Wellie!

We arrived in Pennsylvania on Saturday afternoon to visit our beloved Wellie.

We started with some hide and seek.  

Then the squeezes started.  

Look at how tiny she is! 

Trinity's cousin Dina colored with Genevieve.  

 Aunt Rose, Uncle Paul and Dina joined us for traditional Cuban food.  

We were up bright and early Sunday to feed the birds.  

We went to the park.  

The entire family went to see the Horseshoe Curve, where you can see the trains pass in a perfect curve.  We did this last time with G too.  

She was jazzed for a nap.  

We returned for manicures and dinner on Sunday evening.  I used Anna and Elsa Frozen nail polish.  Do not buy that.

I had to paint 4 tiny hands two times and by the end of dinner, all of the color had basically slid off of their digits!  

Aunt Rose, Uncle Paul and Dina made Italian food for night number two.  It was fabulous.

More bird feeding.  

We said our tearful goodbyes.  We are blessed to have such wonderful family.  

We went to see Abby and Papi!

We drove down to see Abby and Papi last weekend for a late Mother's Day celebration.

We stopped at Frisch's Big Boy for lunch!

Bob loves their tartar sauce.

We even called him and asked if he wanted some, but he said he had just gotten some the week before.

Hilarious.

We brought Abby her gifts. 

Genevieve ran around on the golf course where Abby and Papi live.  

It was green.

Let's pretend she's in Ireland.  

I decided to torture myself again on Sunday morning at an 8 a.m. Pure Barre class.

All of that tucking and lifting is no joke.

I once again received a lot of personal instruction on tucking and lifting, since my pelvis, rear and brain don't know the difference.  

We went to a local orchard and had such fun.

Abby and G had homemade strawberry ice cream.  

Then Genevieve and I hit the fields to pick our own strawberries. 

I had a serious taste tester.  

We took a family ride on the Casey Jones Express.

They plywood train cars were pulled behind a lawn mower disguised as an engine.

Genevieve's excitement was out of control!  

 I will include the petting zoo pictures on my next post.

I learned my child who watches Peter Rabbit every day is terrified to touch a fluffy bunny.

To my knowledge, she has not seen Fatal Attraction.  

Thanks for the great weekend, Abby and Papi.

Papi was there, I promise.  He was just the man behind the camera.  

Life Lately

I hosted my first book club last Tuesday.  It was with my friends from my MOMS group at church.  We read a book about friendship called, Nobody's Cuter Than You by Melanie Shankle.

It was such a good book and I've already read her two other memoirs about marriage and parenting.  They are so funny.

I had cake pops made for the event, and my friend Stephanie outdid herself by recreating the book cover in cake!

We all told stories from college about our friendships.  I shared one of my favorites about my dear pal, Nicole, who took care of me when I had Mono the summer before our senior year at IU.

I had a class that I couldn't miss and was only offered in the summer.  She would drag me out of bed, make sure I showered, drop me off and pick me up at the education building, then put me back in bed and come back in the next morning and do it all over again.  What a friend!

Speaking of cake, Teacher Appreciation Week was last week.  Since I don't have a classroom, no darling children bring me stuff.  Our PTA created this fabulous spread of cupcakes, and that was enough for me.  Laying on the table in the middle of the front office just seemed appropriate at the time, you know?  

 Saturday  G and T had some playtime.  

We met Jenny, Margo, and Rosie at the Children's Museum.  The big girls rode horses, while Rosie chose a nice sedentary bench.  

G's climbing skills have improved like crazy!  She made it all the way up to the sailboat.  

Jenny pushed them on this stroller/standing/sitting device.  She had to take over, I couldn't do it.  It was hard to push and unwieldy.  I felt like the pimply faced teenager at Kroger trying to corral shopping carts in the parking lot.  

On the way home we stopped at Natural Born Juicers, my new favorite hangout.  I had Mango de Mayo, and G had strawberries, bananas, almond milk and a little honey.  

Mother's Day was lovely.

I got the best smelling candle in the history of all candles.  I had to set up this shot to show the beautiful packaging.  I'm so glad I got the dish scrub brush in the corner.  That adds a nice touch to the photo.    I'm thrilled we are getting a Tory Burch in Indy.  Have I mentioned that?  

G was not into eye contact with the camera.  

This is as good as it gets!  

After mass and naps, we drove to Robeghan's to celebrate my own mother, YaYa.  Genevieve still refuses to believe that YaYa is my mother.  It's like she can't get her little head around the idea!  

We stood in the sun, sweated and squinted.

Dad was so glad to take the picture.

It has been a busy week!