Saturday Playdate at Jen's

It's pretty hard to believe, but August 27th will be my 5-year mark for my time here in New Jersey. It seems like just yesterday that I moved here from Salt Lake City, yet here I am, all settled down with a husband, 2 kids, and 3 dogs! Now that I've been here a while, I'm finally feeling settled, like I've built a home for myself and my family here. The last 2 years have been instrumental in making me feel this way and that is because I have built some really strong friendships with some incredible women. I think most moms can agree that it's crucial to have other "mommy friends" because we can all relate to just about everything. I feel so lucky to have built a strong support network of friends who have accepted me and my children like family. Thank you to all of you (you know who you are!) who have been sort of like my NJ Family, since I don't have my parents or sisters here.

One of those friends is Jen Wilkin. Since I am now working and can't attend our usual Friday morning playgroup, Jen decided to host a playdate on a Saturday morning so that I could attend. She gave me the choice of 3 different Saturdays in June, then invited all our friends over for a playdate complete with breakfast. It was so kind of her to think of me in this way and I hope she knows I was so touched and grateful. THANKS Jen, for a wonderful morning!!

Harrison and Reagan went to preschool together last year at Ms. Lisa's (so they met when Reagan was just 22 months old). Jen and I were both pregnant at the time with our second, so it was a perfect friendship in the making!

Reagan told me she wanted to go play in Harrison's room, so I agreed to let them go upstairs while the rest of the playdate took place in the playroom. When I went upstairs to check on them, I walked in on them playing so nicely together, reading books!

Avery absolutely LOVES babies! She wouldn't stop hugging and kissing Sandy's baby Julia, hence this funny video :)

Jen has these 2 very sweet dogs, J.J. and Jorge (pronounced "George-E" but I'm pretty sure she spells it "Jorge" since she's named after Jorge Posada of the Yankees!)

The kids all go crazy for these dogs, and so do I because they are such "lovies!"

This one is a poodle and she actually loves to give hugs! Reagan couldn't get enough of them.

Jen let the kids feed the dogs treats and they were all in heaven

The only thing Reagan wanted to do was hold the dogs ... once on her lap, they gave endless amounts of kisses

Thank you for having us over Jen! Reagan continued to talk about the dogs ALL day, telling me we needed to go back to Jen's tomorrow so she could see the dogs again.

It was a rainy day for most of the day and when we got home, Reagan and Avery decided to "dance in the rain," something they thought was pretty cool.

Ice Cream with the McTigue Family!

On my way home from work, I got a call from my sweet friend Diane, asking if we wanted to meet them for ice cream after dinner ... she needed to go to the pharmacy in River Vale, which is in the same strip mall as the Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins. I thought it was a great idea, since the girls really needed to get out and see some friends!

Giving 4 kids ice cream when there are only 2 mommies (one who's taking care of a newborn) can be tricky ... and very messy! So needless to say, I didn't get any pictures of the ice cream part of the evening. But when we walked into the pharmacy, the kids went right for these chairs and I just had to take a picture.

Whenever Avery starts running, it cracks me up! So I captured this video when we were walking from the pharmacy back to our cars near Dunkin Donuts. As you'll see, Avery gets distracted by the young girls in the window of DD. It's pretty cute footage, if I do say so myself!

Thanks for a fun, much-needed night out Diane!!

2nd Quarterly TPG Family Night!

Tonight was our 2nd TPG Family Night, something we're hoping to do every few months. The first one was hosted by Nicole, back in January and this one was hosted by Maribel.

Sandy and Nicole


Mia ~ Grace


Julia ~ Joaquin

Nicole with the appetizers and drinks

Marcelo, John and Tom

Avery and Bennett

Reagan and Avery in their favorite spot - the hammock

Dinner time for the kids

Maribel debated about canceling it because the forecast called for rain today ... although it was a bit chilly, I'm glad she decided to stick with the plans and host the barbeque

Avery (18 months old) was feeding Julia (just turned 1 yesterday!)

The Sonderfan family (Rick, Corin, Jonathan and Abby)

An action shot of Reagan and Abby running together for a goodbye hug & kiss :)

Jen and Amanda ~ Jen's son Harry came down with pink eye, so she stopped in for a little while by herself.

Maribel and Joaquin ... Sorry to post a picture of Maribel with her eyes closed, but I couldn't resist this funny expression on Joaquin's face!

Chris and Mia eating dessert

John and his girls

Bennett in Chris's glasses

Grace and Massimo

Reagan

Tom, Julia and Sandy

Photo Shoot Attempt - Erin McTigue

Today was a great day ... I got to take pictures of my friend Diane's new baby girl! I love taking pictures and I'm having fun learning how to use my SLR Digital Rebel that I bought from Christie. I only wish I could be even half as talented as she is when it comes to taking pictures! She makes it look so easy, but it turns out to be pretty difficult! When I got to Diane's, it was pouring rain - obviously, not optimal lighting for a newborn photo shoot. So we tried everything to brighten the room ... unfortunately, I ended up having to use a flash on a lot of the pictures, giving such harsh lights and creating shadows. It was annoying that the lighting was so poor. On top of it, I brought both girls with me! Reagan was fine, as she played with Kaitlyn and JP quite nicely, but Avery was not happy that I was giving all my attention to this precious little baby ... as you'll see below, she went to the extreme to get my attention ... Anyway, what I'm trying to say with all this rambling is that although I had a great time, I was pretty disappointed with the results :( I wish I could have taken some amazingly beautiful pictures of Erin for Diane, but they definitely look like the work of an amateur. Oh well, I guess that's why photography takes LOTS of practice, right? I told Diane I'd love to give it another shot, hopefully on a sunny day when the lighting is better!

Diane had seen this idea, so we gave it a try ... once again, we felt like such amateurs!

Isn't she precious?? She's 2 1/2 weeks old in these pictures

After I snapped this shot, I was SO excited! But when I downloaded it, I realized it wasn't completely in focus which really upset me. Oh well, at least I got this adorable little grin!!

Big sister Kaitlyn (3) holding Erin

See this big stick in the middle of the picture? That's one of those sticks that has a horse head on the top ... Avery decided she'd had enough of me ignoring her, so she came over with this stick in her hand! I didn't notice she had it until I shot this picture and realized something was obstructing the view of Erin and Kaitlyn. When I realized what she was doing, I was appalled! Avery definitely has a temper and when it comes out, sometimes it's extremely nasty ... it kills me when I see it, especially when it's around other people.

We tried to get JP in the pictures, but as you can tell, he was NOT very happy with us! JP turned 4 at the beginning of March, Kaitlyn turned 3 on March 29th, just 3 days after Erin was born ... isn't that wild that all 3 children were born in March?? What's even crazier is that JP and Kaitlyn are only 12 months apart!

Here's Avery, getting into trouble again ... she insisted on putting her feet IN the toilet.

Reagan was downright adorable with baby Erin ... she was SO excited to hold her! The first time she held her, Erin was screaming and Reagan was just grinning from ear to ear. She was incredibly sweet with her, which warmed my heart :)

Good Friday - Kids Kingdom

I was so happy that I got Good Friday off so that I could join my friends for TPG! The weather was cold and windy, so we decided to go to Kids Kingdom in Northvale. I got to leave Avery home with John and just take Reagan, so it was quality one-on-one time with Reagan.

Jen Wilkin was there with her boys, Sawyer and Harrison

Reagan coming down the VERY fast slide!

Joaquin on the climbing wall

Reagan and Mia at the entrance to the ball pit

Sandy's daughter Julia and Corey's daughter Jamison

Sandy and Julia

Corey, Sandy and Nicole - laughing that I was taking pictures

Cassie and Mia

Nicole's friend Chenin came from the Bronx with her daughter Cassie

Gianna and Mia

Nicole's friend Maria came with her daughter Gianna and her son Max

Nicole stopped at the bagel shop beforehand and when she saw they were selling RED mini bagels, she just had to buy one for Reagan ... Reagan loved it!

Snack time for the girls ~ Mia, Cassie and Reagan

Jack, Mia, Reagan, Bennett and Cassie going for a ride in the car

Shouting "Cheese!"

Reagan got in this thing and then Mia pushed her - it was pretty funny to watch!