a little catch up

These past several weeks have been such a whirlwind that it's difficult to know where to begin. With Granka and Grandma Penny home, Steve's annual fastasy football draft weekend away, hair disasters, Granka's bday, my bday, Penny's bday and room re-designs - I haven't taken the time to document many of our "goings-on" as of late. So here will be the short version.

Anna and dance - you requested some pictures...here are a few of the little girls in their leotards enjoying dance class!

Granka and the little ones go to the zoo...we had a wonderful day with Granka at the zoo during his visit. We were able to see animals, enjoy lunch together and enjoy an absolutely gorgeous late summer day.

Birthdays! In addition to celebrating Granka's birthday early in his visit, we also celebrated my 25th birthday (ahem...). It was a wonderful day - while Steve was unfortunately out of town, I was spoiled by my family as my mom took me to coffee in the morning (and had Anna overnight the night before so I could enjoy a morning sleeping in), my dad took me to lunch and then my dad and Penny took the kids so I could get my hair disaster fixed. My dear husband surprised me with beautiful flowers and came home with a delicious chocolate cupcake in hand. It was a great day! And then we also celebrated Penny's 60th birthday with family and friends! It was a wonderful party hosted by my dad and Penny's daughters-in-law (and their families).

Party at the lake - we enjoyed a wonderful party at my aunt and uncle's home on the lake along with all of my cousins and their adorable kids. Despite the rain in the late afternoon, we (and the kids) managed to have a great time!

A room redesign. For Anna's birthday (which is quickly approaching) we had planned to re-design her room to equip her through the next several stages of her life. Namely, she needed a real-sized bed, a dresser, and places for her toys to go before her brother begins crawling. The furniture was delivered while Anna was away and I spent the day reconfiguring things, and assembling a doll house shelf to make the room her own. She was so overjoyed to see her SURPRISE when she came home and she still can't get over the novelty of her "big" bed and all of the little things that moved around. I still have work to do on getting the walls adorned, but that will come in the weeks ahead.

And now we say goodbye once again to Granka and Grandma Penny as they return to France...Steve and I will see them this fall again when we travel to Paris (whoo hoo!), but they will likely not be home again until January...and then shortly thereafter will be home for good (well, we think anyway). As always, we enjoyed every moment spent together and they will be missed!

Phew, it's been a crazy few weeks...a few more like this and then preschool starts! YIKES!