piper's birthday

piper

july 21, 2011

one year old

our little girl turned one year old!

fuzzy pillows do not taste very good.

even when you're one.

she loves the bathroom so much.

she'd play in there all day if i let her.

on piper's actual birthday, the big time one-year-old got to wear a sweet little cake shirt from aunt leslie, which was paired with a pink paper crown at school.  piper ripped her crown on the way home, but kept wearing it anyway.  patrick was out of town, so after daycare, just the two of us went to the park.  it might have been the hottest day of the year. my friend from work meg met us, and instead of having a picnic like we planned, we opted for an air conditioned dinner at a restauarant called feast. but piper decided she wanted to wait for her dada to do any cake.

we planned piper's party about two weeks after her actual birthday, to allow us time to recover from jet lag (i will eventually post about our amazing summer vacation), unpack, and get back into a normal schedule.  it worked out perfectly.  here is the photo album, if you didn't catch it on facebook. we had so much fun and were so happy that so many of our friends could come over and help celebrate with us! 

Piper's First Birthday Party (link)

we can't believe how lucky we are to have such a wonderful little girl in our lives every day!

june farmers' markets

i can't believe how quickly the summer is flying by! i swear june was just yesterday, back when the peonies were in full bloom and we hadn't yet gotten a taste of the real summer fruits.  weeks later, we've been across the ocean and back, we've each turned another year older, we've had a baby turn into a toddler, and we've fallen behind on ye olde blog.  here's to hoping everyone is enjoying summer as much as we are! 

the rest of father's day weekend

we played by the FREEZING water.
it was muggy & humid, but the water was way too cold to be of any relieft.

dinner was amazing!
i feel like anything i could eat off of this awesome table would be all that much more fantastic, but this was really good food!  plus, tara brought homemade s'mores cupcakes for dessert. perfection!

patrick made everyone sing into his iphone app.

and, everyone hated singing into his iphone app.

the kids kept us busy ...

but at least braeden and piper played together well!

... and ...

we ended the mini-getaway with brunch at a wonderful spot across the border in michigan.

we definitely got a couple (a "couple") treats for the drive home!

thank you to the clarks for inviting us!

father's day weekend ... continued

the beach house!

get this!! no two houses are allowed to be the same color!

and pretty much every family gets around in a little golf cart. 

 "keep ... out of my beach community!"

- malibu cops in the big lebowksi

so if you walk (or golf card) up the street ...

and head down a wooden path ...

then over a sand dune ...

... you get to the beach!

the neighborhood has a great swimming beach with a beautiful expansive view. 
i wish we could come here every weekend!

father's day weekend in the midwest

we got the BEST invitation from my brunch club friend, colleen. she invited us to stay with her, her husband, and baby boy in michigan city, indiana over father's day weekend. umm, yes, of course we'll come bbq with you in a vacation home next to lake michigan, are you kidding??!

but we had no idea that we would be staying in SUCH an adorable home, in such a darling little vacation community!!

***

before heading out, we picked up some pies from hoosier mama pie co (saaaay it!!) for the bbq. the shop is teeny tiny, cute and vintage-y (tip for locals and visitors: on friday nights they stay open late and offer pie flights!) and is just about two miles from our house. i ran over in the morning knowing it opened at 9am. my plan was to run on over there and just walk home with the pies. surprise #1 was the long line that greeted me 10 minutes before the store even opened. surprise #2 was that the two pies i bought were way too big and cumbersome to carry home in the 85 degree morning heat. surprise #3 was the number of people on the buses at 9am on a saturday morning.

***

beachy! beachy!

more photos to come in the next post!