Sweet Summertime

We packed lots of fun into the past few weeks and we can't believe Summer is already half-way over!

Olivia is typically a fierce “mama’s girl” but lately she has been all about daddy (much to BOTH our delight!).

I think this picture of them playing with the iPad is so cute, especially knowing the background -- a few weeks ago we were in her room reading books before bed and she put her arm around my neck and pulled me close to her. It was completely unprompted and completely adorable. Then Matt went to take a turn sitting by her, but of course the little stinker refused to put her arm around poor ol' dad.  Flash forward a month and I was in our room getting ready for work one morning when I heard Matt yelling "Mommy! Come in here and look at us!" I went in to see Olivia with her arm around Matt, playing with the iPad. I grabbed my phone and quickly snapped a picture --- I think its adorable, but Matt was disappointed that you can't tell her arm is around him. So...it is now documented for the memory books!

Pool time

She thinks it is a fun game to get in her crib and pretend to go "night night."  One morning she asked Matt to get in the crib too.  Before I could object, he hopped in and she LOVED it!  So...of course I had to take a turn too...

We've been trying to get to the park early mornings before the sun is unbearable.  We had a fun “Sno Cones in the Park Party” hosted by her friend, Emma

Now that I have Fridays off, we love having Friday afternoon playdates with Mimi and Grandpa.

Side Note: This playdate made me realize that I may need to alter my technique in disciplining Olivia. I think she may like both being a disciplinarian and being disciplined more than we would hope. Poor Grandpa got sent to the “corna” about 50 times during a 4 hour period and when Olivia stood on the coffee table after repeatedly being told to stop, she eagerly asked me “crib?” (which is where she goes for time-out) and then practically dragged me to her room! Clearly we need a change in routine around here!

We also tried out the new (and delicious) River Oaks Donuts.  If you haven’t been, we highly recommend it. Only downside is that there is no seating there. None. And because someone (and I’m not necessarily talking about Olivia…) just couldn't wait till we got home, we sat in the car to eat our donuts….

And we celebrated Owen’s birthday - we just love this little boy (and all his sweet brothers)!

This was the first time Olivia really had pizza and its safe to say she's a fan....she ate 2 whole pieces and asked for more!

And then it was time to cut the cake. Miss O loves her some cake, so she was very excited . . . .

 

 

Matt had the audacity to try and help Olivia cut her cake...

But he quickly remembered why she has earned the title of Miss Independent!

Can't wait for these 2 pretty girls to grow up and be friends, just like their mamas!

 

Bubbles

Like most kids, Olivia LOVES bubbles.  Between myself and the two grandmothers, I’m pretty sure we've tried every kind of bubble maker, blower, or related device that exists.  We never found one that we loved though.  Until now.  I’m happy to report we have found the best bubble blower ever.  Seriously.  It was $6 at Gymboree and if you've got a bubble lover, you should immediately purchase one. 

It blows lots of bubbles wih little effort.  But, the best thing about this bubble blower is that Olivia figured out how to blow them by herself without making a huge, sticky mess!

Hyatt Lost Pines

We recently made a trip to Hyatt Lost Pines with the McGuire family. A few years ago Matt and I took a one of the best trips ever to visit Lloyd and Jennie in Hawaii. Of course the fabulous location had something to do with it, but we have a blast with L&J and luckily realized the 4 of us have similar ideas about vacations (stay at awesome hotels, eat delicious food, view beautiful sights...) We vowed then to take many more vacations together. And we made good on that promise last week…with 2 new little additions!

We packed up (not sure why having one little baby causes you to need so much stuff!) and headed out.

We stopped at a gas station on the way up and she saw ice cream. (Note: This picture was taken about 4 seconds before both the ice cream and Olivia melted down!  That made the rest of the drive up really fun...)

Olivia didn't take a very good nap on the way up, so she was pretty grouchy when we pulled in. However, a cookie from the nice people at the Hyatt did wonders! From that moment on, she had only love for that place! 

She could not wait to get down to the pool (or "cool" as she calls it) and lazy river!

We did lots of relaxing.

We ate some ice cream and LOTS of watermelon.

Went to the park and blew some bubbles

Went on a Horse Drawn Wagon Ride

 

After the wagon ride, we walked over to the fountains for Olivia to look at them. She had been too scared the day before to actually run through them, so our thought was to warm her up a little bit by "just looking" with the hope that later in the afternoon she would play in them.  Much to our surprise, she must have gotten brave overnight because she walked straight up to the fountain, put her hand out and squealed in delight! She then proceeded to run through until she was soaking wet!

We were only able to coax her away with the promise of putting on bathing suits and coming straight back to the pool. When we were walking back to the room, we had a very sweet moment.  We kept telling Olivia she was "soaking wet" and then I asked her "what are you?" (assuming she would mimick "soaking wet!" back to me).  Instead she exclaimed "Happy!"  SO. SWEET.

Even in your bathing suit, its important toaccessorize with the right clutch.

And then she was back at those fountains!

At night, we would put the kids to sleep and then order room service for the adults and hang out. One night we played Cards Against Humanity. For those of you not familiar with this game, it is an X-rated, embarrassing, awkward, offensive, and completely hilarious game that had us all crying laughing. There are very few people in this world that I’d be comfortable playing this game with….luckily L&J are at the top of the list!

And by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, Olivia did not want to leave "cation" (vacation) and cried "No home! No home!" as the poor bellman helped us with our bags all the way from our room to the car. But, she was asleep before we even got off the property. This was such a nice weekend and we are excited to make it an annual tradition as these kiddos grow up (and hopefully a few more are added to the mix!).