It's Official, unofficially of course...

Memorial Day Weekend, the official, unofficial kick off to the summer season! We had planned to be down the shore, but things change and we ended up doing things around the house, visiting Nana (and getting to go see a movie just Ron and I - Shrek 3), having a bbq with the shorebird team and playing in our new "pool". Its an inflatable pool, but it's like 12 ft by 6 ft, perfect to splash around in for Ron, Maddie and me..and we did just that this weekend.


Maddie learning the fine art of bubble blowing from Daddy. She definately knows how to do it in her milk! Maddie LOVED the pool, and didn't want to come out. The pool also has 4 built in sprinklers which were fun...I think this will come in handy this summer for certain!


Maddie at Nana's house playing happily with her feather duster!

Maddie relaxing in Nana's hammock.

May I have some get down please?

Maddie and Daddy playing outside on beautiful spring day! Can you tell that they are both having a good time?? Wearing a pretty dress from cousin Rebekah, Sean and Joshua.

Maddie test driving her new wheels! We were out shopping and saw that they had tricycles on sale, of course Maddie saw it and wanted to sit on it to try it out. We wanted her to try it to see if her little legs were long enough to reach the pedals. They were and she was BEAMING as she pushed herself along in the store. Then...it was time to put it in the cart so that we could continue to shop, unfortunately, Maddie disagreed with this idea as she wanted to RIDE it. So, being the quick thinking parents that we are (and modest) we sat the bike inside the cart facing forward and sat Maddie ON it in the cart so she could "ride" her bike while we shopped.
There is a trunk too on this bike...I'm kind of afraid of what I'll find in there one of these days! Recently it has been maple seeds, those "helicopter seeds" that fall from the tree...she LOVES them and has spent quite a bit of time picking them up, ripping them open to get to the seed part and "collecting" a pile.

Now, as for the reason for the title of this post...Oh yes, we have sentences! Maddie said this little tidbit this evening when she was all done with her dinner and wanted to get down. Being the good parents that we are, we are trying to teach her to be polite and ask for things nicely including asking to be excused from the table when she is done. Well, she put this one together and Ron and I just giggled at it! Yes, Ron does giggle, but in a very manly way, of course!

I believe in Faeries!!!

Maddie dancing about the maypole, also known as, holding ribbons wondering what the heck is going on!!!
Even though it's a bit chaotic, I think I like this maypole thing! Check out my faerie wings!!!
Maddie joining in the fun of bubbles!!!

I guess we really wore her out...Maddie SLEPT the entire drive back home, soundly and after dinner this evening even said that she was tired and it was nite nite time!

On this bright sunny day, we went over to the Western Shore of Maryland, yes - we went to "the other side", and enjoyed our day at the Maryland Faerie Festival! I had never heard of it, but we can thank our fun day trip to Ron. Yes, Ron found the festival and thought that Maddie would have a good time, and boy, did she!!! She danced around a maypole, saw a unicorn and Chessie the Sea Dragon, she made a tamborine, listened and danced (on her own accord) to bagpipe music as well as some celtic rock, she definately saw faeries as well as a hedgehog driving a house upon a large turtle! Oh yes, there were some interesting things about... Firedances, belly dancers, live music, red tailed hawks and owls, people dressed as faeries everywhere, and who can forget to mention BUBBLES!

Happy Mother's Day!

MomMom, Maddie and PopPop in Delaware last weekend

Nana, Mommy and Maddie in Maryland on Mother's Day

Maddie, my darling daughter who I love with all of my heart...

It's so hard to believe that Maddie has been home with us for over a year now, she has grown so fast it is scary...I want to soak in all of her toddlerness because I realize it won't be here for very much longer. I'm so proud that she is confident to want to do more and more herself each and every day, all the while I'm hoping she still wants my help. I love the way she kisses each and every Elmo in her bedtime Elmo book when he asks if he can have a kiss, the way she says "Oh man!" when she drops something, I never want to forget the way she leans over and waves goodbye to her pee pee after she goes potty, or the way she cuddles up and sniffs her blanket when she's tired and sleeps. I try to remember that she is just two when I go to wake her in the morning only to find that she's completely undressed herself and is happily sleeping naked with her little tush up in the air or when all she wants to do is "help" Mommy while she is cooking, doing laundry, or just standing in one place, Maddie needs to be right there. My heart melts as we put her to bed when we hug and kiss and tell her nite nite, Mommy and Daddy love you, and she replies "for ever and ever"....how true that is!

Pictures!!

M with her beach duckie from Dough Roller enjoying the view from the hotel room in OC. She loved watching the surfers and people on the beach.

M on the boardwalk in OC...she enjoyed running up and down and watching the "train" aka tram drive along the boardwalk. She really wanted to ride it, but it was not to be this time.

M enjoying one of the rides in OC. She LOVED beeping the horn. She really wanted to go on the carosel. So, Daddy, being the good Daddy that he is, he bought the tickets and took her onto the carosel when she freaked and didn't want to sit on any of the horses, zebras, giraffes, etc...So, Daddy had to find a sleigh and the two of them enjoyed the ride together. The other rides she did ride by herself, I don't think Mommy or Daddy could fit in this little car =)

We were down during the Kite festival in OC, so there were lots of colorful displays on the beach, some very large kites, a duck the size of a hotel, twirling bits and large octopus! Definately a sight to see!

OC has several playsets on the beach, castles, boats, trucks, etc. M enjoyed this one in particular, she loved the swings. The slide was hit or miss...it's quite steep and two times she flew off the end and landed in the sand...it didn't stop her from wanting to do it again! Great, we have a little dare devil!

Kites, Sun & Fun in the OC...

We spent this past weekend down in OC. It was beautiful, I told R that we should just forget this thing we call work, retire and just become beach bums... The only problem though is what would we do for internet?!? ;) We really did have a good time, and stayed at a wonderful hotel (Thanks Betsy!!!). M was a tad cranky with her teeth (2 yr molars!) coming in, but she had a good time on the boardwalk, playing in the sand and watching all of the colorful kites. She even got to make her own! Couldn't get it to fly though...I'll call that user error *grin* Despite it's inability to fly, it was the most artistic kite out there! Scribbles in color marker...beautiful!

We do miss living down the shore, we enjoyed it, the only downside is it's further away from famiy. We visited our normal haunts, got to see Betsy, Alex, Chloe and Hannah, as well as all of the guys, Morgan, Calvin, David and Eddie, in Salisbury where we actually *gasp* got a chance *gasp again* to do some RPG!!! (Which we haven't done in over a year now...) Morgan, our every trusty GM, ran in a new system and I for one had a good time. We're going to try to get our get-togethers back on some sort of regular schedule, over a year between games is just sad...

M didn't get her nap on Sunday as we visited and played so she was mighty cranky when we stopped for dinner in Dover. Oh well, Mommy and Daddy learn, and now we know what we can and can't do with her on these weekend trips. Oh and as someone said....Respect the Schedule!

Well, blogger is having some sort of downtime for uploading pictures, so you'll just have to wait on them. I'll post them soon though.