X Gamer

This roller coaster was purchased for my niece Nicole, years ago. It then became ours and Laina started riding it when she was about 2 years old. We had to hold on to her and ease her down the track and the track had to be on a very flat part of our garage. This year the track came out and it goes down our driveway now to add to the zoom factor. Then a couple weeks ago she decided she was going to start standing and riding on it. That's when I decided that we needed to pull out the helmet. She's so cute.

Camp Talent Show

Laina's summer camp held their annual talent show and I headed on over to watch her performance. It was adorable. Laina my little performer was of course very comfortable up on the stage. Her group did an awesome job and I had so much fun being there watching her.

Camp Talent Show Video

Chasing Rainbows

Laina and Joe have been chasing rainbows lately. With a class of water, a mirror and a flashlight they are successfully finding rainbows all over the place. Then they discovered that by shining the flashlight on Grammy's prisms they can find lots of rainbows. I love that Joe takes the time to do these types of things with Laina. She was SO excited when the first rainbow popped up. She came running out to me shouting "Mommy, come quick and bring the camera!!!" ha ha ha.

Cooper!

Just a cute shot of the cutest puppy, ever!

Lunch on the Land

What a fun afternoon we spent at Harris Farm. We enjoyed a hay ride out to the farm, which included a tour. Then when we got to our destination we had a delicious lunch complete with farm fresh cheeseburgers, fresh corn on the cob, watermelon, side salads and of course their famous chocolate milk. What a fun family outing!

Chillin' In The Pool

We picked up this sweet new pool a couple of weeks ago and Laina is having a great time with it. It's big enough for all of us actually. Good fun for these hot summer days! Laina has fun playing with all her bath toys. She no longer takes baths, she does showers now so its nice for her to get to play with her water toys.

Dinner at Two Lights

We dined at the Shack at Two Lights! This is a special place for Joe and I. We used to go here all the time when we lived up in Portland. After Joe took the Maine Bar exam, he decided that when he received the results in the mail, he wanted to open the envelope over at Two Lights. Joe doubted his abilities and was concerned he wouldn't pass the test. I think he wanted to soften the blow a bit by learning his fate while the waves crashed against the rocks. I however, knew he would pass but said 'sure, let's head over to two lights'! We haven't been to two lights with Laina since she was a baby - maybe 9 months old. So we headed on back there this summer and had a delicious dinner of fried scallops. Laina of course enjoyed herself a cheeseburger! Yummy food, stellar view, good day for us.

Stephanie Comes For Dinner

We had a great visit with our good friend, Stephanie tonight! Laina loves her time with Steph so it was a real treat for her to spend time with her.

Happy 5th Birthday Kittyhugs!

Laina informed us this morning that kittyhugs is FIVE years old today! She had a very elaborate plan. Daddy had to dress up in a tie (which he did at 7am) and we were going to make a cake and it would be chocolate cake with brownies and ice cream. Wow wishful early morning thinking huh! Well as it turns out we went out to dinner today. We brought the birthday girl with us and celebrated with a brownie sundae for us all to share.

Kittyhugs is Laina's best buddy. I bought kittyhugs when I was about 5 months pregnant and had found out we were having a girl. Kittyhugs (or KH) was the very first thing I ever bought for my baby and so she holds a very special place in my heart.

When Laina was little I always presented her with kittyhugs in an effort to insure a special bond between the two. Joe says I was brainwashing our baby. I think I was just making sure Laina had a security blanket to make her days just a little big brighter ;)

When Laina began talking she couldn't pronounce kittyhugs. She called her Qui~Gong and Joe and I joked that she was a jedi kitty. We couldn't imagine a day when kittyhugs would ever be called kittyhugs because she had become Qui~Gong to us. Then one day it happened. Laina started calling her kittyhugs.

Laina can't go to sleep without her and I love that she is her best buddy ever. Maybe I had a hand in making that happen but hey, is that so wrong?

Happy 5th Birthday Qui~Gong!

Little Lady

Gardening

We have fallen behind on the planting this year! A busy June combined with window flower boxes that are falling apart and need to be replaced has resulted in delayed planting. We don't plant a whole lot but we enjoy the things we do plant. Here is Laina helping Joe finally get our watermelon plant in the ground. Now lets hope we get some yummy watermelon out of it!

4th of July Parade

We attended the local 4th of July parade that we attend every year. It's a little community parade and people can just show up and be a part of it, or show up and watch it. This parade results in more candy for Laina then she gets at Halloween. We have learned to bring a bag for her to gather her goodies. By no means does she keep or eat all of the candy but she sure has a great time snatching it all up and seeing how much she can get. A lot of the parade participants use local humor to make their floats - like the OP beach chair drill team and the folks who dress up as pier fries - both make perfect sense if you live nearby. I love the first two pictures with Laina checking out to see if they parade has made its way toward us yet. Happy Birthday America!