Playgroup at the Beach





Some parents who had been in our agency's waiting families group decided to start a playgroup after they came home. I have only been able to go one other time because they're during the week and, during the school year, I am teaching. The playgroup meets twice a month and with summer being such a busy time, I wasn't able to make the earlier ones this summer. But, I did get to go yesterday and instead of being at the adoption agency, it was held on the beach in Hull. One of the members has a summer place there so we met at her house, went to the beach, and then washed off in her outdoor shower and put on clean clothes which was very nice. One of the parts I hate about going to the beach is sitting in the car wet and sandy. Mike was off so he came as well. Jason missed it since he's still at camp but hopefully we'll be able to go to at least one of the ones in August which will also be at the beach. Jess liked the ocean at first but then decided she liked playing on the sand better. There were a lot of waves and I got hit a couple of times by some big ones.



Can't forget the sunscreen!














Daddy and Jess on the way to the water













Jumping in the waves











Taking off with someone's sand toys

I bet she never cries...

Jess has a stubborn streak just like her brother. She is normally a very happy little girl...but deny her something she has decided she wants and watch out!

In this pic she was mad because I'd denied her access either to my cellphone or my keys - can't remember which. Both have narrowly escaped being part of Jess's cat waterbowl experiments. Mike thinks I was mean for taking this picture. She wasn't hurt and she wasn't scared, simply throwing a typical 2 year old tantrum. I figure I can look back on it in the teenage years when I'm dealing with curfews, dating, driving, etc. Even crying, she is awful cute isn't she?

Speaking of cute, Jess came into the computer room when I was finishing typing a reply on a messageboard. She wanted me to pick her up so I did and sat her on my lap. She started waving and saying hi. It took me a minute but then I saw that one of the posts on the forum had a waving smilie and Jess was talking to it. So cute!!

The Big 4-0

On Tuesday, I turned 40. It wasn't quite the way I'd expected to spend it since for the past few years a friend and I had planned on going to a spa for the big day but even the best laid plans can go awry so no spa. It was a little sad having Jason away at camp but it was wonderful having Jess home this year. My mom and niece came down on Monday and we went out for a very nice dinner - filet mignon and creme brulee - yum!!! On Tuesday, I got to sleep in while Mike went out to buy my present. My mom, niece and I went to visit the Priscilla Alden museum in Duxbury and then went to French Memories bakery for some awesome pastry. We swam at the hotel my mom and niece were staying at and then went to Bertuccis for dinner. Jess loved the pool. I bought her a floaty so she could bounce around in the water. She also loved sitting on the edge holding my hands and plopping into the pool. She got a couple mouthfuls of water but that didn't sotp her! When we went out to dinner on Monday, I put a dress and shoes on Jess that I'd bought in China. I bought a larger size than she was wearing thinking it'd fit next year. Good thing I put it on her because I don't know that she'll be wearing it again - it's already getting too small. The shoes are definitely too small to wear again. She's really getting big!!

Dress she wore for my birthday dinner.

Ready for the pool

Loving the water

Scrapbooking Weekend - SDV - Updated with pics

What an awesome event. I'll post pictures tomorrow of some of the pages I did. This is my second SDV (scrapbookers dream vacation). It's a huge scrapbooking crop held in different cities across the country. The one I went to was in Burlington, MA - somewhat close to home. I went alone so I didn't know the people I was sitting with but they were very friendly and fun to talk to. I knew some people at a different table so I had lunch and dinner with them and caught up on what's going on. Thursday night I'd gone to a jewelry party at a coworkers house and had to pack up when I got home at 9. At midnight when I was bringing everything out to the car, Jack got out. I was going crazy trying to get the little bugger back in without making too much noise. I went to bed worrying about him; when Jess woke me up at 2:30, I took her and went downstairs. As soon as I opened the door, he came flying in. Guess it got a little colder than he expected in the middle of the night! It was back to bed until 7 and I was on the road by 7:30. Thankfully rush hour traffic was really light and I made it to Burlington by 9 in time to check in. I got about 16 pages done over the weekend including journaling which was pretty good. I stayed at the hotel (Marriott) Friday night. It was nice having the room to go to when I felt like taking a break. I scrapped until 9, went to the room to watch Monk, and then returned to scrapping until 12:30. Sleeping in Saturday morning was HEAVENLY. I took a leisurely shower, went to Panera's for a bagel and ice tea and got back to scrapping. Even though I didn't plan on staying at the crop on Sunday, I wished I'd had the hotel room until Sunday morning. I didn't want to leave Saturday night as I was on a roll but I knew I'd be sorry if I waited until I was really tired since I had such a long drive. Next year I'm staying 2 nights. I left at 10:30 and got home around 11:45. Pre-registration will be opening soon for next year so I'll be watching for it

I am so not a sports fan but if I'm going to root for anyone, it has to be the home team! The other day Mike's brother's family was over and the youngest had on this same outfit. I thought it was adorable. I had a very hectic, stressful afternoon today and before leaving the mall where I was supposed to have met my mom for lunch (long story), Jason, Jess and I stopped at Macy's to use the bathroom which just happened to be in the kids' section. They had the Red Sox outfit for 50% off so I grabbed it up. When we got home, Jess and I played dress up and I got a pic of her in her new outfit. Don't ask how many tries it took before I got a pic of her actually looking at me!

Catching up with Pictures

I haven't had a chance to upload many pics here lately so I'm making up for it.

Here's Jason helping Jess at Gymboree. Mike was working to Jason had to come along to her session.











Jess on the rocks at Stephens Field











Jess's favorite part of Gymboree - bubbles!!! Their bubbles are great because they don't pop right away.











Jess climbing on the boat at Gymboree. She sticks her tongue out when she's concentrating just like Jason does.











It was really hot and we had a sudden rainstorm. We went out and played in the rain and then gave Jess's wet hair a new hairdo. It's hard to see in the pic but my little girl's sporting a mohawk. Of course, as soon as it dried, it came right down.

Jess was very quiet while I was talking in the other room with Jason. That's always a clue that she's up to something. This time she was climbing into the cat carrier. Thank God there was no cat in it at the time; they like to sleep in it and I don't think that would have stopped her. At one point, she was holding herself up on her hands and swinging her feet back and forth inside. You'd never know this child tested delayed for gross motor just a few months ago.

Playing in the rain with Jason