Saturday with Friends

My dear friend, Holly, was in town this past week visiting from Long Island, NY.  She came last weekend to see the new house and it was a loud, crazy afternoon as her four children and my two children ransacked the house and raised the roof with all the yelling. (Sorry Josh and Papa Dan!)  But since we don't see them that often it was worth any headache that came from the commotion.  Later in the week, Holly and I took in a late movie after we got kids into bed, and another night she came back to help me unpack my scrapbook room and set it all up!  (Love her for doing that!!)

So this Saturday we decided to get together one more time before she left for New York.  We opted to pack the morning with activity to avoid the mass destruction that occured weekend prior.  

We started our morning with a visit to the local farmer's market!  This was the 1st time I had been to the town's farmer's market since moving here.  It was nice and small, but it had a lot of variety. We bought some juicy cherries (Kate's pick), some garlic pickles for Papa Dan, some string beans, freshly made fettuccine and fresh bread.  I love local markets like this!  Oh, and we also grabbed a few chocolate chip cookies for road! (Nathan's pick.)

 Then we took the kids over to a neighboring town's park.  It was a perfect place to burn off a bundle of energy.  Kate loved the zip line and the swings.  Mia and Joel played on the slides.  Nathan adores the gravel box full of dump trucks.  Gabe was content eating grass and hanging on to his mama.  And Andrew, well he just chased the kids around the park and added to the fun!  (Andrew seemed to avoid the camera...so I don't have any shots of him...sorry, Holly.)

 Holly and Gabe!

 (Notice the matching dresses that Aunt Holly pick out for the girls!)

 After the park, everyone was hot and hungry.  So we had a picnic lunch on our front porch.  (I love my front porch!)  And then the kids played in our kiddie pool for a while.  There were lots of splashing and squeals of delight. 

We were sad to see everyone leave.  But we were so glad we got to see them so many times this past week.  Now if we could just get Uncle Neil to transfer his job to Virginia, life would be sweet!!

Hurricane Hannah Spoils the Birthday Bash!

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've written a post. Sorry for letting the time slip by. Things have been so busy these past few weeks. We went from Kate's birthday to my birthday to the start of school and doctor's appointments...and lots of little things that just eat away the time.

But let me start by saying that Kate got some allergy testing done on Friday b/c of her eczema and diaper rashes. I am happy to say that she tested NEGATIVE to the five major food allergens and to rice. I am thrilled that we can move ahead with milk and dairy now. We may have to investigate some other allergens down the road if her skin doesn't clear up...but for now, we're hoping she'll outgrow it.

Okay...so Hurricane Hannah blew through our area and spoiled my wonderful birthday plans. I guess the story really begins a week ago. Josh announced that my birthday week would begin on Thursday (8/29). At 5 p.m. Josh gave me a pile of numbered envelopes that began our journey. We went out to a wonderful dinner in Bethesda, and walked around the city with Kate to work off our meal. We had a nice little drive that brought me back home where Josh surprisingly got out and proceeded to take Kate out of the car too. He told me to get back in the car and keep reading the clues. The rest of the clues brought me to BWI airport where my wonderful friend, Holly was waiting for me. She flew in from San Diego to surprise me! I was so happy to see her that I cried. It had been almost a year since her last visit, and I was particularly excited about seeing her pregnant belly and showing off Kate to her!

So the entire long weekend was spent doing girlie things and catching up on too much lost time. Going to our favorite restaurants and doing a lot of errands and typical stuff. But when you have a good friend in the passenger seat, you can do anything and have fun. Thanks for coming, Holly!

On my actual birthday (9/1), Josh surprised me with an incredible weekend getaway (scheduled for this weekend). He bought me tickets to go see Les Miserable, my favorite Broadway musical. It has been playing at Wolf Trap (a gorgeous outdoor amphitheater in Virginia) and I had been wanting to go see it. He also reserved a hotel room so we could have a weekend without the baby. His real gift to me was a full night's sleep!

BUT Hurricane Hannah blew through here and was just strong enough to rain on my parade! Forecasters were predicting 2 to 3 inches of rain an hour and a lot of flash flooding. We needed to make a decision about the hotel before 24 hours of Hannah's arrival in order to cancel our reservation. So, not wanting to use money on a weekend that might go bust, we cancelled. Good decision, because on top of the storm, Josh got really sick. He's coughing and sneezing and achy and cold. He's been in bed most of the day today. So even though Wolf Trap didn't cancel the performance (I guess actors and musicians don't mind performing in a deluge), I couldn't very well ask Josh to go sit under a covered amphitheater in a cold, wet, damp downpour while sick. So needless to say, we missed the show.

My parents did keep Kate overnight for us. So I am hoping to still get my full night's sleep. However, I'll be sleeping on the couch while Josh contaminates our bedroom with his sneezes.

Our weekend didn't work out as planned, but I love Josh for trying. The night out in Bethesda on Thursday, the clues around town, the surprise visit with Holly, and all his planning to make a special weekend happen means more to me than the weekend itself. Thank you, Josh for all your effort. I love you more than you realize.

Now, just get better please. We're running out of tissues.