Wagon Rides, Serious Swing Time and an Impromptu Baseball Game

We stopped at the Dawe's house Sunday to pick up my car (yes, I took advantage of Carah's pregnancy and asked her to bring me home from the wedding) and we ended up staying to play with Patrick and Thomas (and Mr. and Mrs. Dawe!) for three hours.  It was so much fun to watch the kids play together!

Menu: Diet orange soda (for the adults), Smartfood popcorn and Cheez-Its, just as I remember it growing up!

Perfect Day for a Wedding

Congratulations to Laura and Brian married on Saturday.
What a wonderful couple!!

I stole this picture from Facebook.

We were solo for the night (no husbands) and it was so much fun to catch up with Mandy and Carah!

Robbie and Josh, stolen from Facebook

Mandy and Carah
Mandy glowing from the wine and Carah glowing from her pregnancy with Baby Cahill #3!

pictures at our dinner table at Shining Tides

Robbie and his very cool girlfriend, Caren

me and Carah

Ray and Carah

Mandy, Josh (my faithful blog reader) and me
It was a fun night!

 

Running Jill Into the Ground

There's no delicate way to say it.  My kid needs to be run into the ground every. single. day.  If she doesn't get enough activity, she won't nap.  She's cling.  She'll be semi-annoying.  She'll be awful at bedtime.  This 2.5-year-old needs serious playtime with other children.  This week those playmates have been Tyla's twins, Cadence and Colton.

Jill started a new day care on Tuesday.  Here she is at Tyla's home day care with "Ca Ca" and "Colty."

 MMMM ice cream!

building a "princess sandcastle"

Tyla sent me a message that you would never be able to tell it was Jill's first day.  "She's all about the dress up shoes with the heals.  She's playing outside with a tutu, heals, purse over her shoulder and pushing a doll stroller." 

 artwork from Jill's first day

practicing writing her name

It must have taken a lot of effort to keep up with the 4-year-old twins because Jill literally went up to Tyla and told her it was time for her to nap!

We expected her to come home and plop on the couch but there was no slowing down.  Meanwhile, Tony and I were ready for bed!

thrilled with Tyla's pigtails

 I forgot how much fun a simple hula hula hoop could be!

 what a sweetie

Here's Jill Wednesday night before dinner.

 running around in her new dress from Granna

She's much more graceful than she looks!

Look Mom! No Kids!

Saturday was a washout but Sunday was a nice day for a boat ride!
Here's Hesper and Tim (sans Cadence and Addison) at the Tipsy Seagull.

Mel and Brian decided to meet us with a last minute invite as we weren't planning on a Tipsy stop.  I love that!  Ummm yeah, sure, let me drop Cole off with my Dad!

 great spot! great friends!!

 Bye Mel!

 heading back to the boatyard

Leaving the Tipsy

Horseneck Beach With the DBs + Offspring

 We've multiplied!
Last Friday at the beach

mini Meg, Tyla and Mandy
(Jill, Cadence and Faith)

 the girls: Mandy, Mel, me, Carah, Tyla and Whitey

pitstop for chocolate ice cream with Carah, Patrick and Mel
Thomas and Cole were already fast asleep!

Since we were chasing kids all day and barely said 4 sentences to each other, we decided to meet up Friday night.  A few of us anyway.  Here's Whitey's "Curley's with the Girlies"

I guess we made it...
at Home Plate

Last Week at School

Tuesday

--------------------

Jill and her best buddy at school, Shannon, waking up from Wednesday's nap

-------------------

and Thursday, her last day, with Miss Natasha, Richie and Samya

The Potty Training Chronicles

I didn't want to scare any new visitors away with "The Poop Times" or "Shit Happens (Literally)" or more visual titles, so I stuck with the safe bet to gently indicate that what you're about to read may involve poop.  There's your disclaimer.  Fair warning.

Potty training has been slow-going.  Some days I joke that companies should provide paid leave to parents during the potty training times of their toddlers' lives.  How else is she really going to get it, right?  Jill's peed on the potty sporadically at school and it's like the entire classroom just won the lottery.  Like they all chipped in $5 each week for the last 2.5 years of their short lives and it finally paid off.

We extend this excitement into the weekend and reward Jill with stickers and/or cookies.  Tony cheers and claps and it's absolutely one of the cuter things to witness in life.  On Saturday, Jill peed AND pooped on the potty with Tony there to assist.  It sounded like things were going well from the standing point in my Mom's hallway so I didn't poke my head around the corner.  I didn't want to ruin any concentration, relaxation or progress.  Each time Jill seems to tense up, Tony reminds her to "relax" and they sigh together loudly complete with shoulder shrug and drop.

It seemed like we were on a roll on Sunday when the two of them ran to the bathroom once again.  Then, from the other room, I hear Tony yell, "Ummmm, can I get a little help in here?"  I assumed they were too late and Tony's request would include wipes and Mom to change the poopy training pants.  I rounded the corner to see a chunk of poop (or two?) on the bathroom floor and Jill laughing. Wow, I was NOT expecting that!  We all laughed as I dropped to my knees to scoop up the poop.  I guess we were too late on that attempt!

No nap using laundry basket as back pack

The title is an email I received from my Mom yesterday. 

In case you were wondering, Jill did end up napping.  It just wasn't until about 4 p.m.  In the meantime though, the laundry bag provided great entertainment! My Mom's email cracked me up and proved to be a hit on Facebook.

So We Moved in With My Mom

We may have picked the most humid week of the summer to pack up the last four years of our lives. Here's a sweaty Jill after playing outside after school one day last week.

Then we actually packed Jill!
Taunton then Berkley or BUST

Saturday morning our dear friend, Heidi, came to take Jill for a few hours so that we (Tony) could do the bulk of the packing, the heavy lifting if you will.  Jill enjoyed a chocolate chip muffin from Dunkin's and Tony proceeded to sweat through his t-shirt from all the lifting and loading.

 Jill was excited to stop at Heidi's and see her dog, Hersey; and fish, Lisa, Angela, Pamela and Renee (yeah LL Cool J) 

Then they went to visit Mark and his boys, Ryan and Jack.  The kids were jumping on the bed while Mark told them scary stories complete with flashlight for effect.  It was nice to hear that Jill played well with the boys and was well-behaved.  #ProudMomMoment

 filling up Quincy Bay with rocks

arranged marriage? 
perhaps

Jill had a great morning meeting new friends and spent the afternoon at Cole's 1st birthday party.  It was a ridiculously busy day! 

Dunkin' Donuts Pitstop

Picture this: Jill is laying on the couch in her PJs while watching Clifford this morning.  I'm in the kitchen packing up lunches and snacks when Jill calls me into the living room.  She sits up and says, "Mumma, I wanna get donuts for my friends today, peas (please)" - pause - "and me." Hey, at least she thought of others first!

Enjoying the Summer Chaos

Yes, I realize the weekend is almost here and I'm just now writing about last week but what can you do?  We're packing to move to my Mom's and busy with paperwork to buy our new house.  These are hectic times!

We finally named the boat!

then swam the afternoon away at my Mom's friend's house (a saltwater pool, so cool!) Jill was in the water for so long that her fingers turned to prunes, which made her upset until Tony showed her his hands! Ali invited us to stay for dinner too - it was a lot of fun!

Summer isn't complete without sparklers.  We lit this mini firework as it started to rain Sunday night just after Tony and Jill went down the hill at my Mom's to do a little fishing.  Jill lost interest quickly and proceeded to throw rocks in the water, which definitely didn't help Tony's cause!