Grandma Comes to visit & we celebrated Fathers Day

We were lucky to have Grandma come visit for a week in May. The visit was full of quality time and lots of kisses from Madeline and hugs from Dominic.  We were going to pick up Grandma from the airport together, but her flight was delayed till 10:30 p.m. so the kids had to stay home.

The morning after Grandma arrived.  The kids woke up early and were ready to play.  We stayed in our PJs till almost 9 then headed to school.   Wednesday and Thursday mornings were really fun to see everyone on the floor playing cars, building lego sheds and using our 'ninja skills' fighting each other.

    

After school, we continued the fun activities with outdoor backyard play. Dominic was excited to show Grandma his basketball and soccer skills. Madeline, on the other hand, tagged along and kept up for awhile. But decided to play in the dirt and plant flowers (fake flowers).

 

On Fridays, mom has off and we were going to Friendly Farm but the weather did not look like it would cooperate.  So I packed our lunch and headed to 'Imagine That' in Lawerance MA.  It is an indoor playground.  They have an indoor jumper, play ship with fishing rods to fish, grocery store, craft section and an indoor obstacle course.

Since it was right before Fathers Day.  They had a special event where you can get donuts and make a special projectmfor daddy.  The kids made hand prints for their dad saying, We Love You!

While we were there.  It was Madeline's 1st time and her brother showed her the layout of the fun areas of the play area.  Dominic was really excited about the indoor jumping center and made sure his sister took part in the jumping fun.  From there he took her to the indoor dinosaur maze.  You can climb up the rope, go through the bone maze, jump through the Firestones or go through the REALLY fast slide.  Later on, we rode on the 'Arrrr pirate' and wore pirate patches and went grocery shopping.  Both kids were nonstop and really enjoyed all the fun activities.

On Saturday we decided to get ice cream to celebrate the beginning of summer.  Yum Yum

Over the weekend we enjoyed family time and Sunday we attended our annual 5 miler rib roast. Mom and dad raced as Grandma watched the kiddos.  After the race, we enjoyed getting ribs, beers for adults and then just danced and ran around in the open field as live music was playing.  It was just so fun to see the kids free spirited and really enjoy every moment.  After the festival, we spent the rest of the day, poolside.  It was very hot and we really needed to cool down. 

Taking Grandma to the airport.... saying our sad goodbyes.

Philly here we come!!

We are very excited for our Aunt Annie and Uncle Tom expecting their little girl and a new cousin for us. The road trip started Thursday night and we drove to CT.  The kids had a blast, and we made the decision to have Madeline face forward for this trip. She LOVED every moment, and did very well.  We got to the hotel around 8 p.m. and we thought the kids were ready for dinner BUT they did not want to eat. Just run around and play.  Both kids heads did not hit the pillow till about 10 p.m.  Every time mom would leave the room to get the luggage or try to grab a bite.  Madeline made it clear that mom could not leave the room without her. Therefore, mom took a trip to the bar and requested a nice glass of wine she could bring back to the room and the bar tender was totally fine with that.

                          

When we woke up in CT the next day. The kids were ready to explore more and devour the breakfast buffet.  We decided to have some family time before we met up with family in Plymouth Meeting.  We went to the Philly Zoo on one of the hottest days. We got there and had a blast.  Last time we were there was when Dominic was 6 months old and he pretty much slept the whole time.  When we arrived, we bought a lot of water and then we embarked on our journey.  We first went over to the giraffes, zebras, and flamingos.  Madeline just was smitten with the zebras and hippos. She was smiling and talk to them very loudly. Dominic loved the flamingos. He was asking questions about their wings, what they eat (if thery were a carnivore or herbavor). Throughout the zoo, we were also able to see many birds, monkey, chimpanzees and the reptiles.  Dominic loved the reptiles because we discuss how they are related to dinosaurs.  

 

 

 

After several hours, we were very hot and tired and thought the kids did pretty good considering how hot it was.  We got in the car and headed to Annie and Toms house. When we got to their home. The kids had a nice nap and woke full of energy.  Annie and Toms's home had a playset which Dominic absolutely enjoyed.  That night, we enjoyed dinner out and some family time in the backyard.  The next day was the baby shower for Baby P. The kids behaved great and made some friends.  It was nice to be all together and everyone and have Annie and Tom meet Madeline for the 1st time. We headed back to NH on Sunday morning, very early.  The kids were loaded with snacks and mom in the back with entertainment for 5 plus hours.  We made it home by 12:30 with happy campers and still had the day to relax.

The rest of the month of May was filled with day trips and fun backyard activities. We took a trip to Portsmouth to see the McCools and baby Charlie.  Madeline was smitten and kept on saying 'baby' even though she just became a toddler.  Dominic loved Charlie's smile and when he was sleeping too.

 

 

At the end of May, daddy and Dominic decided to camp out in the backyard.  It ended up being a little chillier than they expected.  BUT the boys had a blast with spending time together and looking at the stars.

Madeline has been a very independent reader and loves to find her chair, corner or our trampoline and read Sesame Street books, Elmo 'if you happy and you know it', Peek-a-Boo, That is not my Dinosaur and That is not my bunny (touch feel books that we look for the white mouse), and my 100 First Objects. I have been trying to work with her on the objects we have at home and what the book has in it.  This past week, one of the things we got at the dollar store was a balloon.  As we were reading one of her books. I said the word balloon and she got up and grabbed the 2 balloons that were in other room and brought them to me.

Some words and activities Madeline as been saying and doing;

• Here you go, Dominic
• This is mine
• No more
• Love you
• Grandma
• Door
• Monkey
• No more Monkey (this is a verse in our song we sing)
• Flower
• Here you go
• *Forming complete sentences
• *Putting words together
• *Playing more actively with her brother
• Singing a lot more
• Babbling/baby talk to us a lot more

Both Dominic and Madeline have been enjoying the time at Nana and Bampas pool. Dominic is doing really good at swimming and just about swimming with no swimmers.   Madeline is a big girl and just jumps in now with her swimmers.  She just loves the jump in and starts kicking and flailing her arms.