This weekend we got to see Erin and Dan to celebrate James' first birthday! They were in town to visit the Blairs, and we crashed the party a little bit (actually Maggie did most of the crashing... she kept taking all of James' new toys).
I'm here, let's start the party
He looks so thoughtful and calm,
I think he will be a professor!
Here, I'll show you how to play with ALL of this
Sunday we went to the playground after church. The school only has big-kid swings, so we decided to let Maggie sit in one. She did a great job holding on, and we were able to swing like normal. Stop growing up, Maggie!
Somewhere along the way, I think Maggie learned that you have to say "wheee" in order to continue swinging:
Sunday night we celebrated Cuz's birthday! We had a lovely dinner with her and Brian, finished with some birthday brownies! Maggie had fun helping with the candles!
Fire!
Daddy took some photos of Maggie at the park:
Can you guess what she's saying?
You look weird, Daddy
I shall mount this!
Having a dance with her leading man
Maggie is turning into her cousin
Luke - no pants preferred!
A bunch of my Harmonette friends from college
got together this weekend for Bonde’s Bachelorette Party!
Bonde Boo's getting married!
One of the girls let us use her family cottage
on Lake Michigan to celebrate all weekend.
I’ve really been looking forward to it, though I expected a tiny little
cottage, sleeping on the floor, pizza and chips all weekend and lots of
exhaustion. Instead I got to stay at an
AMAZING “cottage” (more like a new, modern, beautiful
house), a super comfy bed, lots of homemade gourmet cooking, and a ton of girl
time! (clearly I’ve been hanging out
with too many guy friends and forgot how lovely it is when just girls get
together)
A mimosa bar for Saturday morning - I love girls
I feel a little guilty saying this, but it was really nice
to get away from being a mom for a weekend. Of course I missed my little girl, but a
couple days with no nap/food schedule or tantrums was pretty great!
I came home Sunday afternoon as Maggie was waking up from
her nap. When she saw me in her doorway,
she did this little gasp and then started saying “Mama” over and over
again! She gave me the biggest hug when
I picked her up and didn’t want to let go… I basically melted.
I don’t have a ton of Maggie photos this week,
I'll try to do better next week!
Watching a movie. On the toilet. With a broom.
Don't ask.
Maggie really loves to sing songs with us, but she has a hard time with all the phrases. She pretty much mumbles along, and then sings the last word in each sentence really loud to make up for the other words. Here's our version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:
Maggie had another dose of football this weekend. We went to the Bishop Foley game on Friday night and then Jamie took her to see cousin Ryan's football game on Saturday afternoon. She loved snuggling under the blanket with Daddy, eating raisins and watching some football.
I'm going to lift these bleachers by myself!
Working hard to climb all the bleachers
The game is the other way, sweetie
Maggie was in desperate need of some fall clothes, so I had some fun shopping this weekend. We have a great resale shop in Royal Oak, where I got some great stuff. I love this little outfit (Ralph Lauren top, Guess jeans and fashion boots - $13!), so I grabbed some photos during our outside play:
Welcome to the secret garden... where the grass is rarely mown
Frolic!
Insert another hint to my husband to cut the grass here
Taking a stroll around the block
This seat is just for me!
Seriously, this kid has so much joy
We've completely entered into the picky-eater phase - so frustrating! She will happily eat fruit, crackers, eggs, yogurt, pasta and dry cereal... it's hard to get her to eat ANY vegetables except green beans, and she has little interest in most meats. It's not terrible, but I miss my little adventurous eater! She also loves all sweet things, which she refers to as "cake."
This weekend Maggie got a chance to hang out in the "D" for a Ben's Encore event. The "Back to School" concert at the Hard Rock was Saturday, and so I took Maggie for a couple hours to make instruments (egg shakers), play the percussion wall, and watch some young kids rock out!
I'm a roadie, just helping Daddy
load the drums
Making as much noise as possible!
Sunday we celebrated my Dad's 69th birthday in total style... at Chuck E. Cheese! That's how all 69-year-olds roll, right? It was a fun time, Luke and Maggie really seemed to enjoy themselves!
Maggie would not take her sunglasses
off half the time! She also wore them
all throughout church.
Singing Happy Birthday!
Helping Daddy shoot some hoops
Here Pops, I'll show you how this works
The merry-go-round was Maggie's
favorite ride of all!
I had a great time hanging out with Luke and holding little Claire. Luke was so cute during the birthday song - he just stared intently the whole time, waiting for someone to say the word "blow." As soon as he heard the magic word, he blew out those candles before Pops could get near 'em! We re-lit them so Maggie and Luke could both blow them out again - perhaps the highlight of their day!
Here's Maggie getting ready for cheerleader tryouts:
We had ourselves a nice little weekend together. Three-day weekends are the best!
Friday after work we went to the park with Maggie and then walked to a nearby grocery store to pick up some items for dinner. I grabbed a container of watermelon for the walk home because Maggie was getting hungry. Needless to say, she was a hot mess when we got home - sticky hands and face, but very happy.
This is the life!
Saturday we went to Grandma and Grandpa's to go swimming and have dinner. Maggie loves being in the water and likes to "dunk" Daddy by tapping his head to make him go underwater.
Eat ya heart out!
Here's Grandma (who has the energy of a teenager) giving Maggie a piggy back ride around the house:
Giddy-up, Grandma!
We decided to let Maggie watch her first Disney movies this weekend. We started with Aladdin at Grandma and Grandpa's, but it was getting late and Maggie wasn't super into it. Today we tried Tarzan, and she really enjoyed it. She doesn't have the attention span for an entire movie, so every 20 minutes or so she would run to the back room to play with her chalkboard, and then come back and snuggle.
First taste of popcorn!
We've had some fun visiting with cousin Will lately. Maggie gets pretty jealous when we hold him, but I think it's more because she wants to hold the baby, rather than being jealous of our affection. She likes to help with bottle time too.
Let me help, Grandma
Just hanging with my cuz
Trying to give him a pacifier
We also let Maggie experiment with paint for the first time today. She really enjoyed herself, and was very careful not to get paint everywhere. I was pretty impressed!
Please stop disturbing this important work
Grammer watched Maggie a couple weeks ago, and was sweeping our driveway after the big storm (because she's an awesome mom like that). According to my mom, she actually accomplished very little because Maggie wanted total control of the broom. This week we got a big surprise in the mail - a kit with a mop, broom, duster and sweeper thingy! Maggie has been "cleaning" a lot this week, though she likes to use the hand-held sweeper to try and brush my hair...
This is my mop.
Shoot, gotta keep on keeping on
Maggie is completely obsessed with me for the time being, and I'm eating it up! She's normally such a daddy's girl, but she pretty much wants nothing to do with him if I'm around. I know it's just a phase, but I think Jamie is starting to get a little annoyed!
