Tennis time!

Now that we have finally gotten away from the 95+ degree weather, we can head back outdoors for some summer fun. We decided to get out the tennis racquets for the first time this season.

Ball girl

Getting a feel for the racquet again

So happy to be back on the courts!

What better way to cool off from some tennis action than the "sprayground" at the park!

Of course, we can't miss the actual playground. Look at those long legs go!

Weekend pics

We had a great weekend from start to finish. On Friday night, we had fresh steamed crabs at home courtesy of Carl's mom (a birthday present that we just redeemed). As a bonus, Lily fell asleep early, giving us a date night at home. We ordered a movie on tv and got to spend a whole two hours together completely uninterrupted! On Saturday morning, we made a family outing to the zoo.

Lily walking with a peacock.

A macaw making a break for it.


We then had some down time at home before Carl & I went to dinner and a play while Lily had a playdate and sleepover with her Aunt Ingrid. Thanks Ingrid!!

Lily checking out the flowers at home.

Two happy campers


On Sunday night, I had my THIRD night in a row of adult-only company. We had two friends in from out of town so we headed out to The Hill for fun conversation over great Italian food.

High school buds: Molly, Janie, Kelly, Kathryn, Nicky and Connie.

And to top it all off, it's a four-day work week for Carl. Awesome!

A day with cousins

We had yet another scorcher yesterday. We were able to stay cool in my mom's community pool and spend a fun day with Lily's cousins: Courtney, Nick and Abby.

Lily and Courtney going down the lazy river together. Lily has grown so much over the last year that she can now actually touch the bottom with her head above water in the 3 ft. pools. It was so weird to see! I can't believe how much she has changed into a full-fledged "kid". Lily starts swimming lessons in three weeks, and it is not a mommy-and-me class. She will actually go with the instructor on her own. Amazing! Speaking of getting older, Courtney will officially be a teenager tomorrow. Happy 13th, Courtney!!!

Abby and Nick in the lazy river

After swimming and some pizza and cupcakes back at Grandma's, we ventured out to the organic farm down the street. They had lots of baby animals including donkeys, piglets, calves, lambs, and chicks.

Beating the heat

With this ridiculous heat lately, we were very fortunate to have two playdates involving swimming last week.

Ready to kick it poolside

On Thursday, we had a WUMCHA event at community pool.

On Friday, we went to a friend's house for some more pool fun. Thanks to Molly for sending me this picture. For some reason, I just haven't been in the mood to take pictures lately. We had a really great Father's Day cook-out with my extended family yesterday, and I failed to get one picture of the day. Sometimes I guess I'd rather purely relax and enjoy than worry about documenting the day. :)

Fun learning at home

Lily and I are back together again after deciding to make a more permanent commitment to a stay-at-home status for me. I originally thought that I would structure our days a bit like school and have weekly themes, etc. But, I felt that it was too limiting and just not practical at home. So instead, I just plan various educational activities for the week and try to follow Lily's interests. Also, we are managing to get in a lot of summer fun despite the oppressive heat wave currently in effect until Wednesday. Enough of the 100+ heat index already!


This was a math activity in which Lily had to find and identify the hidden numbers in the shaving cream. As you can see, Lily got really into the shaving cream. Good thing it is such an easy clean up!

We had several activities which involved fruits and vegetables. After categorizing some produce at home, Lily did a blindfolded taste test in which she had to try to identify fruit first by touch and then by taste. It was fun, and she did a great job!

Katie's third birthday

Over the weekend, we made a quick trip to St. Joe to celebrate my niece's 3rd birthday. Lily had so much fun playing with the girls, and we can't wait to go back later this summer to visit again!

The birthday girl at her pool party

My sister got these great water-shooters as party favors. All the kids (and my mom) had fun playing with these.



Lily enjoying the water - the weather was a little cool that day, but it didn't stop the kids from having a great time!

Taking a break

Their community pool was great. They all enjoyed this zero-entry pool that was perfect for the 5 and under crowd.

Grandma with the girls

Happy birthday, Katiebug!!!

While we were gone, Carl painted the nursery (because he's awesome). It looks great, and our crib bedding arrived yesterday. So, I feel like we are really making some big strides in this department. It is so nice this time around because we already have all the bedroom furniture plus things like the carseat, high chair, exersaucer, etc.... We really just get to focus on the fun stuff like decorating. Of course, different clothes will need to be purchased. But, I went through Lily's 0-12 month clothes and picked out all the gender-neutral stuff. So, we have a small base of clothes to start with at least. It is so fun to see all those tiny little clothes hanging in the closet again. We also pulled out the cloth diapers and are getting those ready to go. It is still early, but it is so nice to have a jump-start on these things. We did a pretty good job keeping things organized in Baltimore, so it was fairly easy to locate everything we need for the next little one.

In other baby-related news, I have been feeling lots of flutters and punches/kicks. Our doctor said that the placenta is in the back, so I would probably be able to feel a lot of movement in this pregnancy. Also, my father has officially decided on the name (John Carl) and has been telling everyone the news. No matter what we end up naming the baby, I think that he will be called John Carl by my father and possibly several others. :) We are actually about 90% sure of the name now. Although we keep considering new names, we seem to consistently come back to the same name.

We weren't sure how Lily would handle the news of having a boy (since she would not even talk about anything other than a girl before the ultrasound), but she has handled it quite well. Carl and I, on the other hand, were shocked, and it has taken us a while to adjust to the news - mainly because this is uncharted territory for us. I know it will be great to have a little boy (and probably won't even be that different), but it is the just the uncertainty of it all. I have been feeling so much better lately and throwing up has been reduced from 2-3 times per day to about 1-2 times per week. So far, my blood pressure has been good, but I am very worried about what it will do later on in the pregnancy. I just have a feeling that we are going to deliver early due to this issue. That might not be an entirely bad thing because it would be great if the baby came before my sister's wedding. However, my overall wish is that we have as few complications as possible and that the baby has all the time he needs to grow and develop.

Lily's first dance recital!

On Saturday, Lily had her first dance recital. It was a great production, including all the dancers in the school from Lily's "tykes" class all the way to the teens doing some pretty incredible numbers. I really didn't expect to be so emotional, and I did fine at the Dress Rehersal. But, I was the weepy proud mama at the dance recital. Lily did a great job and amused the crowd with her frequent waving and bowing.

Lily in her dancing get-up. (Thanks to Papa who sewed the sleeves on the costume.)

Lily's class at the dress rehersal. Lily is in the very center. She is not really short for her age; she is just the youngest in her class. In fact, she is probably one of the youngest in the school.

Family shot on the night of the dance recital

Family shot #2

Lily's adoring fans: my mom, me & Angela

More adoring fans: Carl's mom, Carl & Ingrid

Ultrasound results

Happy 6th Birthday, Terra!

Peanut butter and doggie bone cake designed by Lily

Terra getting her party on.

Lily decided that daddy needed to dress up for the occasion.

I also have to say congratulations and Happy Birthday to my friend Jen's new baby girl, Nora, born yesterday. No family has ever been more deserving. We are so, so excited for them!!!

Also, it is time to place your bets, ladies and gents. Friday is the big gender-revealing ultrasound! We'll keep you posted...

Visit with Great Grandma Murphy

The last stop on our trip was a short visit with Lily's Great Grandma Murphy. Lily had a great time with both of her Great Grandmas on this trip. She got to have two late-night slumber parties with Great Grandma Deetz in her room and also got to enjoy watching birds and bunnies play from the kitchen window with Great Grandma Murphy. Lily is so lucky to be able to have relationship with these two great women!

Great Wolf Lodge

The hotel keeps a small herd of buffalo right next to the hotel

Lily had to test out the room by jumping from bed to bed

The main feature of the Great Wolf Lodge is their indoor waterpark. It was awesome! I really can't say enough about this place! I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting a great family vacation. We really didn't get many pictures of the waterpark. 1. Because we were just having too much fun to bother with pictures 2. Because Carl was in charge of picture-taking in the waterpark, and we have different ideas about what having "plenty of pictures" means :)

Lily loved every area of the waterpark: the enormous play structure with two huge slides, the swimming pool area, the water basketball area, the lazy river and the kiddie pool area.

Lily's favorite part of the waterpark was technically one that she was not allowed to go on (due to height requirements - luckily they were not very strict). They had three ENORMOUS slides (that required lots of stair-climbing) that Lily LOVED. I can't believe that not only was she not scared, she was totally relaxed and when I would say "Woo-hoo" on the ride, she would do the same. These slides were fast, with lots of twists and turns and even had tunnels that were completely dark. When we would come to the end, she would ask to go on it again immediately. Carl and I had to switch on and off with her because the stair-climb alone was exhausting! In the picture above, we are coming out of the tunnel on the right on a white raft.

After hours of swimming, what could be better than a sweet treat? They had the cutest little sweets shop called Bear Paws Cafe. Lily was quite excited about her butterfly lollipop.

The lodge also has a kids playroom called the Cub Room. The room had tons to do from blocks to puzzles to books to crafts... We played in here while Carl put in our order for dinner and then picked it up so that we could eat dinner in our room (so much easier than eating in a restaurant with our active Lily).

At 8 o'clock, they had a little song and story time for the kids. The kids were invited to come in their pjs to enjoy the show. All the animals in this display moved and sang songs for the kids.

After the show, the kids got to give Wiley the Wolf a hug good night. Too cute!

Sand Dunes

One main reason for visiting Glen Arbor was to see the Sand Dunes. This is the site of the "Dune Climb".

There was a misting rain when we made our ascent. We decided that this was ultimately beneficial as it made the sand a bit firmer. Lily and Carl even made a sand castle at the top.

Another shot from the top

Rolling...

Rolling down the hill

The Cherry Republic

Shopping at the Cherry Republic, the Cherry Capital of the World

Lily got a little stuffed bear from the store. The lady there made a "bear den" for her new toy that Lily just loved.

At the cafe, they had cherry-everything. They had about a dozen ice-cream flavors, all with cherry in it, of course. Lily chose the Purple Cow which was grape-flavored ice-cream with cherry chunks.

Lily also got a sip of daddy's cherry soda. They had 13 cherry-flavored sodas on draft. Carl went with the original Cherry Soda which was pretty tart; I rather enjoyed the sweeter Black Cherry Cream Soda myself.

Family shot in the cafe