Summer-Summer-Summertime!

Before I go into my whirlwind trip to MD over Memorial Day, I had to share a picture of Baby Brooks - Josh and Anise's little boy!!  They live in Charleston now so we haven't been able to get our hands on him yet but we are so happy for them!!!

Greyson 'Brooks' - so adorable!

The Friday before Memorial Day, I packed up and took off to MD for a crazy weekend of fun celebrating Leah's and Julie's upcoming weddings!  I arrived mid-afternoon and it was strange to be there without the kids!  My parents' house was so quiet!  :-)  My mom and I got a few things ready for the parties that afternoon and Friday evening, we met up with Leah and Bill and went out to pick crabs!!  Yum!

Saturday morning, we had Julie's wedding shower at my parents' house.  It was so special to have it there since Julie was basically the third Palmatier sister growing up.  She was always at our house - still is when I come home to visit!  We are so happy for Julie and Peter and can't wait for their wedding in July!  The kids are both in the wedding too so that's going to be so fun!!

Another baby picture - Ali and Andrew welcomed Baby Amelia two months ago.  She was 6 weeks early though so she's still quite the peanut!  So adorable and sweet though!

Amelia

 It was so nice to have so many old friends together!

Ali, me, Jessica, Julie, Katie and Tina (due in July!)

My Julie!

Us with Julie's mom and sister (Bev and Mandy)

About an hour after we got all cleaned up from the shower, it was time to get going again for Julie's Bachelorette Party that night!  We went out in Baltimore and had so much fun!!

All ready to go with Leah before we left

Sisters!

During dinner with her huge Bride cup!  :-)

Love my Jules!

Mandy, me, Julie, Ali, Leah

We got Julie and Mandy up on the bar!  We had so much fun dancing.

We got home pretty late that night and I attempted to sleep in.  :-)  It was hard to do since I'm so used to getting up early with the kids but I think I managed to make it to 9:00.  :-)  We had a lazy morning and then took off around lunch time to go by Leah's house and then picked up her friend, Shelby from the airport and then it was time to start all over again for Leah this time! 

We had Leah's bachelorette night Sunday night.  So much fun.  We checked into a hotel and started getting ready.  We surprised her by having a few people come by the hotel for champagne and snacks before we went out.  She was so excited!

Getting ready with Shelby

Love my Dit!

The whole group at dinner.  So much fun!

Silly Bride To Be!  :-)

Silliness at the end of the night!  :-)

More silliness!!!  :-)

We slept in a bit again on Monday and then went to have a nice breakfast before meeting my parents for them to take me back to the airport to head back home!  It was a whirlwind weekend but so much fun and I think everyone enjoyed it very much.

I was very happy to get home and see the kids and Waylon though.  I got in a little early and I texted Waylon to let him know.  He wrote back and said he was going to leave the house in 5 minutes to pick me up and as I came walking down to baggage claim, there they all were!  It was such a nice surprise and the kids came running over to me and gave me big hugs.  :-)  Kylie said, completely unprompted, 'I love you so much, Mommy!'  What a homecoming.

When we got home, I unpacked and took the kids right to the pool while Waylon went to the grocery store (I think a much needed break for him!).  :-)  They did really well though while I was gone.  They had some playtime with Nana & Grandad, Savannah, and also some pool time.  I was glad it went so well.  It made my weekend that much more enjoyable knowing everyone was happy at home.

That week was a normal week except I got to stay home with the kids on Friday - that doesn't always happen but I'm going to try to make it happen as much as possible between now and when Noah starts kindergarten in August (ahhh!!!).  :-)

Friday morning, Noah told me that he wanted to 'do a very special project' and make a treasure chest.  So I covered some shoe boxes with paper and let them color and decorate them with stickers.  Such a simple thing but they loved it.

Making their treasure chests

Later that morning, Megan, Ryan and Peyton came over to visit.  Noah loved holding Peyton.  He loves babies so much!!!  Watching him with a baby is the closest I get to wanting another one.  :-)  (Not going to happen, by the way!)  :-)

Kylie had a blast playing with Ryan as usual

Friday night, we went over to Carolyn, Eric and Abby's house for Taco Night!  Several other neighbors came as well and we celebrated our friend, Han's birthday while we were there.

Noah with Kai - he's so sweet with little ones!

Singing to Han for his birthday (with his kids, Abby and Kai)

Kylie and Abby ended the night watching a Dora on the porch

While we were there, Noah and Cole were playing chase out in the yard and Noah tripped and fell on the concrete patio.  He really did a number on his knee and there was a pretty deep cut there.  Poor thing limped for over a week afterwards - I started getting worried that there could really be something serious but I think he'd just bruised it pretty good on top of the cut.

You can't see the picture, but he drew a picture of himself with a sad face and a boo boo (and he wrote 'boo boo' on it also.)  :-)

If the previous weekend was the weekend of wedding events, this following weekend was the weekend of birthday parties!  First up was Cole's on Saturday morning.

The birthday boy chowing down on his cake.

Noah enjoyed his ice cream...

...and Kylie enjoyed her cupcake.  :-)

Pinata time!

Noah and I went almost straight from that party to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences for his friend, Teja's party.  He had all his buddies from school there and he had a blast.  This is where we are going to have his birthday party this year so it was fun to get a taste of how it's going to be.  Teja's was a dinosaur theme and they did all sorts of fun things.

Digging for dino fossils

Time for some animals - Noah and Brody were excited

Petting a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.  Yuck!  :-)

When the teacher pulled out the snake, all the kids went running - except Noah - he sat there raising his hand and asking if he could touch it first!!  :-)

Petting the snake!

Cake time with Teja  So cute!

Teja and all the BOYS!!!  :-)

When we got home, Waylon took Noah to get a hair cut and I took Kylie down to the pool for a bit.  She was happy to see Abby there and they were so cute walking back together.

That night, our third birthday party of the day - Hans!  We got a girl from school to babysit - sorry, kidsit (Noah insists I call it kidsitting) and went out for dinner and drinks with a big group of neighbors.  It was so much fun!

Han making a speech  :-)

Han and Kristy

On Sunday, one last birthday party and a baby shower!  Waylon took Kylie to a birthday party for her little friend, Emma - I'm bummed I didn't sent a camera with Waylon cause he took her to that one.  It was at another museum, Marbles, and they had a blast from what I hear!  Nana and Grandad came to hang out with Noah and took him to lunch while I went to Cari-Anne's baby shower.  We played some shower games - the best of which was 'Pin the Sperm on the Egg'!!  HAHA!  Too funny.

Last week, another typical week for us.  Last weekend, we had less plans than we had the previous two weekends, which was nice, so we spent a lot of time at the pool.  It's a huge party down there with all our fun neighbors so that's always fun.

Waylon and Daddy playing dinosaurs

Friday night, we ordered pizza at the pool with Carolyn, Eric and Abby.

Taking a break at the pool - I don't get a lot of time to take pictures down there!

Saturday, we spent several hours there in the early afternoon.  When we got home, Kylie took a quick nap on the couch before we took off for a new neighbors' housewarming party.  Good times!

Another break - this time at home!  :-)

On Sunday morning, Waylon hit the grocery store and the kids and I ran a few errands at Target before coming home for silly snuggles and a little nap for me and Kylie!  :-)  We get what we can with her these days.

After rest time, we took off to the pool where Megan, Jason, Ryan, Peyton, Jennie and Sam met us!  It was so fun to have them there with us!  Then we came back to our house and ordered pizza again and played in the back yard.  Such a fun time!

Kylie and 'Baby' Sam!  He's getting so big!!!

This coming weekend, we are off to the lake with a big group - Grammy, Papa, Roz, Duane, Jill, Dan, Max and Winston!  It's going to be so fun!!