weekend of cousins-Sunday

My Grandma (84 this year) and Aunt Ruth both celebrated their birthdays this week so the family had a party at my Uncle Mike's house this afternoon. The weather was lovely and the yard was a good spot to keep the kids away from the non-baby proof house. Once again, the highlight was spending time with my cousins Binta and Jaron and their daughter Amira. Adelaide was thrilled to have a playmate and we planned ahead and brought dress-up clothes for both girls. We blew bubbles, ate cake, posed for lots of pictures and enjoyed the family company. I adored seeing Amira and Addie one year older. The girls are so funny how they act a little reserved toward one another at first but you can see that deep down they are ecstatic at the idea of having a friend to play with. Addie was right in front for the main attraction of the birthday party.

Bella took a liking to Alex, especially his hat.

My Grandma had two of her great granddaughters eagerly helping her unwrap her gifts.

Cousins is such a special friendship. Both girls have a knack for ridiculous faces when you tell them to smile. Addie was a cake monster Bella played along with the older girls and dug into her cake pretty fiercely. She also decided to pull out a cold one in honor of her Daddy. She's got good taste, it was a Hefeweizen and it tasted icy good.

monkey bars and girls

Popsicles fueled some seriously giggly girls on the swing set. That's determination on Bella's face, when her sister isn't squishing her of course.

Popsicles

After a nice visit with cousins on Saturday Grammy whipped up a great dinner and we ate outside. Popsicles were the after dinner treat and I can't get over how funny these pictures are. Who knew a Popsicle could be this fun.

weekend of cousins-Saturday

We got to see my wonderful cousins Jeff, Katie and their adorable kids for a picnic lunch on Saturday. My Aunt Nancy, Uncle Jerry, and Aunt Jan all came over to visit since it's been a year since they'd seen the girls and I. I absolutely love seeing everyone and catching up with what has passed over the year we've missed one another. The very best part of the afternoon was watching cousins Addie and Emme rekindle their friendship while playing and giggling together. Bella was definitely one of the girls and just kept following them around. It took all of 10 minutes of the girls playing shy before they figured out that this afternoon was going to be all about them running and playing. Addie was devastated when we had to leave. Most of the car ride home she was crying because she didn't want to leave Emme's house! "I like Emme's house!" Another play date is in the works.

meet baby Carson

We've been going, going, going since last Wednesday. We said farewell to Megan (so very sad) then welcomed our friend Elyse and her youngest son, Carson on Thursday. We washed the sheets on the futon and made up the bed in just enough time for our new visitors to snuggle in. It was so wonderful to hold Justin's God son, little 5 month old Carson for the first time. The last time we were together was when I was five months pregnant with Arabella. We missed Elyse's entire pregnancy and now the third little Knight boy is 5 months and we finally get to see him in person. The girls loved Carson. He's absolutely adorable and so sweet that it's hard not to fall in love with his heart breaker big blue eyes and his happy disposition. The weather cooperated enough to play outside and take them to Portland on Friday. We checked out The Green Frog for toys to bring back to Carson's big brothers, Cha Cha Cha! for lunch, and Jamison Square for play. It was a glorious day. Seeing some of Portland together was fun but just sitting and talking (while being continuously interrupted by our dear children) was the best part of the weekend together.

I can't believe how unbelievably lucky we were to get a three day visit with Elyse and Carson. They flew all the way to the west coast just to visit with us (we weren't the only friends and family they saw-we didn't hog them for all three days). I can't thank them enough for visiting. It really was an extra special treat. It's not often that Elyse has a few days being a mom of just one baby instead of her usual busy days of mothering three busy and wonderful boys. It was a nice vacation for her and lucky for us, it was right here with US in Washington! I sent them off this morning bright and early so Elyse could get home to the other three men in her life who have desperately missed Mom (I am counting her husband too)!

best day yet

The sun was at it's best on the last day of our beach adventure. It was windy but the sun was warm and most of the kids on the beach had on bathing suits of shorts. Not my three year old. She looks like she's going to a birthday party here! I packed two skirts and three dresses and plenty of pants and shorts. She only wore this skirt of the two because the other one looked too much like a pair of shorts. Dresses were her favorite but this skirt ranks right up there. With the sunglasses she might as well be headed to a Copertone baby release party for their new line of sunscreen. This girly girl cracks me up. As much as Addie was dressed to the nines she was all for getting wet and sandy. I love that my girly girl isn't afraid to get her good clothes rumpled, or in this case, filthy! Bella was my sandy gritty pants girl. I tried to keep Arabella dressed warmly to prevent that ear ache chill that I used to get as a kid when I'd spend too much time at the windy cold beach. This day was gorgeous and we had so much fun building sand castles and playing in the little creek that ran into the ocean.

low tide

Getting up early with the low tide is tradition in my family. A couple of the mornings Mom and Meg were out the door to walk the low tides before even eating breakfast. The girls and I got to see some of the tide pools during low tide in the morning on Sunday. After breakfast we got bundled up and walked to the beach (out the door). We didn't get out early enough for the tide to be at it's lowest but it was still fun. We saw sea anemones, mini horseshoe crabs, star fish, and lots of barnacles. The girls wanted to climb all over the low slippery rocks and for obvious reasons I kept a tight hold on their hands. It was great fun to see the ocean floor uncovered with them.
Is anyone noticing that Adelaide is wearing a dress on the beach. I think I forced her to put on a pair of shorts under this dress but could not win the battle to wear pants. She kills me!