July recap

Well, we’ve been on the go and having so much fun outside this month that I really haven’t been writing… but the pictures continue to get uploaded, so please check those as they are usually more current than the blog posts!

We had a great trip to Grandma’s mid-month. Chris didn’t win the cook-off but his ceviche came in a very respectable 2nd to Auntie Beth’s yummy lime ice cream. The weather was really nice while we were there, so we had fun outings to the park and beach, and met our friends Gail, Kirsten, Rachel and Fiona at the sculpture garden in Grand Rapids. Grandma babysat one night so Chris and I could enjoy dinner and a walk on the pier in Grand Haven too!

We stopped in Saugatuck on our way home for a fun but chilly visit with our neighbors (Maeve’s friend Evan and his parents) and then Maeve had a visit from Zlatka so we could go to our other neighbors’ wedding. This past week was filled with pool, picnic and park visits, out-of-town guests Martin, and April & Miguel, and some fun with our cousins. We will have another great cousin get-together this week with Anne in town too!

Maeve’s friends Lily and Mia are the first friends turning 3 in the next couple of weeks, so we are looking forward to their parties and hopefully getting to see Nanna and Grandad on their boat!

POOPS!

She’s occasionally been peeing in the potty before bedtime, but tonight Maeve had her first successful poops on the potty! We are so proud of her, but not entirely anxious to go down the potty training road. More and more it seems like the time is near though… Wish us luck and Maeve continued success!

Summer visits

We have had a busy and fun few weeks, and the weather has finally been summer-like so we’ve been outside enjoying it as much as possible. We’ve been to the pool several times, the one that we discovered last year that’s like a beach with zero-depth-entry. It’s even more wonderful than I remembered and Maeve is loving jumping off the sides and practicing her kicks in the shallow water. Her confidence in the water is growing every time and it’s also just a lot of fun!

We’ve had some wonderful visits with friends, traveling to Minneapolis to see Tammy, Tim and one-year-old-today Grace. We also got to meet Karen’s new daughter Felicity, Paula’s son Ryan, Zlatka’s granddaughter Christina, and Sarah’s new daughter Tessa – all so cute! We participated in our community’s parade on July 4th and saw another movie, Charlotte’s Web, in the theater one rainy day.

Maeve and I took a fun trip downtown on the train today, having fun in Millennium Park and grabbing lunch with Daddy on the Riverwalk. We are hoping to swim some more this week before heading to Grandma’s for vacation next week. Chris is fresh off his repeat win at our neighbor’s BBQ contest, so we’ll see if he can carry that through with our lime entry in Jane’s annual cook-off this weekend!