We spent last weekend visiting Uncle Brian and Aunt Erin at their cottage in Seneca Lake.  We had such a great time!  Claire had a blast playing with her cousin/friend Owen.  She also loved playing with Mr. Steve.  Here she is hanging out with Mr. Steve just chatting away on the dock.

The kids also had a blast with Miss Nikki too!

Mr. Steve and Miss Nikki were so good with the kids.  Claire loved just chatting with them and eating Miss Nikki's delicious pancakes.

Oliver and Owen had a nice time catching up on their reading.

 The lake was gorgeous.  And even though it was a little chilly the kids loved looking at the water.

Oliver loved playing outside and just being handsome.

He rode some bikes.

And worked on his putting.

Then when he got a little tired he hung out with Uncle Brian on the big swing.

Then we all took a turn.

It was so nice to just hang out and spend some time together.

Oliver and Grandma spent some time shoveling stones on the beach.

Then to warm up the kids hit the hot tub.  I love these two!  They have so much fun together.

 

Then Daddy and Oliver hopped in.

And Claire took a little time to think.

God I love her.

Mark and Claire took a little boat ride to enjoy the lake.  Claire loved going out there with her favorite buddy.

THANK YOU BRIAN AND ERIN FOR A GREAT TIME!!!

Irish Festival

Last Saturday was my birthday and we celebrated by going to dinner at a great Asian restaurant (my favorite) and then going to the Irish Festival.  We always have a blast at this festival.  The kids love the music and it is great to see our family.  My cousin plays in the band Emish (click HERE to check them out) and our family always goes to watch them!  

Claire loves getting her popcorn and hanging out with Uncle Greg.

And of course, she loves hanging with her Daddy! She loves to watch the Irish dancers perform.  She spent about 20 minutes dancing to the music.  It was hilarious!  She was dancing all over the place and she kept bobbing her down in this long dramatic pause.  She is awesome!

Here is Claire dancing away.

Oliver loved the music.  He kept dancing and he LOVES the drums!  Whenever there would be a drum solo he would watch the band (very seriously) and just go "woah".

And what would a festival be without the junk we buy for the kids.  Claire fell in love with this unicorn that you could "walk".  She kept saying "I can't wait to take her home and show her my room.  She has never seen my room and she is really excited!"

And Oliver is OBSESSED with balloons.  I am talking OBSESSED!  Whenever we are around balloons he goes crazy.  He goes "HI!!" and waves at them.  It is adorable.  So he was thrilled when I bought him this Spiderman balloon!  He kept kissing it and dancing with him.

He was very proud to show Spiderman to G.G.

Seriously?!  Could he be any cuter?!?  I cannot believe that he doesn't have bite marks all over his handsome little face! I could just eat him up!!!!!!!

My little Irish princess had fun hanging out with Nana (and her new unicorn).  

Overall, it was another great birthday.  After the festival the kids slept at Nana and Papa's (and trust me they couldn't wait for us to leave so that they could be spoiled rotten by Nana and Papa) and Mark and I went out with friends.  It was a great night full of laughs and great friends!  Another amazing year has gone by and I have so much to be grateful for!  I can't wait to see what the next year brings!!!!

Back To Dance

Today was Claire's first day of dance class.  She was very excited this year.  She loves dancing!!  Also, she is SUPER excited because her best friend Giada is going to be in her class!!

Seriously...can she be any cuter?!?!

Before dancing we had a little time to take some pictures.  Claire was having a blast posing and practicing her moves, so I just snapped away.  The pictures came out so cute I have to post a bunch of them!

This girl's got some moves.

She was so serious!!

Then she requested some pictures of her hugging the tree.

Claire was excited to see her dancing buddies!  She was pumped to introduce Giada to her old buddy Ava.

A little booty shake in class.

HOORAY!

Claire and Giada dancing to the "Hello Song"!

Marchin' it out.

BFFs holding hands while waiting for their turn.

 Stretchin'.

Leaping.

I was so proud of Claire today.  I can't believe how old she is getting.  I remember doing Mommy and Me two years ago and she was sooo tiny.  Click HERE to check her out!  Now she is all on her own and doing great.  She changes her own shoes and listens so well.  I am so proud of her!!!

Unwinding After A Long Week

Well, we did it.  We made it through our first full week of school.  All of us!!!  I have a great class and I am really excited for this school year.  Claire loves her new pre-school room!  She has gotten five stickers all week (except for one day...apparently there was a little disruption during calendar, but we fixed that right up and she is back to five).  Mark loves his new classes and is looking forward to a great year. And Oliver....well, nothing has really changed much for him at school so he is happy as a clam.  He is officially a walker now and off the bottles!! Man, he is getting old!!!!

My kids have been ending up here after school.  Just relaxing while watching a little tv (don't mind all those cords in the corner).

Zoned....out.

I love that Claire was sitting here and Oliver walked over and plopped down next to her.  Best part was Claire didn't even tell him to move, she just snuggled him.

Oliver LOVES TV.  I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing!

But seriously, I am not sure that any other little boy has ever looked so cute watching TV!!!

Silly Pics

I recently entered a few pictures of mine into a "Silly Photos" contest.  I did not win but here are the photos I entered.  They were so silly and fun I just had to post them!!

This was from Oliver's birthday party.  In the treat bags I gave out these sticky mustaches.  They were adorable!

Of course I entered a picture with Oliver and his stash too!

I didn't end up entering this one but it was so silly I posted it anyway!   This was from a long time ago.  We were bored one day and Claire told me she wanted me to draw a mustache on her and this is what we ended up with!

This is also an old one.  When Mark was little he used to make his brother Kevin do a "Face Show" and Mark and Brian would make Kevin do all kinds of silly faces.  So one night Mark and I made Claire have a "Face Show" of her own and this is what we ended up with.  We had so much fun doing it!!

When Oliver was about a month and half old Erin and I put her shades on him and he loved it!!  Here he is Rock Star style!!

This was at Claire's last hair cut and I think it speaks for itself.

This is from Sue's graduation and I LOVE this picture!!!  I laugh everytime I see it!!

So even though I didn't win, I had a blast looking through my silly pictures and laughing as I found these!!  I love my family and how silly we all are!!!!