Six Months Old!

My little Sam the man is six months old. And he's still pretty darn awesome! I have no complaints whatsoever. Ok well maybe I would love it if he could sleep through the whole night, but he's so good during the day that I feel I can't even get mad that he wakes me for midnight snuggles. He's been sitting up since five months old. Now he's really mastered it though. He got his first tooth a week ago! He's loving his veggies, but green beans are his favorites so far. Shamefully, I have been giving him store bought baby food (insert shock face) because I haven't had a free minute to even make my own which is what I did with Madeline, and I enjoyed it! I will soon...it's a money saver for sure! He's constantly smiling, and he's the first baby of ours where strangers compliment me on how friendly he is!

I can't believe half a year has gone by since we brought him into this world. He's added such a great joy to our daily lives. We are loving all of his giggles, chatting, and drooling. I must kiss his face a thousand times a day and tell him how much I adore him. I hope I can still do that in 18 years! ;)

At his 6 month appointment he weighed in at a whopping 14.14lbs and is 25.5in long.  He's very much on the small side, but I am not too worried just yet! The girls were the same way their first year!

Newport Richey Reunion

We had some friends come to visit us in Newport this past weekend. It was such an awesome reunion. I have to actually give my husband credit for coming up with the insane idea of entertaining eight of our friends plus a toddler here. At first he wanted them to stay in our house, but I had to reiterate a few times how our family of five barely fits in this place, let alone adding nine more people here (he thought it was perfectly fine to have people sleep on the dining floor..I would agree if we were still in college). So the wives put our heads together and decided a big beach house was the way to go. I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time. It was a stay-cation for us as well. I can't thank our friends enough for putting in the time and effort and money to come out and see us. It meant the world to our family to spend time with each and every one of you. It's a rarity for all of us to be together at the same time, no less a whole weekend. I treasured that everyone finally got to know our kids better and to see the life we have made here in Newport. It was fun showing off this amazing city by the sea to our little gang from back home.

I could probably sum up our weekend in the following pic of the beach house, our bugs we boiled, and the welcome bags I gave out...but you know me...I love pictures so there will be a lot more;)

Day 1: Out for coffee and then a trip to Easton's Beach to play on the playground and visit the Save the Bay Aquarium. 

Sam's first time in a swing and he loved it!

Out to lunch at Anthony's Seafood. Madeline definitely found our friend Josh to be her favorite. 

Later that night the babysitter arrived and we had her take a group shot before we all went out for dinner and drinks. 

 Tom pretty much stole my friend Josh from me. We were friends first in Kindergarten. I often wonder if Ella will keep any of her guy friends she meets this year as friends for life...chances are slim though.

Day 2: We went to a little pumpkin patch and to the Seafood Festival downtown

Me and E and our Sperry's:)

Lobstah' rolls, oysters, stuffies, clam chowder, lobster bisque, calamari...our group wanted it all! And my girls split a hot dog.

Josh and Jared bought a few lobsters at the festival and we went back to the beach house for a seafood fest of our own. Lobster, scallops, steak, baked potatoes, asparagus, sauteed mushrooms, some cole slaw and we topped it off with apple pie:)

Sam ain't afraid of no bug!

The last day everyone headed to our neighborhood for a quick tour of Fort Adams. It was cute watching Ella show off her bus stop and the girls showing where the playgrounds are and where they go to skip rocks. 

Sweetness

I tell you what, when I need an extra hand with Sam, Madeline is always there for me. I think I had our kids pretty perfectly spaced apart because I have been blessed with awesome helpers. I love how much she adores her little brother.

This is what I saw when I was done folding and putting away laundry (that's a pretty big deal around here if the laundry actually gets put away)

And twenty minutes later...she's back to being her wild little self. But hey, at least she's contained.

Pumpkin and Apple Picking

Typically we love four day weekends in our family, but this Columbus holiday Tom was spending it catching up on schoolwork. (Thank you government shutdown and keeping him home from school therefore requiring him to make up missed days.) But just because he was stuck doing work didn't mean I wasn't going to enjoy having Ella home from school for the day. We decided it was a perfect day to head to SweetBerry Farm and pick some apples and pumpkins. I have never been apple picking in my life (mom correct me if I am wrong...) so this was quite the adventure! Taking three kids anywhere to do anything is always an adventure though. At the end of the day, we had a ton of yummy apples, quite a few pumpkins to adorn our porch, and two happy girls...and Sam...he was happy, too. But he was pretty clueless that we even went to a farm, right? ;)

Accident Prone Madeline

I mean really?? Can this poor girl get a break? Her face is so battered up that I am starting to get the side eye from other parents in public. No, I do not hit my child. She does this stuff to herself with always having her head in the clouds! The sidewalk won this battle...obviously.
                             Day 1                                                                 Day 3

Weekend of Fests

Gotta love the town that has a fest for everything. We have been eyeing the Italian Festival sign for a few weeks now. We couldn't wait to try some yummy Italian food and maybe a Peroni or two. Certainly a cannoli! I have to say, the overall idea was good. We loved the live Italian band, the cannoli's, and the girls ate the heck out of the biggest Italian ices I have ever seen (of course they couldn't share one! Bad parent? Or smart parent? Hmmmm.) But the food was not that great! My dad can make better sausage and peppers and so can Tom...and the chicken parm was just plain sad. The worst part was they didn't even serve beer so no yummy Peroni's for us! Still had fun as a family though!

The next day was Oktoberfest. Of course we had to go to that! Now this festival was great! We spent a few hours there enjoying the music, beer, brats, and getting our kids all tatted up. I'm sure we got some crazy looks. I mean, Sam in the Ergo baby carrier, the girls in the double stroller. Beers in the parents hands...again I ask "Bad parent? Or smart parent?" Either way, we had a really great time with friends and it made us miss Deutschland even more! We also realized we have some pretty amazing kids. I think we were out and about for six hours between the fest, dinner and shopping and not a single kid really whined. They just enjoyed where they were and so did we. Sometimes as parents, we luck out and have awesome kids in public;)

And what is up with this Elmo? Yes, that is supposed to be Elmo. 

 Oktoberfest!

 Tattoos, balloon animals, ice cream, french fries...of course my kids were happy campers!

Nom Nom Nom

We started Sam on rice cereal while my dad was visiting! He seemed to like it. Hard to believe he's starting solids. Like I always say...slowwww down:)

It was a lot of fun watching the girls fight over who got to feed him next! Madeline has to be watched carefully as she likes to really make sure Sam eats everything on the spoon so sometimes that means shoving it to the back of his neck;)