Summer's Last Hurrah!

Recently we spent a few days down in Southern Maine enjoying one last summer get away before school and all the craziness that it comes with was upon us!  To be honest it would have just been easier to stay home and I wasn't sure how the baby would do on his first overnight away from home (and all the activity during the days) but we had been a bit cooped up and it was beginning to show in the kids and I just knew that Lily and Eli needed to get out and do something special.  So we went.

And the first day we spent at Reid State Park with Joe's mom and our sister-in-law, Mary, and her four girls. It was just half an hour from Joe's parent's house and the beach was WONDERFUL!  The ocean is pretty cold, but the waves were just the perfect size for the kids and they had a BLAST!  We will be back to this beach for sure many more times!  And though I had to hang out in the van a few times while I was feeding the baby I still was able to enjoy the beach some and the waves and salt air even lulled out little guy to sleep!

And if that weren't enough Joe's mom ordered Chinese food for dinner, Joe's dad made my very favorite pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese frosting, and Liam had his best night of sleep to date (and thus so did I)!  What a wonderful day!

We had a little adventure the next day too going to "Fairy Friday" at the Midcoast Botanical Gardens. Lily had been looking forward to this for some time and while the place was beautiful it was also rather hot and incredibly crowded (apparently Fairy Friday really draws a crowd)! I spent half of the time feeding the baby so poor Joe was forced to deal with hoards of tourists while Lily enjoyed the fairy activities (like making a fairy wand, fairy dancing, the bubble machine, and making a fairy house in their magical fairy woods)! We managed to stroll around the gardens a little too where there weren't so many people. The kids really enjoyed it, Joe hated it, and I enjoyed parts of it. Joe perked up though once we left the crowds and got some food! The gardens really were beautiful and their children's area was very cool so I think we'll go back sometime in the fall or winter when we can enjoy it with less people and cooler weather!

 

Favorite

I know I've already posted this picture, but it's my favorite of my little Liam so I have to give it a whirl in black and white too!

Newborn

Liam's newborn portraits...just 10 days new here!

Announcing...

Liam's Birth Announcement 

Smile for Mama

Liam has been smiling here and there since he was born, but they say that it is around 6 weeks old that babies start to smile responsively.  Well, just the other day (in fact just a day before he turned 6 weeks) he was kicking back on the kitchen table checking out the new black and white mobile that I made him (though you can't see it here)...

And I was trying to get his attention to take his picture when he turned to look at me... And I took the camera away from my face and smiled really big at him and this is what I got in response... The first time he smiled in response to me smiling at him (and I got it on camera)!!!

 Oh my GOODNESS... I am in LOVE with that beautiful gummy smile!

Oh Brother!

Liam is one lucky little brother...his big brother and sister happen to be pretty great!

P.S.  It never ceases to amaze me how suddenly my "baby" (in this case Eli) seems SO much bigger than he did just 6 weeks ago!

Nautical or Wild?

I have just about finished switching the kid's bedrooms around.  The boys are now in the bigger room since there will, eventually, be two of them in there!  And now it's time for a little redecorating!  I've got all of my plans set for Lily's room, but I'm still trying to decide what to do in the boys room,
  Want to help me?

I think I have decided that the theme will either be ocean/nautical or "where the wild things are."

Either way I am hoping to start with this amazing swing:

And either way the colors will likely be red, blue, teal and white.  And there will be flag buntings and some cute painted paddles.

If it is a nautical theme I will add some whales to the wall like this:

And some more fun art like these:

And a whale mobile for Liam:

And maybe if I can figure out this (only smaller and a different color):

And throw in some more boats and whales for fun!

Or I could do "Where the Wild Things Are" from the book.  Same boat swing, colors, flags, and paddles.  But a little more like this...

Birch tree wall decals similar to this:

And some cute wall art:

And stars hanging from the ceiling, faux animal furs, a star or cute monster mobile, some cute stuffed monsters, and trunks for storing toys and more boats:

And maybe a large monster bean bag...but cute of course.  

So there it is...what would you choose?  Let me know in a comment or vote in my pole on the sidebar!

P.S.  I fully expect this to take me 6 months to a year given my little free time!:)