From One Family To Another - We Love You!

We had a truly wonderful time with Ben, Stacy, and their adorable kids. They squeezed in trips to Boston, Providence, and New York while they were here. Ru had a particularly fun time playing with her cousin Lila. It was so fun to catch up and reconnect with them.

 Viv and I had a mommy-daughter outing per her request. We were long overdue for some alone bonding time. We ended up going to a park in the rain. We got soaked, but had a great time together and finished off with pizza.

The day before Stacy and Ben left, Kristen and her cute kids arrived! The overlap was fun.

Later in the week we were invited to go to a new friends house in Norwalk. Jackie and Eddie live in a beach house on the water's edge of a small inlet. Jackie let us come over and take small turns kayaking with the kids. They loved it! After that we went out for a quick bite to eat and ice cream. We are so spoiled.

 

We are leaving tomorrow morning on a trip to see Jackson and Celeste in North Carolina. Kristen and I will be in one car with 5 small munchkins for the majority of the trip. Adam is leaving later in the week so he can work, while we slowly make the 12 hour drive south. We'll be stopping at some amazing landmarks along the way including the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, sights in Washington DC, etc. We have been planning for a while now with specific emphasis on how to make these stops more meaningful to children under the age of 7. One way we are doing this is by checking out tons of books from the library that will give the kids context about what they will see and some history about it all. We hope that this helps them get more excited about it all and helps them remember a little more about it. We even have little "vacation meetings" with them to read to them and talk to them about what we will see. Here we are at the good ol' Mark Twain Library scavenging for books about Betsy Ross, Abraham Lincoln, The Smithsonians, and more. So they are missing a little school, but they will be getting a serious education!!

 ... and having a puppet show.

Marshall, Kristen's husband, got to join us for the weekend. This is especially wonderful because he has been working at an internship in Washington DC for a month (3 months still to follow), and Kristen and the kids have missed him dearly. It was a sweet reunion for their family. We were happy to see him, too. We miss those guys! It's great to see them all together again. Marshall goes back to DC Monday night, but he'll be joining us in North Carolina for Memorial Day weekend (with Adam and my cousin Danny who lives in New York).

 There is a place nearby called the New Pond Farm. Every year they do a traditional May Fair, and we had the privilege of attending yesterday. It was absolutely gorgeous. They did May Pole dancing, Celtic dancing to awaken the earth, sheep sheering, bee keeping, all sorts of crafts for kids, etc. We thoroughly enjoyed spending the afternoon there. We felt the spirit of summer emerge and noticed that our little girls looked like little pixie fairies. How magical!

 

More photos here.

 

Mom's day, a birthday, the tooth fairy, and visitors!

Olivia had a very loose tooth that she managed to wriggle out this week. It was a very exciting event for her! I told her she should try to get the other tooth out that had a permanent tooth already growing behind it. After she had been in bed for a while, she came out and surprised me with the 2nd tooth in her hand, her mouth a little bloody. Wow, I thought, what a determined little girl! She was so proud of herself and excited about double tooth fairy money. She had one more slightly loose tooth. A few minutes after going to bed the second time, she waltzed into our bedroom full of pride to show us that the third tooth was twisted awkwardly to a side angle. She was working hard at it. We told her to stop! The tooth ended up coming out two days later. Way to go kid. Who knew she would become a masochist for tooth fairy money!  

We had the privilege of having dinner with Eddie and Jackie and their new baby (people Adam met while he was traveling out here a lot). They live on the edge of the water with a marvelous view. The girls had a great time on the dock. They even saw a small jellyfish in the water - don't fall in.

We really feel sooooo lucky to have so many people willing to come visit us because after living here for only 7 weeks, we welcomed our 3rd set of visitors! Ben and Stacy arrived last night just in time for the birthday festivities. We had a great time catching up with them a little bit before getting all the kids settled down in the basement for a sleepover. It was so cute! 

It is hard to believe that 2 years ago I was in the hospital giving birth to our sweet Sonoma B. She immediately won us over. We love her big dark eyes and hair against her fair skin. She has an adorable personality and a fun sense of humor. She is smart and wants to do everything her big sisters do. She loves to sing, make believe, and tag along with her sisters, try on shoes that are too big for her -she loves shoes-, and be held (getting heavy) by mom or dad, but mostly mom. She is speaking in sentences with a side of gibberish, but she can get her message across quite easily. I love listening to her speak! She can sing the ABC song all by herself, and she just recently learned how to climb out of her crib. We are still working on the new bed situation. We celebrated with cake (that her sisters helped to make) and ice cream in the backyard with Uncle Ben, Aunt Stacy, and cousins Liam, and Lyla. It was beautiful!

Adam is a super-husband. Not only did he build a fire pit in our backyard yesterday (involving leveling ground, hauling heavy tree stumps, digging a hole, a wood chip ground cover, etc), he also woke up early to make a delicious waffle breakfast for Stacy and I.

We feel blessed beyond reason to have mothers in our lives who love and support us. We are so grateful for their strength, examples, hard work, and love.  Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Chilly with a gust of family

All the week's photos here.