8/20/08: A day at the parks and Gilda rambles

Since summer is nearing it's end we figured we should go out and enjoy the beautiful weather. With Lauren's new found mobility she had a lot of fun at the park. She enjoyed getting around on her own despite the rough terrain.

She loved going up the stairs and sliding down the slide on her own.
Evan always has a great time. Right before we took him to get his hair cut in preparation for the first day of school, which brings me to my next point. I was just reading on my friend Mommy Niri's blog about her emotions on the start of school. I have to agree. Even seeing all the backbacks out at the stores makes me have that ping of nervousness that you get in your stomach on the first day of school. I thought being done with school myself that I would not feel this way, but now I guess I will feel it for my children. I am excited for him but am amazed every day what a big boy he is getting to be. Last night I took him to GymStreet USA in Wilmington for a trial Gymnastics class and he went in to class by himself! Not with me any more. He did great and followed the teachers with no problem going across the beam and doing tumbles and jumping on the trampoline. He really enjoyed it...again making me happy and sad. My little boy is growing up...and my other baby Law Bear (as I now call her sometimes) is getting to be a little girl too. Where are my babies??? Ok, wipe the tear and move on.
Evan is still majorly into Mickey Mouse (an no I don't push it), so this is his backpack from Nana and Papa with the matching lunch box. Ok, and now back to the park and Lauren being silly on the ducky. And her favorite spot...the stairs Our night time festivity was at Ipswich River Park in North Reading for the concert, BBQ, and festivities. Here is Evan and his buddy Jack running around.

They had a clown perform which the kids enjoyed.

And Lauren is here making some music while the Glamour Girls are on stage. She enjoyed dancing a bit too...the boys just wanted to run. After the concert we went over to the park and had fun there. What a full day! The kids should sleep well tonight.

8/17/08: Davis Farmland Fun

We had a great time at Davis Farmland in Sterling, MA on their 162nd birthday. Here we are with Moo Moo. If you have not visited this Children's Discovery Farm we highly recommend it. There is a lot to see and the kids had a great time.

And on the hayride.
And of course with all the animals...there were tons!
More animals...

Lauren had to pose with the piggies behind her since she had a piggy on her dress.

Lauren loves the pony rides, this is her 3rd in 2 months!
Evan having fun on the pony ride too with his face painted.
And they have a great sprinkler park that the kids had fun playing in. Great on a hot summer day like today.
Evan splashing in the sprinkler park too.

8/13/08: Lauren's last week of Gymboree class

Here is a quick update on Lauren since she is 16 months old today. We had her 15 month Doctor's appt. and she is doing great. She is now 20 lbs 10 ozs (15th percentile) and 31 1/2 inches (75th percentile). The Doctor says she must have a high metabolism because she eats a ton. He said she very advanced verbally. I stopped counting her words at 30. Some of her words lately are please, thank you, all done, up, and this. She uses "this" to point out things she wants. She pretty much will repeat anything you say. She walks quite a bit now with her stroller and can on her own but chooses to hold our finger. (Update on 8/15 - she now is walking a lot more on her own and giving our backs a break).

Lauren's favorite thing to do today at Gymboree, climb up the slide and then slide back down. She has come a long way since her first class.

The kids having fun in the boat.

Spinning is fun!

Another favorite word - bubbles

Ooohhhh!

Coming through the tunnel is fun!

8/10/08: She's Crafty

Ok, if you listen to the Beastie Boys my Title should be familiar...

In addition to my cake making addiction, have I mentioned my craft addiction? I think it is related to the kids doing crafts...I have gotten into it too. Usually at every holiday we do a craft and have done crafts at our Birthday Parties (Castles with the kids pictures in them, Crowns, Trains, and Mouse Ears) and Halloween Parties (Halloween Magnets). I find the kids enjoy it and look forward to doing a craft at the party. My only issue is many times the Engineer in me comes out and I feel that everything has to be symmetric. I find myself leading Evan to move things to certain areas of the page...but I digress.

This is my latest. I used the shells we found at Sunset Beach and made three frames from them with the kids pictures.

And one of Lauren
And one of Evan
And my obsession with Scrapbooking. These are all the ones I have done for the kids. I also just did a Vacation album. They are getting a bit out of hand. John keeps saying he is going to have to build me shelves for all of them. Lauren's 1st year album was 64 pages (two-sided, so really 128)...what can I say, I take a lot of pictures. Hopefully they will appreciate it someday. Did I mention that I hated Art class?

8/5/08: Santa's Village Fun

We had a great time at Santa's Village. It was our first visit there and it was great. The kids enjoyed the Christmas themed shows and rides. All pictures have been added to the Shutterfly Collection. Here we are on the Santa's Sleigh Monorail. And of course we got to see Santa in his house.

Wow what a huge Snowman!

We got to feed Santa's reindeers cookies.

They really enjoyed the cookies. Evan's favorite ride! The train. Evan got to play the Elphabet game and look for Elves all through the park and get his card punched for every letter. After completing the alphabet he got a certificate. And another sled picture. Here is a little video of Lauren enjoying one of the shows.

8/4/08: Humpty Dumpty, Tractors and a Circus!

Evan and Lauren had a great time at Storyland. They have a new circus show that the kids enjoyed too. Plus lots of fun on the rides.

Of course there was Humpty Dumpty. Evan has been talking about going to see him for a while now.

And you have to take a picture in the Pumpkin Lots of cute pictures.

The kids had so much fun on the rides!

Lauren got to drive the tractor by herself for the first time. She loved it.

And Evan is an old pro since he has driven the tractors 3 years in a row.

8/3/08: Conway Scenic Railroad

We went on another quick vacation to the White Mountains.

Lauren and Evan had a great time on the Conway Scenic Railroad. Evan loves trains!

8/2/08: Burlington, MA Pride Day

Evan and Lauren had a great time at the Burlington, MA Pride Day Carnival at the Burlington Common. Lauren loves pony rides!

8/1/08: Happy Birthday to Daddy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Daddy! Mommy made this cute clown cake for him and we celebrated at Nonno and Nonna's (John's Parents) who had just returned from Italy.