June 26

This afternoon we headed to our friends Matt & Tara's house to celebrate Matt's birthday with a picnic! We saw some friends there that we don't see often and we got to hang out with Matt's parents who were visiting from Ohio. There were 5 kids there - 4 of them were between 12 and 18 months. So cute to see them all playing together!

Jonah had to get a snack in before playing of course!

Riley took to this guitar right away (it also had Handy Manny on the front, which made it extra cool).

Three of the 4 toddlers who were in attendance, working together on this puzzle.

These are brownie cupcakes decorated to look like there's food on the grill - so cute & creative!

Happy Birthday, Matt!

After the picnic we met a few other families from our playgroup at the Emmaus Community Party to listen to the Marine Band of Allentown. The weather tonight was just lovely and perfect for an outdoor concert! I got great pics of all of the other families who were there, but my boys just didn't want to cooperate. Riley and Jonah thought it was much more fun to roll up in the blanket and pile on each other!

June 25

Today Jonah and I headed to Princess Katherine's house to celebrate her 4th birthday! Riley was under the weather this morning, so he stayed home with Abe (and don't tell him he missed her party... he thinks we just stopped at the house to drop off her present!). Our friend Emma who owns the charming store Cottage in Emmaus recently started a children's party business. The details of Katherine's Princess & Pirates party were amazing! A dress up bin, face painting, a craft activity, a visit from Captain Hook, and color coordinated sweets and treats for everyone - so delightful!

This alligator was a hit with all of the kids!

Jonah's checking out a pirate's sword...

... and he's definitely not a fan of the hat!

Princess Katherine with Captain Hook.

Jonah's ready for his cupcake!

June 24

This morning Nanny came with Riley, Jonah and I to the Reading outlets. We stopped on the way home to see Uncle Ralph, since his daughter Karen was visiting from Florida. (Riley was there, he was just being crabby and didn't want to be in the picture).

On our way home we picked up our weekly CSA box... I have been dreaming of this particular box all week because it had red beets in it! I roasted the whole bunch right before dinner. Abe doesn't really like red beets, so I get to enjoy all of these beauties myself!

After dinner we stopped by one of our new favorite places, Creamery on Main in Emmaus for some ice cream. It's right on the Triangle, which has this lovely fountain and a few small flower beds.

June 23

One of the things that Riley loves these days is using stickers. He's just gotten the hang of peeling them off of the sheet himself, and he will just fill a sheet of paper with stickers and then color a picture to go with it. Here he's hard at work at today's creation.

Daily patio update:
So when we started this project we were thinking that the buckling was due to a tree root or animals burrowing underneath the patio. Today we found the real answer - poor drainage! Seth had dug down to the dirt layer today and found that the soil is graded towards the house (instead of away from it), there are no weep holes in the foundation of the walls around the patio, so when it rains or snows, there's no place for the water to go. Seth needs the ground to be dry to move on with the project, so he's covered up the entire patio before leaving today (since we were expecting rain... again!).

June 22

Today after Jonah's nap we went for a short walk on our street. Jonah got all set up in the wagon with his lion and a drink...

And Riley rode his bike.

After we got back the boys played in the driveway for a while. Riley tried to help Jonah with his hat.

Jonah was gazing longingly at Riley cruising around in the driveway and knew that there was only one way that I'd let him down...

... by refusing to sit down!

I brought his scooter out from the house and he took off!

Daily patio update:
 All of the first layer of screenings are up (and sitting in a pile in my driveway). Seth started digging down into the second layer and discovered that there's 10 inches of gravel down there! It's best to tamp it down in 2-3 inch increments, so he started digging up that layer this afternoon also. (It's covered up at the end of the day to protect it from the rain).

June 21

So now in addition to Jonah just climbing up to sit at Riley's desk, he now likes to airplane himself up on top of the desk. I think I'm going to need a helmet for this kid...
 

Jonah is also starting to show an interest in trains, just like his big brother. And his Daddy. And his Poppop...

Our daily patio update:
Seth took up all of the flagstones today and started removing the first layer of screenings from underneath. At the end of the day, our patio area looked like this.

June 20

This morning after we dropped Riley at school, Jonah and I met Jess, Katherine & Daniel for a walk in the Rose Garden. I love going there because it's where Abe and I had our wedding pictures taken almost 7 years ago (although it does look a little different now).

Katherine wanted to push Jonah in his stroller for a little bit and I was happy to have the help!

Jonah was very excited to get out of the stroller and explore for a little bit...

... and have a little chat with Katherine. She shared with me that she was happy to be Jonah's mommy when I'm not around, but made a point of telling me that she doesn't change diapers. :)

We have a few great flagstone patios out back of our house, but the main one that is off of the family room and kitchen was a little bit buckled when we moved in last year, but got a lot worse over the winter. We hired a local guy to fix it for us, and he started today! Here are a few before pictures.

June 19

Happy Father's Day! We celebrated today with having my parents over for dinner for Abe's favorite meal - pot roast! Seriously, every week when I meal plan and make my grocery store list, I always ask around to see what everyone wants to eat. Riley's answer is always noodles, Jonah doesn't answer but I know the look in his eyes says "get me more grapes & bananas", and Abe always wants pot roast. We had just gotten some strawberries in our CSA box on Friday, so Riley and I made a strawberry pie for dessert.

Jonah also discovered something else that he can climb on... Riley's desk! Apparently he just really needed to color!

June 18

This was a busy day for us! Our local running club hosts a series of kids' races in the summer, and today was Riley's first! He ran 1/8 of a mile with the other 3- and 4-year-olds.

Riley showing off his bib number (and he was a little leary of the whole situation since it was his first time).

Waiting at the start line (I'm standing in the middle of the pic in a green shirt holding Riley for the picture).

Ready, set, GO!

 Riley's official time!

He got a blue ribbon for finishing... I think he was a little overwhelmed by the whole experience (plus it was REALLY humid out this morning!)

After the race we visited one of the clowns that were there to get a cool balloon hat.

That afternoon we went to our playgroup's annual picnic! Jonah hung out with little cutie Cole...

... and with his favorite snuggler (after Mommy, of course) Keri.

Riley and his pal Charlie rode around in cars (and got a tow back up the hill from Charlie's dad!)

Riley was excited when he finished a game so he could get a prize.