Happy Fall!

It's that time of year....Fall! It's our favorite season in the Northeast....mild days, cool nights, changing leaves, Laina's birthday, Joe's birthday, our wedding anniversary, pumpkin patches, apple picking, Halloween...what's not to love. Here are a couple of cute pictures of Laina taken today....she's wearing her new Halloween clothes. You can also see our new couch in the background of the pictures. We are SO excited to have a new couch!





In other news, Hurricane Kyle is bearing down on Maine. So strange to have hurricane warnings on the television...this isn't Florida! The storm path isn't right over us, but it's making for a wet soggy weekend. Oh well, we're chilling out indoors with a new yummy recipe cooking in the crockpot.

A Cousin Jam Session

Laina's cousin Ryan spent the weekend for Laina's party and he brought his guitar. Ryan is a great musician and what do we know about Laina???....she likes music. Well, there you have a match made in heaven. Here's a cute video of Ryan playing his guitar and Laina dancing to the music. Check out Grampy enjoying the show in the background

First Trip To The Dentist

Today was Laina's first trip to the dentist. I had a cleaning today so she came with me for a visit to learn what the dentist is all about. Next month we are scheduled for her to have an official cleaning. For today she got to ride in the dentist chair, have her teeth counted and get a new toothbrush and sticker. It went very well and we'll be back next month for the real thing! She was very cute and very curious about the whole thing...watching everything the hygienist did to me before she got in the chair herself.

Laina's Birthday Party

Here are a few pictures from Laina's party. She had a grand old time and was happy as can be all day even though her party started at 1pm...aka naptime! So even with no nap and LOTS of activity, she was a happy little birthday girl. We had a wonderful weekend filled with family and friends - - - Uncle Dan flew in from Florida, Auntie Di, Uncle Tom & Cousin Nik came up from Rhode Island, Aunt Lyn, Cousin Cory and Cousin Ryan came up from New Hampshire and Grammy & Grampy came up from Massachusetts. Everyone spent the whole weekend and it was so nice to be together. Lots of friends came up from Massachusetts for Laina's party too. Enjoy the pictures!

Laina in her custom Disney dress.
I love it and want to book a trip to Disney
tomorrow just to get more use out of the dress.
HA! I wish!

Laina's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cake made by Mommy

Blowing Out Her Candles

Laina and MacKay playing in the backyard. Laina ADORES MacKay who is 1 year older than her. Whatever Mackay wanted to do, Laina wanted to do the same thing. So cute.

Daddy had quite the audience while getting Rocket and the Little Einsteins out of the package. What is it with the way the package children's toys anyway???

A few of the Sweet Posse babies lining up in PJ's to say cheese!

What A Day!

Well, we had a great day. First off to breakfast for our Mickey Mouse pancakes then over to the beach for our annual Boo Birthday Beach Walk. When Laina woke up from nap, Uncle Dan had arrived and they spent the afternoon playing. Later on in the night, Auntie Di, Uncle Tom and Nik arrived. We all sang Happy Birthday to Laina and she enjoyed another cupcake!

Happy Birthday Little Love!

Look How Far We've Come: Happy 3rd Birthday Laina Nicole!

When I put Laina to bed last night I told her when she woke up she should say "Mommy & Daddy, I'm Three" and sure enough, that is what we awoke to at 8am today. We brought Laina her first two birthday presents to open in her room, stuffed Minnie and Mickey Mouse dolls. This morning we're taking her out to breakfast at a place that makes pancakes in the shape of Mickey Mouse. Pretty cool.

After presents Joe reflected on all the "firsts" Laina has experienced while being age 2. They include: first plane ride, first roller coaster ride, first hotel trip, first time bowling, first time playing mini golf, first trip to the ER (not a great memory!), first time jumping into a swimming pool, first time spending the night away from Mommy & Daddy, first time riding a big girl bike and a slew of other great things.

Here is a slide show of Laina's first three years. When you have five million pictures of your little girl it sure is hard to pick your top 50.

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet Laina. You make the world a sweeter place to be.

Let The Festivities Begin!

Today was Laina's last day at school before her birthday so we made cupcakes to bring to school today to celebrate. I frosted them this morning and Laina wanted to decorate them. We went out to the driveway in our PJ's and I gave her a container of sprinkles and let her go to town. She had a blast, the cupcakes came out adorable and my driveway is now covered in speckles. All reports came back that the kids loved her cupcakes today at snack time. Her teachers made her a cute "Birthday Girl" crown to wear today and it was adorable when the other kids said "Happy Birthday Laina" as we left for the day today.

It's so hard to believe that tomorrow my little love bug will be 3. Wow...wow...wow! Where did the time go?

Off To Da Burgh!

Last week Laina went on her very first airplane trip. The 3 of us traveled to Pittsburgh so that Laina could meet her Grandma Carmie, Pap Pap, Aunt Sandy, Uncle Mike, Aunt Theresa, cousins Katie & Julie and Aunt Barb & Uncle John.

Laina did awesome on the plane rides, the long layovers, long days of traveling, missed naps and sleeping in a hotel. She had a lot of fun visiting with family. We also went to Kennywood and Laina enjoyed her first rides at an amusement park! Here are some photos...

Laina and I on the plane. The DVD player made the trip as smooth as can be!

Daddy & Laina reading during our long layover in Detroit.

Finally at the hotel...sometime around midnight...sleepy baby...

Goofing around with Grandma Carmie.

Katie, Laina & Julie with Grandma Carmie.

Aunt Barb, Laina & Joe.

Riding The Antique Cars With Mom at Kennywood.

Laina's First Roller Coaster Ride! She LOVED IT!!!

Riding On The Pirate Ship With Daddy.

Daddy & Laina with "Kenny".

Daddy & Laina Are Up In That Crazy Trolley!

Whew, Amusement Parks Are Tiring!

It Couldn't Have Gone Better

Laina did great at dance class! When Ms. Nicole came out for the girls, Laina walked right into the dance studio and never looked back. I could peek through the blinds to watch her (as did the other moms waiting in the lobby) and Laina did great. All the things she didn't want to participate in when I was IN the room with her, she totally participated in while I was OUT of the room! When class ended, Ms. Nicole and all the other girls came streaming out of the room and Nicole said to me "that's the most I've EVER heard her talk - she did great!" I couldn't be prouder...Here are a couple of cute shots of Laina waiting for class to start.

Dance Class Starts Today

My little dancer is sleeping right now, but I must wake her up momentarily. We start dance class again today and this is a big day because its Laina's first class where she goes in without me. Last year we took "Mommy & Me" dance so I was in the room with her every class. This year she moved up to the next level class called "Creative Movement" and I sit out in the hallway while she goes in and dances with Ms. Nicole and the other girls her age. When I first brought this up to Laina her reply was "my want you go with me mommy" and so little by little over the last few weeks I've been working on getting her excited to go in the room by herself. Last night when we talked about it she said "and you no go in the room with me mommy - you stay outside". Hopefully she'll feel the same way when we actually get there today. We tried on her leotard and tutu last night and I just think she looks adorable. Something about this outfit makes her look extra tall - as if that's possible, right! She'll be wearing her tights and her ballet slippers today but for last night she was barefoot. Wish us luck! I'll post an update tonight!

The Boo....has a boo boo

Summer is a funny time for an almost 3 year old. It's shorts season and three year olds tend to play rough. Laina's legs are so scraped up, she's got boo boo's on top of boo boo's on top of boo boo's. I'm almost looking forward to fall just so her legs get covered up with pants again. When we picked her up at school on Thursday she had just fallen and cut open her knee....again. Her teacher had cleaned it and bandaged it and she was pretty upset. Later that night I had the pleasure of removing the band aid and cleaning it again. I literally had to close the windows in the house so that the people who live around us weren't concerned for her safety. You would think I was torturing the poor child. She was SO upset. It's times like that when its hard being the mommy. It's really hard being the one to inflict pain on your own child...all in the name of doing something for their own good. It's a pretty big scrape and I know it hurts her like the dickens...but alas...clean it, we must.

The whole Band Aid thing is pretty funny. I'm sure most kids are like this but for some reason once you've put a band aid on the boo boo, it magically seems to "get better" in their eyes. If you pull out a cool Sesame Street or Nemo band aid, the healing powers multiply. The other funny thing is that once said bandage is applied, Laina suddenly cannot walk around and needs to be carried...as in...."pick me up, my can't walk with my band aid".

One *good* thing about a boo boo - it always results in lots of hugs and snuggle time which are rare with an "on the go" three year old! So, while I don't want her to get hurt, I will take the snuggles and hugs that come with the tears.

$1800 Closer To The Cure

Wow ~ Wow ~ Wow! I did it! I've raised over $1800 for the Avon walk and the walk is still a month away! Thank you to everyone who has so graciously supported my efforts. I am truly humbled by your generosity.

Dianne and I are gearing up for our trek to the Big Apple to do the walk. We've been doing some training walks to prep for the big day. We have our tents reserved (EGADS) and now we just have to wait for the big day to get here!

Biddeford Has An Airport?

On Saturday, we went to an open house at the Biddeford Airport. Biddeford is the very small town near ours and I recently learned they have an airport. It's not a commercial airport - it's a small airport where private planes fly in and out of. You can take flight lessons there. It was pretty cool. Laina got to climb around in a plane, we watched someone skydive out of a plane which we've never seen in person and we listened to music by the Army Reserves Band which of course our little dancer just loved.

Laina grooving to the military music

Climbing Up To Check Out A Plane

Driving A Jeep

Climbing In The Angel Flight Plane

Sitting In The Plane

Another Cute Shot In The Plane

Another Glimpse Of Laina Dancing

Here's another little shot of Laina dancing at the Airport Open House. She is always drawn to the music. She was much more interested in the music then she was any of the planes!