{happy birthday america!}

Happy 4th of July!  It was a hot one but a good one.  We had a great time at the Hayward street party once again this year.  From the parade (featuring the orginal batmobile), to bouncy house fun, to hamburgers and hot dogs, to fun with friends ... it was a classic fourth of July celebration!



{we had a BLAST this weekend}

It was one of my favorite weekends of the year in Cincinnati ... the Hyde Park Blast!

The girls ran in the kids race on Saturday morning.  Cutest thing ever!  Here they are at the starting line discussing their race strategy with George. 

While they were excited to "go to my race"  all morning, once the race actually started they were a bit overwhelmed and started crying.  So I ended up running while carrying both of them ... Randall was riding his bike so unfortunately I don't have any photos to capture this, but I'm sure it was quite a sight :)

The sweet taste of the finish line ... enjoying some post race water and cookies while proudly displaying their finisher medals :)

Then we were off to the fountain to soak some weary feet...

It was a hot weekend so we spent the afternoon at the pool before returning back to the square for the evening bike races, elite runners race and block party.  Such a fun and busy day!

Twelve hours later we were back at the square for the Sunday morning Farmers Market.  We met up with the Stealeys and enjoyed a nice breakfast together and then the kids had a blast dancing and playing in the square.

We stopped at the park on our way home and by the time we left we were all soaked in sweat ... it was hot hot hot.  We headed back to the pool after nap time for some needed relief from the heat.  Such an active weekend ... I think we will all sleep well tonight!

{i love my family}

The fun continued on Sunday evening (we returned from the beach late Saturday night, celebrated Fathers Day on Sunday morning) when Omi, Aunt Inken, Uncle Andy and cousin Grady arrived from California (via NY/CT for Hollen & Adam’s wedding) for a visit! 

We had such a fun week together ... watching the cousins play together, celebrating mom's 60th birthday, having Omi & Aunt Inken accompany the girls to gym"nastics" ... 

... Grady's first trip to the pool, a play date with Maddie, swinging "uppa high" with Uncle Andy on the back porch, a trip to Beech Acres to meet up with the Stealeys, blowing bubbles ...

 .... a visit to the aquarium, trips to Ault Park, yummy celebration dinner at Boca, bouncy house fun, family birthday dinner & Grady's first dinner out at A Tavola, family game nights ...

 ... fun in the backyard pool, a trip to the zoo, and the Lambert Place Street party!

 It was so wonderful to spend a whole week with my family.  To watch the cousins play so nicely together.  Although they are 18 months apart Grady truly did keep up with his older cousins .. whether chasing them around the living room, jumping with them in the bouncy house or playing in the pool ... he was always in on the fun.  It was so great to get to celebrate both my mom's and my birthday together with family.  It was a great week, but also made me wish that we lived closer to family, so that we could spend quality time together on a regular basis vs. on special occasions only.  Maybe someday ... but for now I will savor the memories from this wonderful week together.  I love my family so!

Now for some funny "outtakes" from the cousin photo shoot ... thanks for your patience Sara and for capturing some great shots amongst the craziness :)

{"happy mothers day, daddy!"}

We celebrated Fathers Day with a trip to the Farmers Market. We enjoyed Belgian waffles and crepes as the girls danced to live music and played in the fountain. The perfect way to celebrate an amazing Daddy!

Apparently the girls are not able to say Father (I guess it is a challenging word), because all day they were wishing Randall a “Happy Mothers Day, Daddy!” Too cute!

For Randall’s fathers day gift I took Kenzie, Lexi and Tobi to a local portrait photographer to capture his 3 children together. I think the photographs turned out great and Randall loved them.

Happy Fathers Day Randall! Thanks for being the best dad, husband and friend I could wish for. Our girls (and Tobi boy) are lucky to have you as their daddy! xoxo

{island in the sun}

We had such a fabulous week on Isle of Palms. The weather was beautiful, it was fun to spend the week with Randall’s family, and the girls LOVED the beach!

We decided to return to Isle of Palms and stay in the same house as last summer, because it was familiar and easy and hey, why fix something if it isn’t broken. I wasn’t sure how the girls would react to the beach and ocean since they hadn’t been to a beach since Thanksgiving (in California) and hadn’t been swimming in the ocean for a full year. No need to worry because they jumped right in, literally. They were so excited I don’t think they stopped running all week!

From playing in the tide pools, to jumping in the waves. From building sand castles with Daddy and their cousins, to riding bikes on the beach. From bocce ball to collecting seashells (& 2 sand dollars). From ice cream cones to dancing at the pavilion. From a trip to the Angel Oak tree to dinners out. From swimming at the pool to spotting deer, alligators, turtles and dolphins. From a catered low country boil to Pop Pop’s homemade meatballs & spaghetti...the girls really enjoyed their time at the beach with Granny, Pop Pop, Ethan, Brittany, Aunt Danielle, Uncle Mike … and of course Mommy, Daddy and Sara. Randall and I even enjoyed a date night in Charleston. And I got to go running 6 out of the 7 days. Too many fun memories to capture them all. I decided the best way to preserve them was by creating video/photo montage.

Enjoy! We sure did!
  (ugh... Vimeo is not cooperating ... will upload video later)

{road trip}

We survived 1,260 miles of road travel with 2 twenty-seven month olds. Yay for us (and Sara)! We decided to leave at 5am so that the girls could sleep for a few hours in the car. We snuck into their room and planned to carry our sleeping pajamaed babes out to the car. However, the second we stepped foot into their room, Kenzie shot up in bed yelling, “Hiiii! Going to the beach? Soooo happy!” We didn’t get the hoped for slumber, but how could you be too upset about that enthusiasm?! Besides the fact that Kenzie got sick 4 times within the first 4 hours of our 11 hour drive to the Isle of Palms, and the fact that the girls didn’t nap at the same time for even a minute during those 11 hours, the way there was fairly smooth. With a dose of Dramamine in her system Kenzie stopped getting sick and apart from one major meltdown as we were stopping for lunch, the trip was much better than expected.


The way home was a bit less ideal. Besides the fact that we were leaving "paradise" (“No go my house! was the oft repeated phrase of the week), we also had one constipated 2 year old and lots of roadwork to contend with. Thankfully we had a visit from Omi, Inken, Andrew and Grady to look forward to :) The lowlight of the trip was at the North Carolina-Tennesse border, about halfway home, when we hit standstill traffic right after both girls had finally fallen asleep for a nap. They both promptly woke up and started yelling “I want to get out now!” only to be broken up with the occasional “My poopy hurts!” from Lexi. This made the next hour and a half in which we progressed exactly 4 miles quite fun. We did eventually make it home – safe and sound. And while I could think of countless better ways to spend 12+ hours, the great times that we had this past week at the beach far outweighed the downside of road tripping with 2 toddlers.

More about the good times in the next post!

{parties & pool time}

We have been busy.   Between work trips, hosting the crawfish boil, preparing for vacation, etc., we have also found time for birthday parties, pool time and the farmers market.  The weather has been gorgeous and we have made the most of it.

Kenzie & Lexi had a blast at Grace's 6th birthday party.  Between the bouncy house, trampoline, swingset, balloon animals and magician they weren't quite sure where to go next.  They felt pretty special hanging out with all of the big girls.

Opening weekend at the pool was hot and crowded.  The girls could barely contain themselves.  They were back and forth between the splash pad, baby pool and big pool.  They are little fish and would live at the pool for the summer if we would let them.

We drove down to Louisville to visit the Schlegel's in their new house and to celebrate Maddies's first birthday.  Kenzie got sick in the car on the way (an increasingly common occurance) but didn't let it deter her from having fun.  She arrived in her ruffle butt and party shoes ready for a good time :)  It was great to catch up with Kyle and Audra, see their gorgeous new house and celebrate with the cutest little one year old around!  I love watching the girls interact with her.  Lexi was especially sad to leave Maddie.  The girls were partied out and fell asleep in the car before we even got out of their neighborhood.

Today was the first farmers market of the season in Hyde Park Square.  We loaded up the stroller and went for a run to the square on this gorgeous morning.  Kenzie & Lexi enjoyed a belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast had fun playing by the fountain.  This is one of my favorite things about summer in Cincinnati!