The Start of Summer

Perfection. It’s the one word to describe our Memorial Day weekend.

I think most of the Northeast had the sunny, warm, gorgeous weather that we had, right from the moment we woke up on Saturday morning to the time we went to bed on Monday night. It made for a wonderful “unofficial start” to the summer season, and we ate up every single moment of it. We literally spent the majority of each day outside, getting as much of the sunshine and fresh air as we could.

The last few years, we’ve spent Memorial Day weekend in the Pocono Mountains with my family, but my brother and sister-in-law asked if we wouldn’t all mind picking a different weekend this year, so that Hunter could spend his 5th birthday at home. So Saturday we spent the afternoon at his backyard birthday party, celebrating the little man and his love of Ninja Turtles. Nora was loving life—sand, sprinkler, cake, candy, cousins to play with. And we were loving it, too.

The party went on for many hours, but people trickled out gradually until it was just our close family and friends. Michael and I reluctantly packed up our girls and head home to do bathtime and tuck them right into bed. Sleep came quickly and easily that night, for sure.

On Sunday, we didn’t have much of an agenda. We all went to Wegmans to grocery shop early in the morning—we were there by 8:30!—and then Michael stayed home with Vivienne while she napped, and Nora and I went and ran a bunch of errands together. We got home, ate lunch, went for a family run (Michael pushed the girls in the twin stroller, woof!), then put the girls down for naps. Michael and I got a few things done around the house, I got some dinner prep done.

My mom came over for dinner. We grilled turkey burgers and made roasted potatoes and veggies, eating out on our deck for the first time this year. We also tried out our new patio umbrella, which we had just picked up at Home Depot prior to dinnertime. It was a perfect evening. Nora was on her game, being so adorably cute and funny, and just plain pleasant to be around. So much so, in fact, that we allowed her to stay up until 9:00 p.m. just hanging out on the deck with us and my mom. She had napped late, so staying up until what was REALLY late for her worked out fine.

Once my mom did leave and we put Nora to bed, Michael and I did some clean up and then stayed out on the deck under the lights (our umbrella has LED lights!) for a little while longer, then went to bed ourselves shortly thereafter.

Monday morning, we woke up to more sunny skies. Michael went to Crossfit and I got ready to take the girls to a local parade. I decked them out in their red, white, and blue outfits—might as well get some extra use out of them aside from 4th of July, right??—and the three of us walked (well, I walked, they rode in the stroller) from our house, about two miles. We met my mom and grandma there, as well as Kara, Hunter, and Sadie.

The parade was pretty short, but Nora and Hunter had fun watching and, of course, fetching all of the candy thrown their way. Michael came and met us at the end of the parade, picking us up with the van. Because although the girls were perfectly behaved on the way to the parade, I didn’t think they would’ve made it for another two miles back home.

While at the parade, we made impromptu plans with Kara to come over to our house and spend the afternoon outside with the kids. We zipped over to Wegmans to pick up some hamburgers, hot dogs, and snacks, then met her back at our house. Then, you guessed it… more time outside. The whole afternoon.

The babies napped upstairs while the big kids played in the pool and sprinkler. We sat in the yard and just talked. Made some lunch. Ate out on the deck again. Got the babies up, played some more. My mom came by for a while before she had to head to the airport to begin a trip for work.

For the most part, our weekend was pretty void of chores. This is the life, I tell you. I could get used to this.

On a quick side note… Vivienne wore the same outfit that Nora wore for 4th of July when she was a baby. I figured out that Vivienne is pretty much the EXACT same age now that Nora was when she wore this outfit. Vivienne is just under 10 months now, on Memorial Day 2014, and Nora was just under 10 months then, on July 4, 2011. For fun, I did a little side-by-side of the two of them in the same outfit. Nora on the left, Viv on the right:

It’s fun to observe their similarities and differences. :)

We had a late lunch, so after everyone had gone home and we were getting ready to wrap up our day, we decided to go have “ice cream for dinner.” Talk about a good way to wrap up an already good weekend, right??

Nora skipped nap again, and after being up so late the night before… girl was EXHAUSTED by this point. We were all a little panicky at how huge her ice cream cone was and as a result, how quickly it was melting, so tensions were a little high the first few minutes we had the cones. Poor thing started having a MELTDOWN about us being mad at her, sobbing “Look at this mess! Mommy, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry I made this mess!” It was heartbreaking, really. Such a sensitive little girl we have. Once she was reassured that making a mess is okay sometimes, and yeah, we really do still love her anyway (oh.my.gosh), she was able to enjoy the rest of her ice cream.

And on that note, it was time to get this child home, into the bath, and into bed for some sleep.

Beautiful, fun, refreshing, EXHAUSTING days.

Bring it on, summer. We are so ready.