May 7: Don't bet on the horses (or do).

Perfect Saturday.  Good food, great friends, beautiful weather, meaningful family time.  Perfect Saturday. For us, days like this come together organically. They're not overly planned, no pressure to be a certain place at a certain time,  plenty of activity but not overloaded.  It's the type of day that you reflect on and say "we couldn't have planned it any better", which is true, because if you had tried to plan it, it wouldn't have been as lovely as it was.

Started with breakfast at the  Hamilton.  This used to be a weekly event, but over the past few months it's been hard to make it out of the house on Saturday mornings.  I'm either working or we have some big, elaborate plans that keep us from the most delicious eggs and toast that have ever graced a plate.  We met up with the Witmer clan (some of our besties) and shared a perfect Saturday morning meal.  Henry loves spending time with Benjamin, and this mom is just tickled to see her kid enjoying a friendship so much.  Steph captured a really sweet buddy moment on her phone.

 

Ahh!  How cute are these kids?? How great is this photo??  Whyyy is Steph so stinkin' talented?  (and, she is...let me just tell you.  I am always blown away by her skill and creativity. Winning at life.  True story.)

After the 'Milt, we roamed the streets of Carlisle enjoying the sights and sounds of Amani Festival.  This is an annual downtown event which is always nice, but this year I felt like it was really good.  I don't know what it was that had made it better than it had been in previous years, but I noticed it.  After an hour of festival fun we kicked back and relaxed at home.  Low key, cat-nappy, play in the warm sun and entertain happy kids.  Bliss.

The night was spent at the McDougall home where we gathered with the Krohns (lifelong besties) for the Kentucky Derby.  Watching the Derby, placing bets on the horses, drinking mint juleps and eating good food has been a tradition that we've shared for many years.  It is one of those things I grew up with and it's so fun to share it now with my own kids.  Alice could have cared less, obviously, but Hen was a different story.  He got SO pumped about betting on a horse and then rooting for that horse to win.  When "Derby Kitten" did not win (came in 13th, I believe) I was worried we might have a situation to deal with.  Instead, Eric (who did win the dough) gave Henry a dollar from the pool and a celebratory high five.  Having no idea that this was just for fun, Hen became convinced that his horse had won the Derby and proceeded to cheer and root loudly for the next ten minutes or so (included a really hilarious fist pump).  

Meg caught this on video.  It only captures about a tenth of how hilarious it was to witness in person:

*the title of this post has a story to it.  When I was younger, Sundays meant a few things--definitely church, possibly donuts, and often, visits from the Gilroy family (another one of our dearest and oldest family friends).  On one of these Sunday visits, (Uncle) Hubert asked me to take the little kids on a walk around the lake near our house.  I whined about it b/c I was being a brat and didn't feel like babysitting. He said "Molly, if you do this, I'll give you a tip."  Never one to turn down a potential profit, I took the kids outside to go on a walk. Upon returning, I marched up to Hubert, extended my hand, palm up, and said "How about that tip!"  He turned and looked at me square in the face, cracked a smile (such a quick wit and sense of humor has Uncle Hubert), and said (almost laughing) "I'll give ya a tip!  Don't bet on the horses!!"  Every time I think of that story I find myself chuckling.  Couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it.

May 3 & 4: Rub a Dub Bub (& growly kitty)

 

There are some things I could just watch over and over again--scenes from certain plays or movies, major victories by underdog teams, the "Kittens Inspired by Kittens" video on youtube...and, of course, squishy cutesy baby videos.  There is nothing particularly spectacular about this one, except for the obvious fact that it features Kitty Girl.  Just a warm fuzzy.

And...a little post-bath photo op.  She is such a happy baby, we honestly hit the kid jackpot.

Sweet little Alice

Bridealicious. Photos from the weekend.

Compliments of my very talented sisters Megan & Brigid.  Photos from Mary's bridal shower:

Sweet Kitten & her Auntie MeMe

Afterparty at my parents place

smooches through the glass

Before the party got started--Alice & Mary G.  How content does that baby look?! She stayed like that for the longest time.

Best shower game prizes evs.

Party favors

Party favors--Henry helped me to make these and showed GREAT restraint, only sneaking one into his chubby little cheeks.  I rewarded him later that day, returning home with another chocolate-dipped fortune cookie for my little helper.

Prepping the spring shrimp lettuce wraps

Present opening

Gorgeous day to eat outside and the beautiful Gilroy home is the perfect place to enjoy good food and great friends

May 2: Chubby cheeks & pie hats.

April 29-May 2: Weekend recap, Morning dialogue & more...maybe more...no, probably not more, just the first two things.

What a weekend.  We went full-tilt bridal, starting with the nuptials of Will & Kate (yes, Hen and I did watch, no, we didn't do it ironically...)  Henry is on a princess kick these days, claiming that nearly everyone he knows is a princess, or should be a princess.  Princess Grandpa Mac is probably the most special kind of princess, who delivers the mail AND gets married in a pretty dress.

The bridal theme continued with little sister Mary's bridal shower on Saturday.  A lot of thought and work went into the day and it was absolutely perfect, from the weather to the food to the guest list.  Mary received a lot of VERY nice gifts from her friends and family.  Most of them are being hauled back to Brian's condo in VA, a few are hiding in my basement...hahaha!  There's always an evil bridesmaid in the bunch.  I've elected to be that maid.  Obvious perks--stealing gifts, undermining the bride, giving a sloppy drunken toast WHENEVER the maid deems appropriate (including mid-vow exchange).  Unfortunate drawbacks--crazy eyes in every photograph, unattractive maniacal laugh, shunning from family members.

Crazy train!  All aboard!

Hen and Kitty were fabulous during the busy pace of the bridal weekend.  I was worried Monday morning might have been fugly, but they were up, bright-eyed, cheery, ready to attack the day.  This morning, in our last 30 minutes at home before heading out, Henry initiated a conversation with me about a curious subject, but one close to his heart.  Poop.

Hen: Mommy, everyone poops.  They all do it.
Me: Yes, honey, I've heard that.  Tell me, who poops?
Hen: Dogs and cats and chickens and groundhogs and pee-wee (stuffed toy hamster) and Elmo and people and dinosaurs and Alice!  They are all things that poop!

I am especially amused by the fact that Alice has a category separate from people.  Maybe we need to explore that a bit further.

From later today.  Talking about things that he eats.

"I eat a lot of things.  I eat (listing on fingers) pepperonis and sandwiches and fruits and vegetables and bananas and frosting.  Lots of frosting.  I drink juice and water and chocolate milk and regular milk.  When I am bigger, I will only drink juice and eat frosting.  That is it.  Frosting only."

Can't argue with that.

Photos will follow, they're mostly taken by my phone and need to be moved to the computer, and some will be stolen from Brigie who took a majority of the pictures at the shower.  Just needed to get my patootie on here to update as it had been a few days!  Slackerbot 3000.