The (somewhat late) beginning of summer!

Well it seems like these posts will just have to be a couple months after the fact. Better late than never, right?  My new mantra lately...


Anyhow, I am attempting to summarize the post-Disney/end of spring/beginning of summer madness that was May & June (and included our big move!) so will try to do that more with pictures than words.  Here goes!

Crossing over the threshold of our very own home!!!
First weekend of May, photo credit to Maelee :)

And found a bottle of champagne and sweet welcome note from the sellers!
With all the horror stories that are out there,
our home buying experience was surprisingly pleasant!

The girls were pretty excited to see their new place for the first time!

Later on that same week, we were able to see my Too-daddy and Mary Catherine at the Arsenal of Democracy Flyover by Reagan Airport.  It was a beautiful day and so special to be able to be there with TD.  He knew every one of those aircraft!  I got some sweet time with Maelee sitting out on the rocks and Lilee was a champ.  Such a fun afternoon!

Mother's Day was extra special this year as Steve and I got to see both our moms!  Nana & Pop-Pop came over for a short but sweet lunch after church, then Mee-Maw & Grandpa arrived in the afternoon!  We were able to enjoy two short but sweet visits with Steve's parents as they were leaving out of and returning to DC for a trip out west.

May was a hectic month getting ready for our move.  Between deciding on, then managing, the minor renovations being done to our new home and packing up the old home, I felt like that's all my life practically revolved around!  Except for the fact that I still had my two sweet girls to care for... Luckily, they handled it fairly well and I was so grateful for all the help I got from my folks watching them when they could!

Loved this shot of them "reading" in our rearranged living room with most of their things packed up!

Then the big move happened on the fourth weekend of May and boy was it a looong day.  All in all, it went fairly smoothly, but by the end of the weekend, we were beat!  We were so grateful for Nana & Pop-Pop being total troopers and helping us out with the girls so much and also so grateful for the chance to see Mee-Maw & Grandpa again for a quick visit on their return from their trip.

Also so grateful for old friends!
Our dear pals from NYC, Lauren & Nate stopped in during a road trip 

so that was so fun to see them.

Despite the insanity of May, there was still plenty of life as usual...

like sprayground fun!

And plenty same old, same old...
Here's a slideshow of May pics:

June also had a lot more life as usual with plenty of moving related busyness but also lots of fun stuff, and big events, too!!!  Starting with our little gymnast showing off what she learned this semester...

And a super fun afternoon at a carnival in Fairfax...

Plus more fun visits with special friends...

Including "Auntie Coop-"
Nana's college roommate and bridesmaid that we are all still close with!

Auntie Coop took in some kayaking at the National Harbor, we enjoyed the carousel, playground, and... sand!

This little one does not mind getting dirty!

Then so excited to see dear friend, Todd, from NYC while he and his friend visited DC!

The middle of June also saw the end of Maelee's first year of school at Pre-K.  What a year it's been!  She loved her class and we saw major improvements in her fine motor skills especially- mainly coloring, drawing, & writing!  Always her challenging areas.  And she has been keeping in touch with a few of her "best friends" through the summer.  Can't believe Kindergarten is only a few weeks away!

Adorable end of year "performance" by the class

Last day!

                                          First day                                                                    Last day

Last week of school pool party at a classmate's

with Lilee adorably photo-bombing...

Yummy Carlyle brunch to celebrate the many celebrations of May & June!

 Celebrating 12 years of marriage with a DC date, enjoying the Spy Museum, and a special dinner

Just a stinkin' cute picture of this funny lady.
In her beloved hat.

 Meeting Holland!
My cousin's cousin's baby girl- so sweet!!!

We were able to have Gracie for a weekend while Nana & Pop-Pop were out of town and the girls loved it!

Parker was a little nervous about the food scrap competition...
but they worked it out just fine.

 So sweet to celebrate Father's Day with these two amazing men-

couldn't ask for a better father to me, or a better father to my two girls 

than my own daddy and my hubby.

And so sweet to celebrate Too-Mom turning 80 at the end of June!!!
 With the adoring great grand-kiddos who love her!

Maelee was so excited to get to spend some time with cousin Caleb during the quick DE afternoon

June was another big, busy month but with summer in full swing, there were lots of sweet memories still.

So here's the slideshow of June pics:

And that just about sums up the summer pre-OBX beach trip.  Hopefully that post will be up before October!!! :)

Dreaming of Disney, Part Two!

What better time to get caught up on our last vacation than on our current one?  Still hard to believe the amazing Disney experience was a whole season ago, but even as we are making new beach memories in the Outer Banks, the fun we had in FL is still pretty fresh!  This post has the Magic Kingdom pics, which began and ended our 4-park visit.  We ended up having several favorite memories there and Maelee was able to meet all of the characters she was hoping to see.  Beginning with...

Minnie!

We saw the stylish mouse get ready for pictures right as we were entering the park so we went straight to the line to meet her.  It ended up being one of the longer lines we had to wait in, but both girls were pretty excited!  And the timing worked out pretty well as we had a Fast Pass to meet Tinker Bell so we went straight from Minnie to Tink, with a sprinkle of pixie dust on the way so we could shrink to her size :)

So happy to be there!

The first roller coaster "ride" of the trip ended up being the favorite- Aladin's Magic Carpet Ride.

And while not one of Maelee's favorite movies, meeting Jasmine & Aladin was definitely the most fun character meet and greet.  These two were so sweet with her and just let her talk and talk... She told all sorts of stories and they both responded without missing a beat. 

And one more time on the Magic Carpet before moving on!

Round & round with Nana & daddy on the tea cups :)

Even Lilee loved riding on Dumbo!

The Barnstormer- Maelee loves to go on the faster rides with daddy!

Excitedly chatting with Ariel

Ice cream break!

Time for Small World!!!

That face says it all...
And Lilee took it all in as well!!!

Time to meet some Princesses!

Reminding Cinderella that she didn't need an autograph since she got it last night at the dinner :)

But still so happy to see her again!

Rapunzel's turn!

And then...

Elsa!!!

We weren't able to get a Fast Pass for these popular princesses and were anticipating having to wait in line up to 2 hrs or so to see them.  Sooo, we were shocked when we finished meeting Cinderella & Rapunzel (who were in the same building as the Frozen ladies) and saw the wait time was only 45 min!  So right back in we went.  And we were even more shocked that it took even less time than that to meet these famous sisters.  Maelee went right in for a hug when meeting Esla and ended up jumping into Anna's arms before saying farewell!

Just a little excited...

Love the pose

One happy girl!


And thanks to some generous birthday cash, Maelee was able to pick her own souvenirs.
She couldn't resist choosing the Elsa "little girl" doll for her first one.

Amazing first day at the Magic Kingdom!

On the other side of the castle, about to head back for the night

Then this one gets her second wind on the tram back to the parking lot!

Our first day at the Magic Kingdom was pretty special and we were so thrilled to have been able to meet, and talk with, so many characters.  Maelee wore her birthday pin and received lots of sweet wishes and we all enjoyed both the classic Disney experiences and the new ones. We were a bit surprised that Maelee was not too fond of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (one of my favorites!!!), due to the creepy, "floating" face in the waterfall at the beginning of the ride, but she pretty much loved everything else.  Lilee was just tickled to be able to ride on anything and it was so fun to see her get so much out of the experience, too.

Our last day of the trip was back at the Magic Kingdom, with repeats of all the favorites, along with some of the must-dos that we missed the first day.  Starting with Enchanted Tales with Belle where the kids got to be a part of the story- Maelee was a dish...

ma belle petite :)

Overall, the food was pretty decent and we were especially impressed with the decadent, complimentary chocolate cake given to Maelee as a sweet birthday treat!

After lunch, Maelee worked up the courage to ride Splash Mountain with us (thanks in part to the river rapids ride at the Animal Kingdom) and squealed/screamed through the entire downhill drop. It wasn't until we saw the picture from the ride afterward that we realized just how much terror was in her scream!  Yes, we did feel slightly guilty that we were giddily enjoying the steep decline while our sweet girl was clearly not all smiles... especially when seeing that two rows behind us there was a mom clutching her child into her, shielding him from the splash! Sigh... Built character though, right?

We did it!

(and yes, Maelee and I wore ponchos- which I don't regret!)

Then it was time for some milder thrills at the Speedway

And Lilee loved the People Mover in Tomorrowland

While Maelee braved the sky high Astro Orbiter with daddy

Back to another favorite for the whole family- Dumbo!

Then one more time seeing Minnie, with a chance to see Daisy to boot

And one last ride around the track with mommy this time!
Maelee loved feeling in control of the wheel :)

A final photo of all of us in front of Cinderella's Castle

And finally with the Big Mouse himself.
What sweet symmetry for our Disney World trip to begin with Minnie and end with Mickey...

Two worn out little girls...

Final slideshow of pics from the Magic Kingdom:

But one big happy family all in all.  What a trip!  We are so grateful to my parents for such an incredible experience and loved every minute of Disney World.  We are already hoping to return when Lilee is about Maelee's age. 

So many special memories! And thus concludes the spring posts with our current summer happenings not too far behind... :)