Grubbin'

We took Hillary and Isabella to dinner at Famous Dave's last night. Baby Andrew is scheduled to be delivered on Thursday, so we figured we'd treat the girls to dinner since Uncle Frank was working. Madeline grubbed down on some yummy BBQ chicken, mini-corndogs, corn on the cob, and Oreo cookies. I think she enjoyed herself...the last picture cracks me up because she is totally glaring at the woman who sat down behind us and laughed at her messy face! Gotta love miss Madeline and her messy eating!

Concert in the Park

Last night, we enjoyed this year’s first Concert in the Park at the Yucaipa Community Park. It was quite a bit different from last year when all of the kids were babies and just relaxed on their blankets while we enjoyed the music. They were a little crazy this year and wanted to be part of the action. Our usual spot on the top of the hill just wasn’t close enough, so we had to move down front and center. Miss Madeline had a blast dancing to the classic rocks tunes. She even made a friend who was willing to dance with her for a few songs. It sure was a lot of fun. We had so much fun at these concerts last year and we are all so excited to have Sunday night concerts again this summer!

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Madeline celebrated her second Fourth of July this year. We started the day swimming at the Johnstones. Unfortunately, Mommy forgot the camera so we have no pictures to share of Madeline swimming like such a big girl in the pool. She had lots of fun playing with all of the kids though and used her swim tube all day to swim around the pool by herself. Mommy and Daddy were very proud. We met up with the Egans for fireworks that night. Here she is watching some fireworks with daddy. She sure loved all of the bright colors!

She even got to hold her very own sparkler, which she thought was totally awesome!

Cuddled up with mommy watching one of the big fireworks.

More sparklers...these sure were fun!

Madeline was in awe of the fireworks and wouldn't take her eyes off of them for a second!

These sparklers are the best!

All up in the action as usual...

The noisy ones were a bit scary for her...I'm kind of glad we didn't go to a big fireworks show because she would have been horrified by all of the noise. It was perfect to just do a few big ones in the backyard and let the kids have fun with the sparklers. Plus, after swimming all day and staying up almost two hours past her bed time, Mads was pretty tuckered out at the end of the night. She fell asleep on the two-minute drive home!

Father's Day & Old Traditions

Chris had a great second Father’s Day this year! We BBQ’d some yummy ribs at our house and all the kiddos played while we watched and laughed. We also introduced an old tradition by giving the kids paint brushes and a bucket of water to “paint” the wall in the backyard. Probably from the time I was two, my grandpa would let me “paint” the wall in his backyard. My brothers and I would spend hours with paint brushes, rollers, and squirt bottles just “painting”. As we got older, we would stand in front of the wall and get hosed down to leave our silhouettes on the wall. It was great to watch our little ones continuing the tradition. Madeline has “painted” every day since Sunday…

Our "Mini-Vacation" in Palm Springs

We have had some horrible June gloom here in “sunny” Southern California. So, Chris and I decided to take Madeline to Palm Springs for a mini-vacation and some fun in the sun! We stayed at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa which has its very own “Splashtopia” consisting of waterslides, a lazy river, splash park, sandy beach, and wading pool for little kids. Madeline had a ball! She loved the splash park and floating in the lazy river with mommy and daddy. She played for hours at the sandy beach, while mommy and daddy relaxed and enjoyed a couple cold beers. She felt like such a big girl “swimming” in the wading pool. After several hours of water park fun, we walked across the street to “The River” and had dinner at The Yardhouse. Madeline had her very own kid’s pizza (she ate ¾ of it) and ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s for dessert. It was her first time staying in a hotel since she was just a couple months old, so we were a little worried she would not sleep well, but she fell asleep at 8:30 as usual and slept ALL NIGHT LONG! It was an amazing mini-vacation!

The kid LOVES to eat...

Lasagna...

Muffin...

Apple...

Cupcake...

Cookie...

Lasagna (again, it's her FAVE!)...

Orange...

Yep, caught red handed...what is that, an ice cream cone?

She does love to share though...maybe that's how she can eat non-stop and still squeeze into this teeny-weenie bikini!

We'd love her even if she ate us out of house and home...

Meeting Baby Parker

Madeline got to meet her new baby cousin, Parker, today! He was born this morning (just one day before Mommy's b-day)! He weighed 8 lbs 4 ounces and was 20 inches long. Madeline was soooooo excited to meet him. She even says his name...it's pretty cute. She was surprisingly gentle with him (as gentle as a 14 month old can be expected to be) and we can tell she just loves him to pieces. She will be such a great big sister!