More memory lane pictures

I was determined to have the kids up for their usual summer vacation even though I had just had a new baby.  I was so happy to have them there with me meeting their new baby cousin right after she was born.  These next photos are from July 2007 and July 2008. 

Tomorrow I will dig up pictures from the past few years too!

Bethany holding a brand new Sydney girl!

Sydney loved the older kids then and she loves them now!   July 2008.

Memory Lane of Summers Past

As I mentioned in my previous post, Bethany and Jared are coming for their annual summer visit.  I wanted to find some old photos of them with Julia, Jon and Sarah and here they are.  These photos are from 2005 and 2006!!  I can't believe how much time has past.  I am sure I have some from earlier years, but those are all on 35 mm film - not digital.  Wow, what a fun walk down memory lane!

 I love this photo of them on our old front porch.  Everyday they would play together. 

The kids used to spend countless hours in the creek at our old house.  Sometimes it would be flowing really well after a good rain, but most of the time there was just enough water in there to make it an adventure for them.  Ah, the memories.

Must of copied the low res version of this one below, but you can still see how young they all are!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Bethany and Jared.  This was taken in 2006 when we used to tow our boat to a local lake.  I think this was the first year in the newer boat.  The picture above in the boat was from 2005 in our old boat.

Just some random photos from camp and from home over the past two weeks.  I am having a hard time believing that it is already the end of July.  The girls and I have had so much fun spending our days at camp enjoying the water and eachother's company.  We are gearing up for round two of visitors.  Jess and the kids will be up on Saturday and then the kids will have an extended stay after Jessica returns to work.  My girls are so excited to see their aunt and older cousins.  I am sure Bethany and Jared are excited to see their buddies, Julia, Jon and Sarah.  I have to get a photo of all of the kids together this summer.  It is hard to believe that we have been in NY for this long and that Bethany and Jared have spent every summer here hanging out with Julia, Jon and Sarah.  I have tons of photos from their times together.  Maybe I will put together a post of past summer photos! 

My girl relaxin' in her shades drinking mommy's seltzer.  Silly lady.

Lots of sunscreen on this little girl.  Both girls love the sand.  They make me lots of sand soup and other yummy sand treats!

 She loves to sit like this - face resting on her hands. It is so Sydney.

Bath time silly girl.



She is starting to enjoy being in front of the camera a little more.  In between searching for bugs and treasures, we were able to get a couple of cute shots for her thank you cards.  Can you believe her tan?  SPF 50 and she has the darkest tan lines ever!  I wish I had her skin tone!

My little fishy

It is sometimes hard to believe that she is only 2.5 years old!  My second baby sure has grown up fast.  Look at her!

Sittin' on the dock of the bay

Just a few pictures from our latest visit to camp.  Teddy is here with us right now so we spent a lot of days at camp enjoying the water and the boat.  Here are just a few pictures of us enjoying our time on the dock.  As you can see, Sydney and Sawyer are huge fans of jumping off of the dock.  Sydy hurls herself off as hard as she can while Sawyer prefers to be caught by awaiting hands. They amaze me!  A few months of swim lessons and I never would have guessed that they would be doing this!  Jim and I watch in awe at them.  We love having this place that will be so special to these kids in the many years to come.

We are back home now as Teddy was a little bored at camp after Jim had to return to work.  Teddy is loving TV and Internet at home!  Tweens...can't live without TV and computers!  Love him!  I have been busy making him his favorite meals and desserts.  I am happy to report that I have maintained my 22lb weight loss even with the extra treats I have been making for our buddy Ted!

 Cousin Teddy loves my little girls and they love him!  We have had so much fun with him here in NY!

Sydney's 4th Birthday Party

I know I am way behind on posting these photos, but life has been a little crazy with SUMMER FUN!  I had so much fun planning Sydney's party for her.  I am not a party planner by any means so I kept it simple (yes, you know me) and focused on the kids having fun. 

We rented a bounce house so that the kids could enjoy some outside time - what a perfect day for it too.  The weather was so beautiful.  I made cake pops to match the brown, pink and aqua color theme of the party decorations - they tasted yummy.  Of course, there was way too much food left over!!!! 

I can't thank our friends enough for making her party so special for her.  I hope all of the kids had fun playing at our house!!  She talked non stop about it for days.  Here are just a few photos.  I didn't take many photos as I really wanted to focus on having fun and enjoying our time with friends, Sydy and Sawyer.

I enlarged a photo of her as part of the decorations. 




 

Such a happy girl on her special day!

Blowing out the candles!  Wouldn't you know, I forgot to take a photo of the cake before we cut into it!  Lovely, right!

 Bounce house fun!

 My little princess holding her "BUG Vacuum"

Again, many thanks to all of our friends for making this so special for her.  She doesn't ask for much, so I was very happy to give her the party that she really wanted!

So far behind...

So much to say and so little time. Summer has been super busy with fun trips to camp, Sydy's birthday celebrations at Nana and Pap Pap's, at camp and then her fun birthday party the other day!

We are having a blast at camp already. Fireworks were fantastic from the boat, the girls are loving the water. Sydy is hurling herself off of the dock. Sawyer loves to play in the sand and swim in the lake.

We wrapped up private lessons the other day and I am so happy at their progress. Sydy can swim a little bit without a floatation belt. She amazes me- I love watching her keeping her head up as she swims without help. She doesn't even panic when she goes under water. She loves jumping into the pool as much as she loves jumping off of the dock at the lake. Sawyer has made huge progress in her swimming and loves to swim with her float belt on. We will pick lessons back up in the fall and I can't wait to see Sawyer in group lessons. She will be awesome!

Sawyer is now in her big girls bed at home. The transition was seamless as I suspected it might be. She is used to sleeping in a big girls bed as she and Sydy share a room at camp. We used to have the two twin mattresses on the floor at camp but I just recently put the beds back on their frames and moved them side by side. I pretend to be irritated when I hear them chatting, but secretly, I love listening to them chat. Usually Syd gets irritated and tells Soybean to be quiet. My girl likes her sleep!

Syd got another haircut. I had it cut even shorter and it is so adorable. I love it. Even when the bangs grow out, I will still keep it short. So cute!

Her birthday celebration with friends was so fun. Photos and stories to come soon enough.

The girls and I are heading to camp tomorrow with our friends Julia and Sarah. I love having teen and tween friends around. They love my girls and my girls love them. I will have lots of photos to share when we get back from our visit.

Here are a few photos from our visit to camp over the 4th of July.

Squishy nose kisses. Just before we took the boat out for fireworks.

We took the boat out on the water to watch the fireworks. Little did we know that they were shooting the fireworks off of a barge and not off of the land. We actually had to move our boat away from the barge just a little. You can see how close we were. I was only shooting at a focal length of 35mm!!! So fun. Soybean was a little freaked out at the echo off of the mountains. But she warmed up to them pretty quickly. Sydy loved it.