A nice night for music, an ocean breeze & a little girl dancing with her Daddy.

Gram, Carmie and I headed to Waters Edge to see Mike & the guys play on Saturday night. Katies mom Pat and her friend Sandy were there and saved us a spot right in front. Carm had picked some flowers in the parking lot on the way and brought them straight to Mike & Johnny. So precious. She was the dancing queen. As usual.

"Happy daddy birthday!"

Perhaps the coolest thing for Mike this birthday was hearing "Happy Birthday Daddy" which Carm managed to learn on her own and pronunciate to a t & all variations of the phrase, like "happy daddy birthday, daddy". We had a nice weekend off starting with a little pizza party at home Friday night, a quick family visit and Sushi dinner out on Saturday night & picked up the new "coop" for our chicks from my parents, spent some time at the farmers market on Sunday. Monday was his actual birthday so we indulged in delicious steaks and scallops and the most amazing blueberry pie we've ever had.
Clearly for us, it's about some good food & good company. I would say the Mr. was pretty happy and didn't think twice about coming closer to the big 4.0.

Carm with her sweet neighbor Olivia.

Seriously, does it get any cuter?

A train ride to the circus...

What a fun thing to do....you may not know it by some of these shots- since Carm is displaying her most serious expressions, however, the Circus train was a BLAST!

Moments like this.

Carm in her bellbottoms, coloring, one foot up in the air- Stella resting. I can almost smell the air outside and the dampness inside the house from the rain. These are days I cherish.

Gosh. Where has the summer gone?

Wholy smokes. Time is passing us by. Last time I checked in here, I was talking about my "bangs" really! A haircut isn't exactly on my priority list...I'll settle for a facial first :)
I feel like we've seen & done so much over just the last month alone!

Carm completed her first set of swimming lessons! She actually got a card in the mail last night, addressed to Sophia Cartwright. cute. It was like a report card and it checked off all of the skills she managed to learn during her begginners class. Everything except for actually swimming by herself, was checked off! So cool. She was laying on her back, and kicking and using her arms and putting her face in the water and blowing bubbles. Daddy took her to most of her classes and I was lucky to grab a 1/2 day at work a couple weeks ago and go to one class, at least!

It completely feels like this summer is just going poof! But I keep reminding myself that we have a VACATION coming up in September...so we are going to drag this summer out and hold onto it for as long as we can. It's actually a "Stay-cation" seeing as we are taking a week off. (I actually get a full 10 days) and we are only traveling about 2 miles from our house to stay on the lake for a week in a 4bdrm cottage...right on the lake. We've got our own dock, our own beach and a few boats to take out too. John & Sarah and little Jayda and baby John are coming to stay too! I am so excited. We will have nothing to do except, eat, laugh, drink and play in the sun and I get to hold my niece & nephew for a WHOLE WEEK.

We took Carm to the circus last week. We took a the Essex Steam Train over to the circus. It was her first train ride and she loved hanging her head out the window and feeling the breeze and she got a kick out of the conductor and got scared when he taught everyone to do a "clown" dance. When we got off our little 2 yr old watched a 45 minute acrobat show! I know, can you believe it! Tried her first snow cone & popcorn. Oh yeah..somedays we do actually "live it up." She saw bubbles & balloon animals and got to feed goats & a camel. It was awesome.

We took her to her first Carnival a few weeks back and she rode the carousel for the first time...and then 3 more times..she just wanted to stay on & not get off. Then Daddy took her on a HUGE slide which I got on video. I am talking HUGE! This thing was so high up in the air, even Mike was surprised at how much air they were getting. You ride on like an old sack you would do a sack race in so you don't get skin burn. You may be familiar with these things, but I'm not!

It was our 3 yr wedding anniversary yesterday.  It feels like so much longer, but in a good way!

Tomorrow we are taking the day off, kid-free with the Martorelli's and heading to Watch Hill, RI to beach it for the whole darn day. WE CANNOT WAIT. We bought beach chairs, bathing suits, we are filling up a cooler, bringing our books- We'll end up back at our place to grill & light the campfire. No responsibilities for 1 ENTIRE DAY & NIGHT....thanks to the grandparents for watching our little girls of course!

That's about it, in a nutshell. Pictures to come...