Lunchtime Fun

Sometimes it is hard to get Shilah & Serena to eat, especially when they get giggly and try to make each other laugh!

Backyard Visitors

We've had a couple of male deer hanging out around the neighborhood, and recently we found them taking a rest in our backyard...

Daddy's Girls

Shilah & Serena get so excited when Shanti comes home from work, and it is great to see his face light up as well.
Is that a big furry bird in our feeder?

Tire Swing

Shanti made a tire swing for the girls to hang on our play set. Here is a video of them twirling round and round! Afterwards, Shilah & Serena had fun watching My Little Pony & Barbie take a whirl :-)

Invasion of the Lady Bugs!

A couple of weeks ago we had tons of lady bugs all around our yard! Serena & Shilah enjoyed picking them up (we tried to teach Serena not to pinch them). The lady bugs especially liked our yellow slide.

Bear Creek Lake Park

A couple of weeks ago we met Gabe, Andrea, Emory & Baby Lily at Bear Creek Lake Park in Morrison. The kids had a great time playing in the water and running around on the playground!

Dance Camp

Shilah had a GREAT time at dance camp earlier this month, something we bought her with her birthday money! It was so awesome to see her in a more structured environment (besides our dance party livingroom) doing something she loves.
It was also nice that I got to drop Shilah off in the morning for 3 hours, & spend some quality one-on-one time with Serena.
Below are videos of Shilah in action: doing Poms, ballet, & tap (a Pirate routine). She also did some gymnastics. She is our little showgirl!

Serena's Birthday Party!

Yesterday we had a small party at our house to celebrate Serena turning 2! The weather was beautiful, and we had a nice cookout dinner with veggie burgers, corn on the cob, & pasta salad.
I made a chocolate sheet cake & cupcakes. For the recipe, you can visit my recipe blog & look for chocolate-avocado cake (sounds gross, but it's yummy & mostly healthy!)
Our neighbor Karen with Uncle Keith & Aunt Lauren.
The birthday girl eating cake & ice cream
Shilah & Maggie
Mama & Serena
Deb & Alex, Andrea & Lily, Gabe & Emory
Daddy with the birthday girl!
Shilah helping to open presents
Here is a video of everyone singing happy birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Serena!

We're having a small party for her tomorrow... more pics to come soon!

Back in the Swing

Well we are finally back in the swing of things with our Jazzercise, work, play groups, and everything else that keeps us busy! A few updates... we put Serena through "pacifier rehab," and she is now paci-free (it was surprisingly easy). I have tennis elbow (a sort of tendonitis), so I have been doing a lot of icing, using ointment, & doing strength training with no weights to see if my elbow will heal in a couple of weeks. Shilah had a great time at Dance Camp (pictures to come soon). Here are some more pictures from 4th of July that show some good bonding between Shilah & Serena (and Westy, who seems to be getting bigger & bigger each day).

Fourth of July

On July 4th we met Gabe, Andrea, Emory & Lily at Indian Hills (a small town down the mountain from us) . Unfortunately it rained much of the time and was pretty cold, but we had the van and a tarp to give us some shelter. We stayed for most of the fireworks... Serena was a little scared, but that was mostly because she was so tired.




Baby Lily is just so small & cute! Too bad they don't stay this size :-)

Back in Shutesbury

We ended our trip back in Shutesbury where Grandma Evie, Aunt Tamara, & Cheyenne live. This is a small town outside of Amherst, Mass. The cousins had so much fun bonding together!

Grandma Evie doing some intense reading.
Get on the Shanti train!
We had a lot of fun at a local park that had water fountains, playgrounds, a mini zoo, and a train ride. Thank you to all our family & friends for an awesome trip!

Grandpa's Farm

We got to visit Grandpa Ed and Tita Georgette a couple of times! The first time was pretty rainy, and the girls had fun splashing in the puddles.

"The Farm" is in Framingham, Massachusetts (about an hour and a half from Shanti's mom). Shilah enjoyed the cows, and Serena LOVED them! She kept saying, "More cows!"

Shilah got to pet a newborn cow, which was really neat!


Shilah helped Georgette prepare bottles to feed the cows.
We also visited Aunt Claire at the nearby farm she works at for the summer.