Emma has a few new moves, & Levi is walking!

Felix found this music video for her on TV....alvin & the chipmunks, and she asks us to play it over & over & over for her. And recently, she has a few new moves for us!! Plus, you get to see Levi cheering her on and showing off his walking skills!

Picture Perfect

We went blueberry picking with friends on Wednesday. I was a little hesitant to go considering the fact that Emma doesn't like to eat blueberries anymore and only picks the green ones, and I was definitely pushing the limits with Levi's nap quickly approaching. Not to mention, the kids didn't have a chance to eat lunch before we left.
But- the weather was perfect, we were picking at a new farm, and had great company. Look at these pictures my friend captured for us.

WELL. That is the magic of pictures! You can tell any kind of story you want :) When in fact- here is what happened:
We arrived, I strapped Levi to my hip with the sling, Emma began picking berries, and about 1 minute later- asked to go potty.
We made our way out of the bushes, went to the farm store to go to the bathroom- and they said they only had a porta potty. So, I took Emma to our car and let her use the potty seat we keep in the trunk.
We walk back into the bushes to find our friends, and pick a few more berries. About 1 minute later- she has to go again. This time....#2.
We go back to the shop, I open the porta potty door for her- and she says "ech, this is yucky, I'm not going in here.". And honestly, I can't blame her! But- with a heavy Levi strapped to my hip, I held the door open, stopped breathing through my mouth, and tried to convince her to go anyways. She refused- and began to name all the nasty things she was seeing in the potty.
SO, we walked all the way back to the car, grabbed the potty seat, walked all the way back to the porta potty- I set the seat down on the ground for her to go, then...yes....dumped it all in the porta potty and wiped our car potty seat clean. Then brought the seat back to the car, trekked into the bushes once again, picked berries for about 5 minutes before Levi started to lose it, went back to the shop- paid the $1.15 for our pickins' and high tailed it home. It was a fun day.

But hey- we have some great pictures to remember it all!

My little Levi Love! Lately- I have been feeling like the "tune in tokyo" scene from the movie Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.....

Levi loves to nurse. And he is cranky without it. VERY cranky!

As you can see, he is climbing up on my lap, dramatically bending over backwards, whining, and signing for milkies......

He has mastered the sign for nursing (aka,"milkies")- he opens and closes his fists when he wants to nurse. He gets it first thing in the morning, again before naptime, and again at night before bed- although, we are slowly weaning out the naptime nursing. However, anytime I walk in a room after being away for a bit, he comes crawling over, whining and signing. Same thing if I put him on my lap facing me, or if I pick him up and snuggle him. The kid always has it on his mind!!! This afternoon, we were playing on the floor in Emma's room and at one point I was facing away from him playing with Emma- and he kept picking up my shirt and touching my back, with a very confused look on his face. I'm pretty sure he was trying to sneak a suck!

He is such a love, he plays so well and has so much fun. We have recently discovered the full blown belly laugh when we tickle him, and it is the best thing ever! He likes playing with cars and balls and blocks.....and any other toys he can find. But he is always getting himself into trouble- yesterday Felix walked in the playroom to find him eating crayons. Big. Fat. Crayons....

Caught!...about to take a bite of the chalk- and he knew he was caught!

The new sand table- best summer toy ever! (btw- Levi can fit through the slats on the deck...nerve wracking!!!)

More crayon eating time....I mean.....coloring time......(you probably can't see the bits of crayon on his lips in this picture, but it is there!).

Look at that smile! He is delicious!!!!

Family fun at home. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the day-to-day, and I want to make sure I never take this time for granted. Spending all day at home with the kids can get a bit stressful. If Emma isn't talking my ear off and questioning every single thing I do, or crying because I gave her the wrong cup, or wrestling Levi into a half-nelson for using the trampoline while she is on it, or dumping out every single toy she owns all over the house- then Levi is simply screaming for no reason, getting into the cabinets, eating crayons, pulling at my pants while I am trying to cook, or- if I am lucky- I get a double whammy with a clingy Levi wanting to nurse while at the same time Emma refuses to go on the potty and wets her pants for the 3rd time that day!!!

But- for the most part, the past 3 years have been like one big party. When else in my life will I get the chance to play around all day, go swimming, go to the park, the mall, museums, amusement parks- anything- and get to enjoy it all through the eyes of kids?! We get to enjoy so many things, and each other. Each day, I try and take advantage of the many teaching opportunities I have with them- but they should know that I learn so much from them as well.

Every day we get to decide what we want to do. We fill our days with fun activities- Emma & Levi have playdates with their friends while I get to chat with the mommas, we go out to lunch together or picnic quite often, nap in the middle of the day, imaginations running wild. This has also made me realize just how much chores are put on the back burner- especially if we need to find time for after dinner tea-parties in our princess tents!


In fact, we have decided to hire house cleaners once a month- and this made me feel truly spoiled! I met with them in the morning when they came to the house- then I took the kids to play in the gym daycare while I worked out. After the gym, we met friends to go swimming and have lunch poolside- and I got to return home to a sparkling clean house just in time to put the kids down for a nap. Seriously- is this the life, or what!!!! I am one lucky momma!

we had our friends over for an evening BBQ and the kids had a blast running around outside. And Little Levi enjoyed his very first ice cream sandwich!

I will always wish we could be living in FL closer to family, but in the meantime while our lives seem to have settled here in New England- I must admit- summer time is turning out to be pretty darn fun!

Florida fun, part 2.

Hello summer vacation! Spent a little time at the splash pad....

Best Buds- enjoying a nice little tea party. Little Eli followed Emma's every move while we were there- it was so fun to watch them play together.

Visiting Grandma & cousins in Orlando

Museum time!

Emma & I did our "morning poolside workout" as often as we could while Levi napped. Emma is demonstrating our walking lunges around the pool. She was such a dedicated workout partner!

The big girl bed. I'm glad it happened spur of the moment while we were in FL, because when we came back home and took apart her crib......I definitely felt a little hole in my heart :(

We had a few kinks to iron out with the whole big girl bed thing- stay in bed means "STAY IN BED" and do not play with the diaper cream, or markers, or dirty laundry, or ANYTHING else you happen to find in the room!

loving a little night-time coloring lessons with Grandaddy

More playtime with cousins!

And the final celebrations of our trip.....Mom's birthday, Felix's birthday, and of course- the 4th of July!

mom's beautiful bracelet from Mamare.

Our Florida Vacation, In Pictures! (part 1)

We had so much fun in FL this June, I have so many things I want to update on the blog that I am starting to get behind- so I am recapping our FL summer with a post of pictures- which are my favorite part of blog post anyways!! (the spacing is off & I don't know how to fix it.....)

A month of celebrating. Oh, how we LOVE the month of June!
And to kick it off, Felix & I celebrated 4 years of wonderful marriage bliss on June 3! We were actually still in MA for our anniversary, but we postponed our celebration until we arrived in FL and were able to go out for a dinner alone while the kids slept :)
These pictures were from another night we went out for our newfound tradition of "siblings dinner" with my sisters & Roger. (his favorite romantic pose I make him do)

In June, the celebrations are as follows: Our anniversary, Ava's bday, Emma's bday, Levi's bday, Steph's bday, my bday, and shortly followed by Felix & Moms bday in early July. Needless to say, we did a lot of celebrating! The pictures are not in order.....

My birthday. The big 3-1. I decided to match my 3 year old for the big day- it was "romper day". Hello fashionista! My bday was on a Tuesday, so Steph & I took the kids to meet Mom for lunch at City Place. So fun! And much to our surprise, we were so full from our lunch that we ended up just having appetizers and salad for dinner that night......and a teeny tiny birthday cake that unfortunately, was not big enough for everyone to sample! Sorry Dad!!!

I thought it was pretty cool that I was able to use both candles from my kids' birthday cakes this year for my cake! I don't think that will ever happen again- so cool!!!

On days we were not celebrating birthdays, we still made great attempts to have fun. Most of the time, me and my two little chickens were more than happy to hang out in the pool in the backyard- other times, we ventured out with the cousins.

Kids-Bowl-Free is going on this summer, so we all went out to give it a try.

Let's just say-it was a LONG two games! The kids had fun and even got a little competitive. Not my little Emma though- her balls went down slow & steady. In fact, one time it went so slow- it actually stopped, and rolled back to us!! Levi was a trooper- hanging out in the stroller cheering everyone on :)

Costco! We even went one week that Mamare & Saba were out of town.....but they were not missed.....hahaha (look closely at our table- we had "fill-in's" join us!)

Ballet Camp. Mon, Wed, Thurs, 9am-12pm. So fun for everyone!!! Steph & I dropped off the girls at ballet camp bright & early- they had fun doing arts & crafts, playing games, learning ballet, and of course- snack time, and Steph & I enjoyed some quality time with the babies together or just some alone time if Levi was napping. And when we picked up the girls we had lunch together or playdates- it was fun and I wish we could do it more often! And the teacher said Emma did a great job and listening and following directions- which made me proud since she was the youngest in the class and this was her first time in this type of structured environment without me!

Build-A-Bear. Steph & I gave all 3 of the big kids this as a birthday gift- so we brought them to make their bear together. This was Emma's first time and she absolutely loved it! I did not expect her reaction........

She loves this bunny! She named her "Emma Bunny" and sleeps with her every night. We have even seen her on the monitor sleeping with it, and she rolls over to cuddle it and hold it under her arm. Worth every penny!!!

The day after we arrived we went to Ava's birthday celebration at a great little splash pad park. It was the perfect water level for my non-swimmers to run around and have fun. She had a care-bear cake. There was an ant crawling on one that caused quite a stir and landed down my shirt. Grandaddy can tell you all about it!

We celebrated Emma & Levi's birthdays 3 times- once at the beach all together, once on each of their actual birthdays, and once for a little party with their friends. I think they felt special!! Even Levi knew he was supposed to blow out the candles by the end of our trip.....

Of all the celebrations, I must say- Steph had the best birthday celebration ever. It fell on a Sunday, so the girls (me, mom, Steph & Jack) left all the kids at home with Dad & Roger- and took off for a day of shopping! We shopped, sat outside to chat over some Starbucks, and then shopped some more. We had lots of fun trying on some winners in the dressing rooms, I learned that nobody in my family likes my style, but I'm ok with that.... and then we went out with everyone for hibachi, where the kids had a great time- followed by Coldstone for dessert.

So, that about wraps it up for the celebrating- which is how we spent most of our time down there!! More to come.......