Attack of the Cousins

Here is why you should NOT let cousins "wrestle" (Nicolas insists it was just hugging) on the beach.

It looks like fun... (what could possibly go wrong?)

...but inevitably ends with someone with sand in her eyeballs.

Father's Day

I haven't uploaded my pictures yet from Father's Day, but I wanted to share Mark's father's day gift. I had a silhouette made of one of his favorite pictures with Lyla Grace. A true daddy-daughter moment when she was first born and he had begun his journey of falling deeply and madly in love with her.

Dylan's Ballet Recital

A couple of weeks ago, we went to see little Miss Dylan in her very first ballet recital. She is so poised and so graceful and I'm not just saying that because I love that little girl so much. The theme was the Wizard of Oz and she was a "Glinda". There were little "Totos" not much older than Lyla so we might sign her up for the fall. Here she is trying to imitate her big cousin.


I love this pic. Look at her little lock of hair coming in!


I didn't have my camera in the recital but Dylan was more than happy to keep her costume on after the show so I could snap some pictures. Proud mama Eileen in the back :)








But let's not forget Dennis! He showed us his fancy breakdancing moves.






Lucky girl with her big cousins looking over her.


The twins


With their mommy


We went to the park after the recital and I realized that I would be a nervous wreck if I had twins. Without fail they go in opposite directions of the park...Good thing Brian was around to supervize ;)


Just kidding -- we had an excellent ratio of grown-ups to kids. And the kids did eventually play together.





Little Lyla couldn't climb the jungle gym, but, once again, she found her way to the sprinklers (with someone else's pail and shovel).

Waiting for Daddy

Mark had a quick trip to California this week.  Here are a couple of videos of how we spent our evening while we waited for Daddy to come home last night.



(Definitely wait for the end of this one)

Girls' Night

Tonight, Mark was at a company party and Lyla and I (more Lyla) were getting antsy sitting at home.  So, right at about bed time we went out for an adventure.  We walked over to the Seaport, got some ice cream and sat on the pier near the Brooklyn Bridge.  We waved at the boats passing by and watched the sun set.  Totally worth blowing bed time!

Happy Birthday Elle and Francesca!

We headed to McCarren Park in Williamsburg on Saturday to celebrate Elle and Frankie's second birthday.  The party was in the park next to the best sprinkler park I have been to (I am a little new to the park scene since Lyla was too young to play in parks last summer, but apparently sprinkler parks are the place to be in the city in the summer). It was a hot hazy day -- perfect for sprinkler play!



Lyla was the first one in the sprinklers and we had to pry her out at the end of the party.







Getting splashed


Climbing through the cement fence. She ended up getting stuck and has a couple of scrapes from me pulling her through.




Elle wondering what this crazy girl is doing.


Mark had to run through the sprinklers to get her and got himself soaked in the process.


We couldn't get her out in time to sing happy birthday to the twins. Here is everyone else singing happy birthday.


But we did get her out in time to have a cupcake.


Lyla and Elle were stealing little candy pieces off the cupcakes.  This is the "who us" look I got when I asked what they were doing.



Heather and Shannon


Kevin and Frankie


Little Ro Ro after lunch


Me and my girl


I call this her "Lyla from the block" shot -- leopard bathing suit checking out the basketball court


What is the logical thing to do after a two year olds' birthday party? Hit up a brewery, of course! Shannon and Kevin live right down the block from Brooklyn Brewery, so we spent the afternoon cooling off with Summer Ale.


Lyla slept most of the time we were at the bar, so we were able to relax a bit.




Ro Ro slept the whole time on Shannon.


When Lyla did wake up, she was pretty good at keeping herself entertained.


And entertaining us. I gave her an 8 out of 10 for her behavior :)