The Kickoff

The calendar may say it's spring, but not in these parts...summer is in full-force.  Those lazy summer days have kicked in already, with playing outside in the sprinkler before noon, long afternoon naps, and picnic dinners hiding out under the trees. The last few weeks have been full of fun...lots of good times had and many more to come!

The girls got to experience their first bridal shower for our sweet cousin who will be tying the knot in a few weeks.  The girls are going to be the flower girls and they are so excited for all of their important 'responsibilities!'

TOH and I celebrated 13 years together this month. Crazy, right?!  By far, the best 13 years of my life. 

As we do every May,

we visited the annual Butterfly Show

at the Conservatory. 

The girls absolutely love this...a roomful of butterflies swarming all around, landing on you left and right, bottom and top.

We celebrated the holiday weekend with new friends last night.  They are super-fun and I see lots of good times ahead with them.  I see us starting to grow some roots here and I like it...

This girl landed herself a new 'big-girl' bike a few weeks ago and hasn't gotten off since.  She loves to ride this thing as much as Forrest Gump loved to run.  I have to bribe her to stop riding. 

She also celebrated the big #3 last week...it's unbelievable to me. We made it a weekend-long party and it was awesome.  We are so lucky to have her in our lives...she brings so much joy and laughter to us everyday and I am so proud to be her mom. 

Remember those awesome in-laws and sisters I wrote about in a recent post?  Well they made the trip down to visit last weekend and we had a blast.  We shopped, we ate, we drank, and we spent a whole day at the new water park (which I am not a huge water park fan, but we were lucky enough to score VIP tickets which made the experience totally doable!)...this is the way to go!

And then it was time for a much-needed night out...

love these girls so much!

The next three months are sure to be full of lots of adventures and laughs, while in the back of my mind, at the end of these next twelve weeks, my baby girl will be a kindergartner.  I love the place we are at right now in our lives..they are both still my little girls and our days are solely ours to play away, but I only have them both at home with me for a short time longer.  Sending her off to the world of everyday school fills me with a bag of mixed emotions, but I know that this is the beginning of amazing things for her.  Amazingly good things. 

But for now, we celebrate summer. It's gonna be a good one.

Proof.

This is what I saw when I walked into the living room this morning. They love each other. A whole bunch. And this makes my heart so, so happy.