Lakehouse with Reagan and Avery

John and I were planning to get stuff done around the house this weekend, but when Diane told me I should come to the lakehouse, we figured the girls would have much more fun there, than stuck inside our house while we cleaned. I left on Saturday afternoon and only stayed one night, but it was totally worth it :)

Instead of cooking, we took the kids to Arby's for dinner.

On Sunday, we spent the day outside enjoying the beautiful weather.

Then I caught a frog for Reagan!!! I'm not sure who was more excited about it, Reagan or me.

Reagan climbed right on Grandma Connie's lap and floated with her. I was so proud of Reagan, as she spent the entire day in the water, swimming with her floaties. She had no fear and she loved feeling the waves from the passing boats.

Grandpa Jack helped Reagan figure out a name for the frog: Tu-tu the frog became his name! Diane gave us a "critter cage" to put him in and he stayed in there most of the day. Reagan refused to put the critter cage down ... the poor frog got thrown around inside while Reagan ran through the "Crazy Daisy" (sprinkler):

Crazy Daisy with Tutu

This is such a great clip of video ... Tutu jumps out of my hand and I catch him (with my left hand, so it's pretty impressive!)

Reagan was dying to bring Tutu home, but she was such a good sport about returning the frog to its home on the shore.

Saying goodbye to the frog ... Reagan put him in the water, but he didn't seem to respond very well, so we picked him up and tried leaving him on the rocks.

Lakehouse with Reagan

A couple months ago, Diane asked if I wanted to join her at the lakehouse the last weekend of July, since her husband Jack had plans to go to Canada for a bachelor party. Her in-laws were planning to go to the lakehouse that weekend too, so there wasn't room for all of us. I just took Reagan so that she could have a fun weekend with her friends and so we could spend some quality mother/daughter time together. John stayed home with Avery and the dogs. I felt badly leaving him since Brutus died the morning that we were supposed to leave, but John insisted that we go and have a nice weekend. He ended up having a nice weekend too, bonding with Avery, so it all worked out nicely.


As usual, the kids all played so well together (Kaitlyn, JP, and Reagan)

Here is 4-month old Erin sitting on Gramps' lap, just after her bath

Reagan had such a wonderful time on the beach ... here she is with Grandma Connie, making mud pies on the dock. After making mud pies, digging in the dirt, and throwing rocks into the lake, she decided she wanted to swim in the lake. I put the inflatable floaties on her arms and she was in heaven, swimming around the lake! She's a little fish ...

I love this serious picture of Kaitlyn in her sunglasses ...

Eating goldfish

JP with flushed cheeks, due to the warm, sunny day

Many thanks to the McTigues for another fabulous weekend at my favorite retreat!!!

4th of July - Lakehouse Fun!

Diane invited me over for a dinner playdate last week and we were talking about the upcoming 4th of July holiday weekend. Neither of us had plans so we planned a spontaneous getaway to her lakehouse! It turned out to be an excellent weekend with fun had by all :)

I had Friday off, so I spent the morning getting packed, then I left with the girls that afternoon. Since we have 3 dogs and no one to watch them (John's late mother Nila used to take care of the dogs for us), John stayed home and drove up for the day on Saturday. The drive usually takes 1 hr, 45 minutes with no traffic. It ended up taking us several hours because of traffic and stops. Here's a picture of one of our stops, since Reagan had to go to the bathroom ... I keep a portable potty seat in my car and I've used it so many times!! I put a pull up on her just in case she fell asleep on the drive, but she didn't really need it.

Diane and her 3 kids during one of our stops. Her husband Jack had to work, so he couldn't join us.Diane's lakehouse is 2 levels; she and her kids always sleep downstairs and her in-laws or other guests sleep upstairs. JP was having so much fun playing with Reagan that he didn't want to say goodnight and sleep downstairs ... he asked if he could sleep upstairs with us. Diane happily agreed because she figured there was no way he'd actually go through with it (he can be a bit shy and cautious at times). But to our surprise, he did very well! The 3 of us all slept in the big king size bed! Before going to sleep, they were reading books and Reagan told JP she'd read to him ... of course, Reagan doesn't know how to read yet, but she's really good at looking at the pictures and coming up with her own story. She had JP convinced that she knew how to read - it was pretty funny!

On Saturday morning, John drove up for the day and arrived around 11:30. As soon as he arrived, we drove to a nearby town called Hawley that was having a 4th of July parade.

It was a really quaint little town in the mountains with tons of character (and many "characters" too!)

Reagan quickly discovered that the coolest part about a parade was all the free candy they gave out! She was jumping up and down, so excited about the loot she was hauling in!


The parade had all the usual marchers you'd expect in a holiday parade ... it was festive and fun and even though we weren't there for the entire thing, the kids enjoyed every minute of it.




Of course, Elmo was a big hit!



I particularly liked this old carriage that was pulled by the horse/4 wheeler ... it was an antique hearse!

After the parade, we walked a few blocks to the nearby park and let the kids play. I thought John looked pretty darn cute on this log-roller!

On the way back from the parade, I took this picture ... it was such a gorgeous day on the lake!

Kaitlyn on the beach

3 1/2 month old Erin - she's such a sweet little baby!

It's amazing how well the 4 of them play together ... here they are in the sandbox (not a great picture of any of them, but the only one I took of them in the sandbox)

On the back porch swing, looking out at the lake

I love this picture of John walking JP, Reagan and Kaitlyn down to the dock

We let Reagan stand in the water and then Avery insisted on putting her feet in too. She was having the time of her life!



Here's a video of Avery kicking her legs in the water

The shorts came off rather quickly, as they were getting soaked

JP, Reagan, Avery and John

The funny thing about this picture is that it wasn't "set up" at all ... these two play so well together and I just love it. I walked into the sunroom and found them sitting on the couch, reading books. Every mother's dream!

John went home around 8:00 so he could tend to the dogs. We got the big kids in their pajamas and they watched fireworks on TV while we put the little ones to bed (Avery and Erin). We popped popcorn and took it outside to watch the fireworks over the lake (we locked the house and took our video monitors with us)

We lucked out because the next-door neighbors were lighting fireworks right there on the beach for us to enjoy! You can also see the big beautiful moon in the above picture.

Reagan and Kaitlyn ~ there were several different groups of fireworks going off around the lake, so it was fun to watch them all.

Surprisingly, the kids lost interest in the fireworks rather quickly and Reagan thought it would be more fun to throw rocks into the lake.

JP on Sunday morning

Eating bacon for breakfast ... this is one of Avery's funny looks

Once again, all the kids had disappeared into the sunroom and when I walked in, I found them like this ... they were inspecting some type of millipede creature under the couch (I took a picture of the creature too, but didn't feel like posting it - apparently, I was the only one who got grossed out by the thing!)

It was a beautiful, sunny day on Sunday, so we took out this little pool and wedged all 4 kids into it. Diane and I couldn't believe how much fun they had in this tiny little pool! They just sat there, playing with toys for over an hour!

Kaitlyn and Reagan

Here is a very funny video ... it's not what you'd expect from a video of 4 kids in a pool. Instead of hearing loud squeals of laughter, you'll hear NOTHING. Diane and I were laughing about how quiet it was, which is why I turned the video camera on. They were all in a zone I guess ...

It really was an excellent weekend ... many thanks to Diane for being my friend who's always up for an adventure with kids!