Broken Heels

I rarely wear heels to church nowadays.

Reason #1: I've been working with kids for the better part of the last 3 years mostly 18 month olds to 3 years olds and I've found that moving quickly and sitting on floors isn't all that practical or comfy with ginormous heels on.

Reason #2: I'm utterly a walking wreck and can't make my ankles work properly...due to the fact that I never wear heels.

Exception: Thought I'd give her a go. Today I wore heels.

Good idea? No.

Proof? Yes.

Flats are sounding really good right about now. Look at that authentic battle damage! Lucky for me this happened after church. Goodbye disco ball shoes. I'll miss you.

Bartholomew...

is quite the mouthful of a name isn't it?

On Sunday night we were all sitting around the table as a fam enjoying good food and of course some good old silly conversation with a 2 yr old & a 5 yr old. Claira always likes to tell us what kind of names she likes. Boys and girls, and what names we should name 'our' babies...when we have them...later on;) (Take the hint mom & dad jeesh!) It started out with normal cute names, and then we started throwing crazy names at each other...like Robot boy, etc, etc...then Ben throws a real name at her, which happened to be Bartholomew. She laughs hysterically at this and says, "Barf-all-on-you?!?!". Never will I hear that name the same again. Never... and I love it.

Mail Time

We have a mail slot in our front door and the kids LOVE to race to get the mail when they hear the mailman dropping off our letters. Today Dylan was the lucky one who heard the mail, so he ran to get it. There were 3 letters, two of which he brought to me and one he kept for himself to open. He happily opened 'his' letter & excitedly states, "It's sixty dollars!" (this boy knows when his parents get excited about mail!) Sadly, it turned out to be a bill...and not sixty dollars, but we had some good laughs. Thanks for the smiles Dylan:)

Claira's Summer Haircut!

Claira has been wanting a short haircut for months now, so since I'm the self proclaimed family stylist/barber, I've been trying to get out of doing it myself for fear of screwing it up. Trims I can handle. Buzzing boy heads I can handle. Chin length haircuts I cannot handle. So this was actually Claira's first time going to a salon! Crazy huh?! She was SOOOOO excited and she picked out the perfect haircut that she wanted. She loved getting shampooed and watching her hair fall to the floor, she had this grin on her face pretty much the whole time.

She loves it!

Dylan kept asking her "you got a haircut Cweawa?!"

Yay for no tangles and total cuteness!

Independence Day!

We spent the day at home sleeping in, playing UNO, showering into the late afternoon..ahem, evening (me), and having a delicious bbq dinner feast! We weren't really sure what to expect with the firework show or if we'd be able to handle the crowds, parking, etc. We almost stayed home and hoped we'd be able to see some fireworks from a distance, but we decided to be crazy & just go for it! All we knew was that the show was going to be at the art museum (home of the rocky steps) so we figured we'd drive as close as we could get, then park and walk the rest of the way. Easy right? So we thought:) We didn't think the roads would be blocked so soon, so we ended up parking our car about 3.3 miles from the museum (yeah, we looked it up)

So we walk. Forever. Round trip: 6.6 miles...did I say we walked? I did say that right?

We laughed because the trail was so 'treacherous' (aka smooth bike path) that the stroller's wheels fell off...twice! Which has never happened before! It was our own mini pioneer experience. Losing wheels, trying to find bathrooms, carrying WAY too much stuff for a 3 mile hike...coolers, blankets, children, even a pup tent lol...etc:) It was quite the adventure and we had very sore legs and tootsies to prove it...on the bright side, we did end up working off the s'mores from earlier that day, a nice bonus! The walk was really beautiful though, we walked right along the Schuykill River the entire way. It was definitely worth it.

We got to the museum and lay down on our blankets, we were exhausted! The show was the BEST firework show We'd EVER seen in our lives. We were literally right underneath the show, it was so intense that we were screaming! ha ha, good times! Dylan was scared out of his pants...you can see him covering his ears in the pictures below, but a few days afterwards he talked about how cool the fireworks were and he's excited to see them again!

Sunset on the river

Ma girlzzz

Yay for America!

Watching the show!

Firework time!

Chillaxing

Ah, summer. I don't like the heat, but I do like having a husband around and seeing these happy faces in the morning when I wake up!

$7 at Walmart=a whole summer of fun for my two water babies!

Making cakeballs with Karina...an obsession has begun! (Thanks a lot Teresa! hee hee!)

This picture says it all! All I can say is making cakeballs leads to many, many, many jokes....what?! It's funny!

In the week that Karina was here Dylan-a mere 2 yr old, mind you- figured out how to use Karina's iPhone! It was pretty impressive!

Excited beyond belief about roasting his mallow;)

Philly Fun!

We love Philly. We love wandering around the city and just looking at everything but we especially enjoy all the good food Mmmmm mmmm! We had a great time eating lunch at Reading Terminal Market, Dessert at Rita's Water Ice, & strolling LOVE park whilst dipping our tired hot feet in the fountain. We also browsed a clothing store called H&M and drooled over everything!

Ahh summer:)

Dylan with his frozen vanilla custard & me with my mango gelati soooo goooood!

Claira has already devoured her frozen custard & Karina is workin' on her chocolate water ice/custard blendini (so fancy!)

Turkey dinner in July! Heck YES!

Boneless beef rib sandwiches made for us by the amish (man, they know how to cook!)

Pizza!

This boy LOVES pizza!

Ok, So We LOVE the Zoo!

Check out this brave girl! She loved feeding the birds nectar from her cup!

Come to me jungle friends!

Do you love my "man bag"? Ha ha Ben was sweet enough to carry my purse around all day because of my sunburn (see previous post) Such a sweet manly man! He looks tough while he holds his stuff!

Oh, how I disdain you little bird

This makes me die!!! Her bird flew away right over my head as I was taking the picture. I'm loving this face!

Riding the LARGE caterpillar

The girls! Loving my white legs! I need to borrow some of that tanning lotion Reen! ha ha!

How cute is this little guy?! look at those little sun kissed cheeks

Chattin' it up with a silverback gorilla

I love how entertained Dylan is by Claira's sweet gorilla moves

Down the Shore

Yes we are 'down the shore', not to be mistaken with 'at the beach'. Welcome to the east coast. That's how they roll out here:) So oh man, we were blown away by how gorgeous this beach was er shore er uh now I'm totally confused! You get the idea:) We had no idea the east could rival our Cali beaches, but this one is up there. The water was warm, and the weather was really warm with a nice breeze. It was pretty sweet. Karina flew in the night before, so what better way to start the vacation than to relax in the sun all day?! We met up with some friends from Philly as well and had a blast. We ended the day with dinner at The Pop Shop in NJ (as seen on the Food Network on Throwdown with Bobby Flay!) It did not disappoint! We all ordered different types of gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and I have no doubt that we will be going back! Yummy!

All tuckered out!