Lots of Love in June!

We may be several months past the month of love, but there was lots of love going on this month between friends, our girls and their daddy, my hubby and me, and our little family in general.  It also was a crazy bittersweet month with our big girl finishing up Kindergarten and all the fun events that went with that, but those happenings will be in a separate post.   

June began with Steve away for work for a few days and me sick, with a major fundraising event for Maelee's school happening the first Friday night of the month (that I had already gotten a ticket and volunteered for)... So, I was SO grateful for my parent's offer to keep the girls overnight so I could not only attend, but get much needed rest!!!  Definitely helped me turn the corner, then antibiotics later in the week kicked it.  All in all though, it made for a slow start to the month.  

Then the weeks ended up being so full that our weekends were a little slower than usual, but included some parties (birthday and housewarming), some pool time, and another highlight that will be reserved for another post- Steve's daddy/daughter day trip with Maelee to the Baltimore Aquarium.

For this posts' pics, I'm not going in order by date but will try to go somewhat by "topic," starting with a few of sweet Lilee feeling the love with her little friends...

 

Hand fed by Logan

Swinging with Chloe

 

Puppet time with Myra & Logan

Just chillin' in the box with Parker...

She is starting to perfect the art of the "cheese!"

Onto some lovin' of daddy!

So happy to have him home after his 5 day trip to Chicago!

Pool time at a great little pool in Old Town!

Happy Father's Day!!!

 

  SO much love for daddy AND Pop-Pop!!!

 

 Love this one of this man and his girls :)

We enjoyed a Father's Day picnic dinner at a nearby park that's an old fort!

  Running around the park

 

Posing in front of the cannons

These next several pictures are from various times in June but are all of our sweet, LOVEly girls!


  Loving their new princess outfits from Nana & Pop-Pop on their special overnight stay!


Having fun on Nana & Pop-Pop's rooftop before  dinner.


  Lovin' the brand new bench, courtesy of my sweet Too-Daddy!!!


Celebrating the completion of our adoption application over frozen yogurt!!!

YAY!!!

Love these ladies-
with neighbors and friends, Elaina & Kaia :)

And onto a few of our Maelee girl and the love we see in her heart!

 She woke up early one morning to prepare tailor-made breakfast for all of us-

it was so sweet!

(And Lilee devoured her one slice of plain, non-toasted bread :)

 We were able to have Gracie for several days at the end of June and Maelee LOVED having her sleep in her room!

 
 One final hurrah with Laney before she moves to Germany.

Maelee was thrilled to spend the afternoon with her 

best pal from Pre-K at their neighborhood pool!

Then, celebrating so much love for each other after THIRTEEN years of marriage!

Marking our anniversary with drinks at a popular bar in D.C. where our neighbor bartends, Bar Deco.


Yummy dinner at Panache afterward!

And finally, we are so grateful to be making closer connections and friendships with several people at our church.  I was able to go to a fun "wine & paint night" to celebrate a friend's birthday...

Then the next night we hosted our dinner club with a French theme!


The table is set!

 The delicious, two-day, red wine braised short ribs.

These were mainly Steve's efforts and they were incredible!


Yummy french onion soup bite appetizers.


The SO yummy & SO beautiful dessert.

(We did not make this, but we sure enjoyed it!)

   

Our dinner party was a lot of work, but a lot of prep-ahead work at least, so we really enjoyed the evening with these friends that we've been dining with at one anothers' homes once a month since Jan.   We're already thinking about what cuisine to do when our turn comes up again! :)

Stay tuned for one more post from June with more highlights!

Slideshow of more June pics:

 

Strawberries & Gators!

The Saturday and Sunday of our Memorial Day weekend were spent in DE taking in Fifer Farm's Strawberry Festival, lots of rides on gator tractors, and as always, lots of super sweet time with family.  We drove up early on Saturday morning and went straight to the farm, pulling in right at the same time as my cousin, Sam, and his wife, Kim, and boys Mason & Lane.  It was such a treat for us to all go to the festival together and the girls loved seeing their "cousins!" 

 It was a hot day, only to get hotter, so we headed straight to the bounce houses (that already had lines!) to start off the fun!

 

 Then plenty of time with the animals :)

Onto strawberry picking!

 The patch was beautiful and the strawberries were delicious!

We weren't able to actually pick any strawberries the previous years we've gone so we loved being able to this year.  The girls had a blast finding the reddest, prettiest ones!

So fun to spend the day with this sweet family!!!

 Loved our hayride, too!

 

 

 And of course, the girls were thrilled to end the day with ice cream :)

Some Too-Daddy snuggles before dinner at Tom & Viv's!

 

 Swing batta, batta!

 SO much fun riding around on the little gator.

And even more fun in the big one!!!

Such a great night!

Final Too-Dad & Too-Mom snuggles before heading home late Sunday morning.

Pure sweetness.

It was a great visit and we just love every chance we have to see my Too-Daddy and Too-Mom!  We had such a blast seeing Sam and his family and spending time with everyone Sat night at Tom & Viv's, and the girls are beyond excited for our OBX beach trip with everyone in just over a month!

More pictures from our DE visit: