Happy 8th Birthday Zoe!
Goto where you can get fresh tomatoes this summer!

Summer 2011 Continued

In July we took a trip down South for Zoe and Mila's aunt Suzanne's wedding and to visit friends and family.
On the way, we stopped by in Raleigh, NC and Zoe got to hang out with her favorite cousin Ellis

Zoe enjoyed seeing her very first bride & groom in a wedding ceremony, while Mila got to skip the formal part and played with some fun decorations in the hallway instead:)

The reception was a ton of fun, the kids especially enjoyed the dress up trunk and photo booth. Unfortunately they were too quick for our cameras, so no pics :( But here's one pic of our little cow girl:
After the wedding festivities, we visited with aunt Martha and finally planted a tree for Mila!

The tree we picked is a Southern Magnolia, and should grow to about 80 ft (~ 25 meters).

Luckily uncle Earl was kind enough to come by with a tractor to help us dig a hole with this 7-ft tall "baby" tree!

Everyone helped in the planting process:

FINITO! We look forward visiting this tree when we come to see Martha and hopefully can see it bloom next time! As last trip, we came home to some lushious cukes in our garden. This time Zoe was not the only one excioted to see them- Mila was happy to put her newly grown 4th tooth to a good use:



And just a few random pics to add:

1 &2 . Mila playing in our living room in a little summer shirt that used to be her mom's :)

3. This is the way Mila likes to sleep when she gets to our bed ( which is just about every night)- she likes to snuggle with her Papa on his pillow :) Fo such a timy peanut she sure needs a lot of space!
Will be back soon, to wrap up the Summer update and catch up on the fall!

Our long summer

Summer this year was long, eventful and beautiful!

First few pics from Zoe's birthday party:
Zoe and her friends dressed up in princess and fairies costumes, painted faces and kept the party going until it was dark!




Next was our favorite beach trip this year to Newport, Rhode Island.
We spent a whole week at a friends' house in New Port, rooming with our friends Jay and Aga, and their twin boys Sam and Carter, who are Zoe's friends from daycare. Nothing beats a vacation when your kid's friends are staying in the same house! The kids had a blast- and adults got to relax and enjoy the beach time as well.
We enjoyed spending some time downtown Newport:






We went for a nice hike ( Mila's first!) in a nature preserve. Kids enjoyed climbing on rocks and trees, finding local creatures hopping around and a great view overlooking the beach at the end.




and then of course- everyone LOVED the beach. New Port has lots of them, all different and beautiful. Mila was absolutely fearless - trying to crawl into the ocean any chance she got.Zoe loved finding shells and boogie boarding:


When we got home, Zoe found lots of veggies waiting for us in our garden;
And Mila found that overgrown grass was even more comfy for frolicking in:
More summer pics coming up- to be continued soon!

Summer !

We'll start with pics from long-awaited Easter
The bunny finally came and left Zoe lots of surprise eggs to find in our back yard:
*note the haircut Zoe gave herself right before Easter :)


Fantik and Meeshka both help in the Easter Egg Hunt:


Mila helped too- and found a squicky duck toy bunny had thoughtfully left her!




Here are our two Easter girls:


And a few exciting spring outings:
Horse back riding at a friend's birthday party:



And rock climbing for the FIRST time (albeit in an indoor climbing gym)
Zoe made it all the way to the top of a really high climbing wall, ringing the bell on top was the best prize!




Then came a beautiful long spring- time to get our picnic blankets out and get some SUN!

And quickly came the time to hide from the sun :)

Enjoying one of the first sunny days on a bench swing in our back yard:


And finally the first picnic in our back yard with some friends!



For Mila some exciting first foods, like broccoli and cauliflower;

And another summer back yard party with friends!






Inspired by the Spring, here's Zoe pretending to be a spring flower:


Among other news, with Zoe's help Mila learned how to ride her whale toy:)



and learned how to stand up:



and now we can't get her to sit down for more than 2 seconds :)


Mila also grew some teeth ( 3 as of last Sunday)- can you spot them on the picture above?



And she learned how to help Zoe ( dismantle mostly :)) her Lego projects:



Mila started crawling about 2 weeks ago- and now there is no stopping her!





She also started her own blog on blogspot.com, but won't tell us the URL, so we are not responsible for the content of her blog if you happen to come across it on WWW;






Zoe's News:
Zoe graduated from her Nursery School- she will be starting Kindergarten in the fall- hard to believe our little girl is moving onto a big school!
Here are some pics from her graudation party:




Summer is a fun time here in Connecticut! Lots of outdoor events and festivals every week. Last weekend we got to enjoy Yo Yo Ma and his Silk Road Project band on the New Haven green square- it was fantastic! ( sorry - no pics)
Here are some from a kids art festival downtown New Haven:







You know it's true summer time when the pool water is warm enough! Zoe recently learned how to swim on her own- will need to take so pics, she is so excited about it! Mila just got a taste of outdoor water chilling and she liked it too :)


And finally, a few pics from Mila's recent 9months birthday party. She got to experience a few FIRST things all in one day- first SWING, first SLIDE, first SEE SAW and first time at the BEACH! Hands down, SWING was her favorite!



Next step for Mila is mastering the "Monkey Bars" like her Big Sister:




This summer is promising to be busy and fun- we'll try to keep up and post updates ( read: hopefully will post by Halloween:)

Bisous!