nathaniel, Claire, Stella, Audrey)

 Pin the cloud on the rainbow

 Very serious about the Wonder Ball (aka "the Dora ball")