Our Little Dancers

 Our girls love spending time with their friends Gigi and Cami so being in dance class with them is extra fun!  Don't be fooled by Claire's dancer pose - she's sort of in her own little world after the shoe change in-between ballet and tap.  She gets super distracted and has to be convinced to go back in to 'tap, tap, tap'.  This has been a total surprise to us since she was originally so excited about dance class and Stella not so much.  Amazing how they can change their minds so quickly!  Eventually Claire did return to class and once she's dancing she does seem to enjoy it!

Our silly girls covered their heads while watching Monsters Inc. on Saturday.  Claire-Bear continues to just love the characters and giggles all through the movie!

 Stella loves to take photographs.  She took this pic of a tree down the street from the wagon on our way to the playground!

Stella is such a good helper at times.  She pulled Claire back from the playground and didn't want mommy's help at all!  We're so glad we've had some warm fall days and are still enjoying the sunshine!

Apple Season!

This weekend we visited the orchard down the street.  Both girls loved picking apples from the trees and tasting the delicious honeycrisp variety that's crunchy and sweet.  Claire loved them so much she had one in each hand!

 

                       

Stella has become quite the photographer!  Here's a great pic of Claire taking a break from Princess Pets to smile for Stella.

This week the girls tried out a ballet and tap class for the first time and they both had fun.  Stella wasn't sure about it at first but when Mommy came home from working a XC meet she was so excited to share the Itsy Bitsy Spider song and dance she learned so we're pretty sure she loved it!  

Thanks to NCPR for hosting a fun kids event today - our girls loved all of the carnival games!  Thanks to Grammie and Pa too for having us over for dinner!

Getting Some Hair Paint at the NCPR Event

Welcome Fall

Fall has officially arrived!  We spent the weekend in Vermont and the moment we arrived home turned our furnace on. The weather in the North Country turned abruptly this year! 

The girls enjoyed another fun weekend volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House.  This time on our Saturday break we headed over to Pizza Putt for some indoor play.  The girls had a great time!




















Stella helped Mommy stamp a few envelopes on Saturday morning before Claire-Bear woke up (and since we weren't fabulous at that the second she bored a little we put those away for another helper!).

We made some meals and snacks this weekend also.  Thanks to our friend Brent who we caught up with at our high school Reunion a few weeks back and discovered lives in Burlington for stopping by the house to cook and hang out with us!

Stella dragged this GIANT teddy bear from the play room into our room and decided
to use it as a mattress.  Mommy rolled with this (but really wanted to run for a can of Lysol!!!)

Back to School

Crafts with Cailin at the Pig Roast

Last weekend was busy with both Mommy and Daddy's 15th High School Class Reunion and Grammie and Pa's Pig Roast.  Then it was back to our regular school year routine of getting up and out of the house early.  Luckily for us the first week back was only 4 days and we were able to spend this weekend at home recovering so to speak from the shock to our summer time no schedule fun!

Spin Art Fun!

Backyard Fun @ Grammie & Pa's

Claire being a silly Monkey, and Stella
capturing it with Mommy's phone...

Watching Dora in the City together :)

Volunteering @ Ronald McDonald House

Claire on the playground at the RMH
(for those of you who are really observant that's
a hand-me down shirt - Claire's not going to be a big sister!)

This weekend Claire spent her first night at the Ronald McDonald House in Burlington.  Randy and I have volunteered to be overnight relief managers at the house and are excited to have the opportunity to help out from time to time.  Stella of course doesn't remember her time at the house but she was happy to be there!  Both girls had a fun time and didn't want to leave this afternoon when we headed back to NY.  We're so glad to be able to give back to this organization that was so important to us when Stella and Trey were born - and the best part is we get to do this together as a family!  This volunteer opportunity does allow us a few hours to enjoy Burlington when we are there so this weekend we met up with Caroline, Esme, and their family on Saturday afternoon and went to North Beach.  It was an absolutely beautiful day!

Loving the Play Room!

Our tired girl slept through the ferry ride back to NY

On the ferry on our way home

Outdoor Fun!

The new plane @ Fobare's Fruits!

The past two weeks we've been finding different things to do outdoors before summertime is over.  Fall is definitely in the air in the North Country right now but we are planning to enjoy every last minute of time at home before the school year begins!











 We made a fun game out of some items we found at the girls favorite store - The Dollar Tree!  We picked out the artificial flowers together and then played a racing game after spreading them all over the yard to see how many flowers we could collect in our buckets.  This was a good counting exercise for Claire-Bear too!

Flower Power!

Sidewalk Paint Fun in the Driveway

Daddy was at golf one afternoon and while we were hanging out at Grammie and Pa's playing dress-up Stella asked Mommy to take a picture to send to Daddy.  She loves to dress up!

The girls were pretty fortunate to be able to spend a lot of time with their best friends Gigi and Cambria when Daddy helped out at their house for a few days.  It seems no matter how much they get to play together they are always asking for more time seeing one another!

Summer Fest 2014

Bathing Beauties!

This weekend was the Tri-Town Summer Festival so we had lots to do right here at home!  On Friday night we stayed up late and watched the fireworks, and on Saturday we had friends over to watch the parade together.  We also went to the Carnival of Fun and played games and bounced around a bit.  It was a really hot day so the fire department spoiled the children with the biggest sprinkler they'll ever play in on the softball field.  It was great fun!  After some rest time at home Mommy and Stella headed back out and enjoyed a steak dinner while Daddy and Claire picked up subs and ate in.  It was great having some 1-1 time with the girls and everyone got to have what they wanted for dinner so that was a good thing too!  On Sunday daddy went golfing with Uncle Ryan and Conner so Rylin came over to play with the girls.  They all had a fun time!

Post Vacation Blues

There's not much worse than vacation ending other then going back to work after vacation ending!  It turns out that Stella came down with something contagious on Monday so Mommy did get to have a sick day at home on Thursday with the girls which helped get through the 'week after vacation' blues!  The girls were exposed to the chicken-pox virus at the end of June so we weren't all that surprised when some blemishes showed up after our trip.  Unfortunately we weren't able to see our usual pediatrician this week and the doctor we saw felt like it was a toss up between chicken pox and hand foot mouth.  Since (other than one small mark on her hand) nothing appeared in her mouth or on her hands or feet we're pretty sure she had the chicken-pox.  Luckily thanks to modern medicine being vaccinated meant this break-through virus was extremely mild and ended up only being very few skin blemishes and no major issues (other than having to stay in for the week!).  Claire has been blemish-less so that's been a blessing!  Having a quiet week without any play-dates wasn't all that bad after our week of excitement.  A little extra rest and relaxation was pretty much just what everyone needed!

This week Mommy said goodbye to a dear friend who has always been in her life, Grammie and Pa's neighbor Ronnie.  He was a great neighbor growing up and was part of the 'village' that it takes to raise a child, or in the case of the Goolden Girls, children.  Times like these make us only so thankful that heaven is for real.  Knowing we will see those we love again helps us cherish our time here on Earth.

Next week we'll get to have great fun with the Tri-Town Summer Festival.  Hopefully we'll have sunny skies and a great time enjoying the parade, fireworks, and all the youth activities planned for the festival.  Stay tuned!

Our Disney Vacation

The Whole Crew!

We recently returned from a week long vacation at Disney World and we had a fantastic time!  It was wonderful to see so many cousins and family members and meeting many of our favorite Disney Characters was fun too.  The girls traveled well and were in a great mood for nearly all of the trip.  They even handled airport delays on the way home well.  We'll definitely visit this special place again but in the meantime here are some pics we hope you'll enjoy!

Meeting Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen

Chef Mickey's

Heading back to the  resort after a 'Royal Table' experience at Cinderella's Castle

Meet & Greet with our favorite Monster's Inc. Characters (minus Boo!)

Epcot

 We truly couldn't have asked for a better vacation.  We spent a lot of time at the Magic Kingdom but also made some time for fun at Downtown Disney, a Safari ride at Animal Kingdom, water park fun at Blizzard Beach, a round of Mini Golf, our very own In-Room Boutique with all six girls, the Finding Nemo ride at Epcot, Disney Junior Live on Stage at Hollywood Studios, the pool and arcade at the Resort, and so much more!  We feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to take our children to this magical place and of course for us to take a nice break for the week - this was an unforgettable vacation!

2014 Summer Fun

Summer has gotten off to a great start with lots of fun!  Stella tried out Gym Rats Basketball Day Camp this week and she seemed to have a great time.  Despite her daddy's love of the game when we asked her what her favorite part of camp was she responded 'having milk and cookies!'.











Here are some pics of some of what we've been up to lately:

Painting Fun Outdoors

Snuggling with Daddy!

Cruising around in the Jeep

Play Picnic @ Trey's Spot

Sisterly Love @ Home Depot
(while Mom & Dad pick out a new grill)

4th of July Pre-Parade Fun & Games

Lunch @ Mo's

It's great when the girls find their own entertainment.  On the left Stella is pretending to play golf while waiting for Claire to get her hair cut.  On the right Claire's having a snack at the mall afterward.






We will soon be venturing to Florida to meet up with all of our cousins for a Disney Vacation.  Everyone is super excited, especially Mommy!

Summer Vacation!

Friday marked the start of summer vacation and the beginning of a few months the girls will get to spend at home with their daddy!  Cousin Logan graduated from high school this week so we spent some time at grammie & pa's celebrating over the weekend.  Stell-Belle will try out basketball camp this week.  She's excited!

Beach Pics!

Last weekend we all went on a golf outing for 9 holes later in the day to celebrate Father's Day with daddy.  We had such a nice time and enjoyed the views of the St. Lawrence River.  Stella was really into the golf too!

This weekend we had a quiet day at home on Saturday and then had some fun in the sun at the beach with Uncle Ryan, Courtney, Camdon, Conner, and Rylin.  It was a beautiful day and everyone had so much fun!

Golf Trips

Daddy has been doing some traveling with one of his BMC golfers so the girls have been playing 'golf trip' all weekend long.  When they are outside they load up their clubs on their barbie jeep and drive around the yard.  This morning when we were playing inside they loaded up their shopping cart with golf clubs and attached it to their horse. Gotta love their creativity!

 We had some company on Friday night when the Tudor's invited us to join them for dinner at The Riverview.  That was a nice break for Mommy with Daddy being out of town and the girls had so much fun seeing Kalub for a few extra hours than usual.  When we came home from dinner we played tag in the yard and poor little Stell-Belle ran right into the fence post across the lawn at Ms. Katy's house.  It was so sad.  There were a lot of tears and she has quite a bruise but it didn't take long for her to get back to playing!

The girls were snuggling on the couch for a Frozen movie night after lots of fun in the sun.  Neither one of them made it through the movie they were so tired out!

Last weekend playing pass the ball with Toby. 

Last weekend we went to Kennady's birthday dance party.  The girls were a little younger than most of the other guests but they sure had fun dancing!