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.