The Davis Family: Summer Fun

We have been busy enjoying our new neighborhood and all of its amenities, as well as hanging out with our neighborhood pals. Last weekend started with Jay's birthday on Friday. Emma and I headed to the pool during the day with friends. (Our neighborhood has I think 9 pools and we are very excited for all of the summer hours to begin. We will then be able to enjoy bigger pools with splash pads etc during the week.) I cooked dinner per Jay's request for when he got home from work and then we headed out to the driveway to let Emma enjoy the outdoors and her Cozy Coupe. We had an impromptu gathering of neighborhood friends and Emma's friends. They played outside for a while before calling it a night. Saturday we had a 5 year old birthday party to go to just down the road. It was a nice (and hot) outdoor barbeque with lots of water toys set up for the kiddos to enjoy, along with a pinata and lots of sugar in the form of cookies and cake (of which Emma had her fair share.) We had a great time at the birthday party and were all exhausted by the end of the day. Sunday was a relaxing day and we went to our friends to enjoy pizza for dinner so that the kids could play on their new backyard playset. Emma had a great time as usual (despite falling off from the ladder that leads to the slide) and loves her friends. She wakes up every morning asking for Avery "Avy" and "Lexie."

I have been busy tidying up the house and trying to accomplish some last minute things before returning to work June 7th :(. I have organized all of Emma's old clothes into nice, size labeled bins. I have also washed all of the 0-6 month clothes, and yes, even IRONED the pretty dresses in preparation for baby #2. (Very rarely do I pull the iron out. Some of the dresses are so cute though, and look so much more ready for a new baby to arrive when they are freshly ironed.) I have also researched, and researched some more, for new big girl furniture for Emma, since baby #2 will be getting Emma's current furniture. I placed the order today and will be very excited to get both girl rooms set up for new baby's arrival. I have also managed to weasel Emma into my Mother's Day Out program of choice for the fall. She will go 2 days/week and it will be a good opportunity for her to get out of the house (with having a new baby sister around she will need it) and interact with kiddos her own age. I have heard nothing but rave reviews from where she will be going, so hopefully it will provide a good educational opportunity for her too. Lastly, I just made some homemade jam this week. My mom and grandma always make homemade jam and usually Jay and I steal a few jars and bring them home on the plane with us. We ran out a while ago and I decided it was time for me to do it since it tastes so much better than store bought and ends up being much cheaper. I made strawberry and it turned out really good. Jay and I both really like the raspberry so once I find some decent raspberry's I will also make that kind. YUM!

Last weekend we also bought a bike seat to attach to Jay's bike so that he can take Emma for rides around the neighborhood. We don't have it set up yet, but we also bought her a helmet for when she goes for her bike rides. She absolutely loves the helmet and wants to wear it in the house all the time. She constantly asks for "Emma's hat?" You can see in some of the pictures below that Emma's hat and sunglasses have made it through a couple meal times! She has been doing very good in her big girl bed. She falls right to sleep at night and has only fallen out of the bed a couple times. Both times we found her on the floor (after a thud) and she was sleeping - she didn't even cry!! Occasionally she tries to get out at naptime and play in her room. The instant that she sees us she starts crying and runs and jumps into the bed! We don't even have to yell at her - she knows that she is supposed to stay in the big girl bed.

Her vocabulary continues to expand daily. She has recently learned shower "sha sha" and blueberry "bewbewwy", of which she asks for constantly. We ran out of them yesterday and I have had to say a thousand times "Blueberries are all gone. Emma ate all the blueberries." Guess I need to make a run to the store. Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend. We don't have too many plans - relax, maybe organize the garage (although I know that is NOT on Jay's to-do list) and hopefully have a barbeque or two! Also, since my last post I need to welcome two new babies to my family. My brother in law and sister in law had a baby girl named Sydney Anne and my cousin and his wife had a baby boy named Owen William. Both babies and their mommies are happy and healthy and we are extremely excited to meet both of them!! Congrats!

Emma with the remnants of her PBJ