Make Way for Ducklings... the Third Time

Well, we love these little ducks. For the third summer, we've stuck our boys on these ducks and taken some cute pictures. They are really fun to look back on because both of our Boston trips have been when Finley and Braden just turned one, so it was fun to see them all at the same age.



This kid is just getting so big. We got them new Boston hats and Finley was excited about his--Braden was not.

Braden was excited about the ducks though! This is his sweet hugging face. He can just be the sweetest child when he's in the mood.

Keaton was just so pleased to sit on the duck all by himself. He was so giddy!

I love this picture of the three of them on the Mama duck. They're just so happy. 

I mean, until this one. I don't know why Keaton hated it all of the sudden, but he did. I do love this family picture. My allergies were still in full effect--hello, glasses. As always, we loved visiting Boston and all the people there that we love and miss so much. We're going to miss the East Coast so much! (I don't know why there's a large space here. #HTMLfail)

Wedding in NH

Before we made our big departure from the East Coast, we traveled up the coast to spend some time in Boston and most importantly, celebrate Maya and Tom's wedding! Finley was a very dapper ring bearer and took his job very seriously, as you would expect.



He was so focused that he fell asleep during the (very long) homily. It was adorable and I can't wait to see the photographers' pictures of him--Sol snuck one on my phone but we tried to only be mildly obnoxious during the ceremony.



Um... decent family picture? Finley was extremely cooperative! We clean up rather decently.



Seriously, this kid kind of kills me.



I always have such a blast with Sol's sisters--can you tell why? The reception was amazing--on a local farm in an adorable rustic barn. They handmade all the decorations and it was so gorgeous!

The boys all did really well--Keaton loved crawling around with Westley and trying to suck on his head.

One of the high points of the evening... was Finley's dancing. Um, this kid was out of control. The videos are both kind of long, but worth a few second of looking at. He clearly inherited Sol's dance moves and most definitely NOT mine.

Congrats Maya and Tom! Thanks so much for giving us a reason to get together and celebrate.

The Playroom

Today is day one of our move out of Pennsylvania--Sol is currently there supervising the move out while the boys and I try to stay cool in Little Rock. It seemed like a good day to blog about my other favorite room in the house--THE PLAYROOM!!!



We like to joke that the playroom is all of the furniture from our Virginia house--the couches and entertainment center all went here and we bought new stuff for the main room. The technical name for the playroom is "the conservatory" and we like to joke about holding recitals or doing whatever you do in a conservatory there. It was such a lovely room--big windows on three sides and lots of sun! It's on the far end of the house where the boys could make a huge mess and I could ignore it and not feel the need to tidy it up when people came over.



I've run outside twice in Pennsylvania--triple jogging strollers didn't exactly sound like fun. I've logged almost all my miles on our new treadmill. I love the little running corner I set up--with all our medals and a few marathon related collages. The playroom is slightly Peter Pan themed--only because I reused the decorations from Finley's birthday party and printed some quotes to put on the little picture ledge.



The costume corner is also a favorite--because sometimes you just need to be Captain Hook. Or a Wilderness Explorer. Or a chef. Or a conductor.



I took these pictures probably six months ago--when my sweet Keaton still hated tummy time. Let's not even talk about how he's on the precipice of being ONE.

College Finn

Things continue to be crazy around here. I just got back to my parents in Little Rock after spending a few days wedding planning with Victoria (and Keaton). Sol is training for the new job in TX and headed back to our PA house Sunday to supervise the packing up of our house. We're kind of scattered and crazy these days, but I thought I'd share this video that I plan on having play on loop at Finley's high school graduation party.



Being the cruel mother that I am, I made him talk to me about him going to college for like ten minutes because I kept dying at his adamant belief that he wants to live with us forever because he likes to "tell jokes, go on trips and do lots of fun things" with us. I especially love that he comes over for a hug at the end. Watch it, it's worth 43 seconds of your day.

Riding Things at the Zoo

I can't seem to find a good post about the Philly Zoo and we have loved our time visiting--so we definitely need a post to remember it! My parents bought as an upgraded membership when we moved here and we've used the heck out of it. It gets our family and two guests in AND it gets everybody all the extras. You can ride camels, ponies and horses, go on the carousel and train, pedal a little swan boat and feed lorakeets. And sometimes, ride a hot air balloon.  It's a fantastic deal, and the boys love it.



A few weekends ago, Braden woke up crying for "Buddy the HOOOOOORRRRSSSEEE" so we had to take him for a ride. This wasn't actually Buddy, but we made sure the zoo attendants told Braden that it was. #parenting



Two boys on a camel. They loved it. And a solo ride on a pony!



While they liked looking at the animals in the zoo--the favorite part was always the rides. We will really miss the zoo... although I hear the Houston Zoo is pretty amazing too!

The Office in Pennsylvania

Sunday's the big (anti-climactic) day. We'll all be boarding a plane to Little Rock to stay for a few weeks while we're in between house closings. Sol will come back a week later to supervise the packing and loading of our house so it feels a bit weird to walk away from our fully furnished house and not be there to say good bye to it when it's empty. I almost feel like I'm forcing a sense of nostalgia about this place--we've only been a year and it seems like its been a blur. Many sleepless nights with a new baby--a strange ever changing schedule for Sol--I can't believe it's been a full year! We did manage to get ourselves settled pretty quickly and I figured I should share my favorite room before I don't have it anymore--my office!



I did a little photoshoot in the office when it was at its very cleanest--and then a few days later the professional photographer came with a much wider lens--I thought I'd include those so you can get a better idea of the shape of the room! (The two above are his. The rest are mine.)











The desk is one of my favorite items ever. We're avid Craiglisters and this was one of our best finds. It was free on the side of the road in Boston--and I wanted it for the new house we were closing on in a few days. So we took it over to the new house in two trips and stashed it under the porch since it was vacant! It was regular wood colored and I painted it yellow over many days while 9 months pregnant. And I love it. We're not totally sure it will fit in the new office... fingers crossed.



It was so nice to have my own space with a door in the house. I didn't have to pack up projects every time the boys would be around again. I just closed the door. Magic. My sewing machine and the Silhouette were always out and ready to go. And the 25 cubby Expedit was my best friend. See that top right cubby? That one is for Sol. I got the other 24.



The room had great light and was just lovely. I was obsessed with the bright rug and basically planned everything else around it. The purple chair, the yellow desk and the felt bunting. It made me happy. Also the massive desktop Mac makes me happy every minute I'm sitting in front of it. I don't know how I functioned on a laptop for so long!



These LePens are also awesome--but I'm including these pictures because I love the lens they were taken on. When the professional photographer came over to shoot our house for the listing he let me play with his 100mm lens and I was in love. If anyone wants to get me one for a house warming present, I won't complain.

Last Day of Preschool

No joke, when I tried to open up the blog to write this post I got an error message. And then I was nervous the blog got shut down because I hadn't written in awhile... and then it worked. Sigh of relief.  We've been busy traveling and trying to tie up loose ends here in preparation of our big move to Texas. I have a bunch of posts to write--so we'll start with an important one--the last day of school!
 

Braden... did not love school. He did pretty well the first half of the year, but after we had a million snow days in January and February, he pretty much lost it and had to be taken from me crying every day. He bucked up pretty quickly once he settled in, and always was happy to see me when I picked him up. He predictably would say in his cheerful, sweet voice, "Hi Mama!" every time I came to get him. He was a stinker about following any directions they gave him--he reluctantly would wear his backpack until I showed up, then he'd give it to me. Baby beats to his own drum. I only got one picture of him on the last day because he is a stinker. He'll be going to two day preschool again next year--we're hoping he's a bit more cooperative and perhaps learns a few letters besides Q. #dreambig



This is more his style anyways. Watching TV in his undies on the couch.



Unfortunately, my printer was out of ink, so we don't have a fancy last day of school sign. #pinterestmomfail I can't even handle how big he is now. I miss his long swoopy baby hair, but I love how old the short hair makes him look!



Finley LOVED school. He loved it. He's driving me slightly nuts--I don't think I appreciated how much they wore him out at school every day. Buddy wants to talk about everything and do all the things all the time. When I told him that he'd be going to kindergarten next year for 7 hours instead of 3 hours he said--"MOM!!! I'm going to learn SO MUCH about Jesus!" and my little heart couldn't take it. I tried to let him down gently--that he was going to learn lots about math and science and reading--but this school wasn't in a church. And then he went on wondering if they had a bible and making a plan for how he'd bring a bible in... it was darling. I'm so so grateful that his teachers fostered a love for learning about the bible and Jesus in him. We really lucked out.



Finley wanted to take TWO pictures with each of his teachers--that way he could keep one and we could send one to them. He's still a bit confused about jpegs, clearly. I teased him after these two were taken--he NEVER smiles so nicely for me, and he took pretty good pictures with his teachers! He really loved Mrs. Gibson and Mrs. Munch and has already asked if he can write them letters next year. It was such a great year for him--we're excited to see what Kindergarten has in store!