The Water is Wide

The week that started with Lily's ballet recital ended with a long weekend at the lake. Not much special happened In between but a special Wednesday tennis lesson so we will jump to a summary of the weekend's activity.

We headed down the lake on Thursday night and spent 3 and half full days enjoying the water and weather. Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom were great hosts as always and kept us all very busy with different activity options and fully fed! Lily had a great time and made a new friend with a next door neighbor and over time she became more and more comfortable in the water. She had a great time riding the Sea Doo and commanded for her drivers to go faster! By Sunday she was ready to be pulled around on tubes and was swimming around the dock area by herself (with a life jacket on).

Jack also had a great time - he loved riding the pontoon boat and would sit at the front and take in the whole scene. He also enjoyed riding the Sea Doo and had fun splashing around in the water and the sandbox.

Pictures and video below ... have a great week.


Getting acclimated.


Swimming around.


Ready for a ride.




Crouching and a little lippy.


Pontooning with a little lippy.


Taking in the scene.


...


Relaxing.


Hotdogging.


Riding the matrix tube.

Family Snapshot

Friday, Mom, Lily and Jack went on a bike ride/walk to the creek and playground, and then got in some play in the backyard on the swingset, sandbox, and water/sand table. Jack is now ascending the steps on his own, and is so proud when he reaches the top. After Lily and Jack took a long afternoon bath, we went to dinner with Grandpa Maurice and Grandma Phyllis, and the kids managed to get buttered noodles all over them! Fortunately, most of the butter was cut out of Jack's hair Saturday morning at the barbershop.

On Saturday, Bubbie, Aunt Donna and Uncle Stephen arrive from Montreal - the kids had fun playing and swimming in the hotel pool - Lily is now swimming for a few seconds underwater, we anticipate her swimming the length of the pool by August! Lily also spent a night at the hotel with Donna and Stephen, where she managed to stay up until 11pm (!) - she is currently in the process of catching up on some zzzzs. ;)

The crew was able to attend Lily's ballet recital this morning before heading back to Montreal. Lily performed beautifully, including dancing to the theme of Aladdin. Jack was mezmerized by the music and dancing.

On the development front, Jack's language is exploding - "All done!" "Thank you" "More" "Milk" "Bye Bye" "Baby Beluga" "car" "truck" "ball" and much more.

We want to thank Grandpa Maurice for hanging with Jack for a few hours on Thursday due to the nanny being sick - Jack had a great time!

Also, Jack and Lily want to wish Grandpa Maurice and Grandma Phyllis a happy anniversary this week.


A cute photo taken by Lily.


Jack and a duck.


Relaxing in the backyard.


Jack imitating a dinosaur.


Tickling Lily.


Admiring his fancy new quilt made by Aunt Donna.


Playing with Uncle Stephen.


The pumpkin patch polka. Lil is on the left.


Somewhere over the rainbow.


A whole new world.


After the recital with Aunt Donna.

Keep on Running

Thursday: celebrated Grandma Gail's birthday with chocolate cake for Mom and key lime cheesecake for Grandma and M&Ms for Lily and Jack

Friday: The fam went to the Orioles game. Lily was terrified of and then loved the Oriole bird from a distance, we are making progress, may be able to visit Disney World in a few years. ;) Jack, at his first baeball game, was mezmerized by everything in the stadium, sensory overload - stayed put in Mom's lap for three innings just looking around, by end of game was dancing in the aisle.

Saturday: Long bike ride/walk to the playground/creek

Sunday: Mom ran a 5K, and Lily ran a 200 meter kids dash - Lily's comment at the end "My race was really short." Later in the day, Lily held several caterpillars in her hands, making progress on the bug front too, she has announced that she wants to be a scientist when she grows up.

Overall it was a lovely, low key birthday/mother's day weekend! Enjoy the pics!


Celebrating the birthdays.


At the game.


...


The whole family.


The little troublemaker.


A little dinner.


Lil is turning into quite the little photog ... this is one of hers.


Ready for her run.


A little hockey.


Running ...


With her ribbon.


The two runners.


Tandem sliding.

No Cars Go

A busy week here is in the books. Lily started off the week with a concert at school. See video below. She had a busy week playing with friends, Jack and Ivan who visited.

Jack is doing well. He finished his latest run of antibiotics - this for the bout of strep two weeks ago. His vocabulary is expanding regularly and he seems to have "up" - "down", "night night", "bye" and more.

On Friday, Lily and Jack played with friends and visited a neighborhood school that had various work cars and trucks visiting. We had a busy weekend here as Marcy had another race - this time a half marathon which she did great in - which was fit in around new shoe shopping, trips to the pool, and plenty of time outside to splash in the puddle from a rainy couple of days.

That is all for now. Lots of plans for this week as we have a baseball game and a couple of birthdays - both Marcy's and Grandma Gail's - Happy Birthday! See you next week.


Lily is in the back row.


A couple of convicts.


Jack checking out the ambulance.


With Ivan at the Creek.


Looking for fish.


Hanging around.


Eating with a fork.


Jack.

Funny Faces

Well the week started out with Jack and some swollen lymph nodes resulting in a stiff neck - the last thing we wanted to see based on the bacterial meningitis bout just over a month earlier. Fortunately, per the doctor is it is just a bout of strep throat and he was pretty much fine by Wednesday and is finishing up his course of antibiotics. Because of his illness Jack got to hang out at home with Mom on Wednesday, and on Friday Lily decided to go to school so Mom and Jack hung out at home, and went for a walk to the creek - Jack loves to throw rocks and dirt into the creek and overall get dirty! Late afternoon Friday, we took another stroll/bike ride

On Saturday, Lily had her swim lessons, and we spent some time outside playing although we tried to stay in the shade because we are in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures in the 90's! Later in the day we visited with and dined with Ms. Michelle, Mr. John, Hayley and Cole. On Sunday, Lily had fun at tennis lessons, and later Jack and Lily played in the backyard which included time on the swingset and in the sandbox and water/sand table. We got a preview for the summer as Jack proceeded to soak himself with sand and water! Sunday evening Granpa Maurice and Grandma Phyllis came over for a barbeque.

On Monday, Lily went to school and prepared for the Parent Breakfast/Music Presentation being held tomorrow and for her ballet recital in a few weeks. Late Monday afternoon, we got a special visit from Great Uncle Stephen who is in town just for the night, Lily and Jack had a great time with him.

Lily and Jack want to send special birthday wishes to Aunt Tracy who celebrates her birthday on Wednesday, and cousin Casey who turns 1 on Friday!

** We seemed to have some camera issues this week ... here is the best of the lot.

Jack lounging at tennis - like I said, camera difficulties.


Jack trying to drown himself in the water sand table.


A game of UNO with Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Maurice.


Getting a push.


Riding the slide.


Jack dressed for a safari ... just missing a pith hat.


Lily and Jack with Uncle Stephen.