Long Overdue

Let's just call a spade and spade and say that this week has kicked my rear end.

Here are the photos I eluded to on Tuesday, but haven't managed to scrape together the 2 minutes required to upload them until Friday.
Here's Joshua enjoying Pap and Nana's dirt pile last Friday when we were at their house for a homemade ice cream party in honor of my Aunt Pattie's visit from Florida. It was a really nice evening and we all enjoyed being together. I was so glad that I had previously scheduled to have the carpets cleaned and booked a room at Chez Mom and Dad's (about 6 months ago) so that we could just happen to be in town for the festivities.

Beacuse of all the fun at Nana and Pap's, Libby's car was parked in on Friday night, so we decided to tub the kids together there. Luckily, Mom just happened to have PJ's for Brooke. So Josh and Brooke tubbed together and managed to get along relatively well despite Joshua's declaration of "BUBBLE FIIIIIIGHT!" a few times. Then they camped out on Nana's couch with some marshmallows and watched the Lion King.

Here was the gang at the Richard Reunion on Saturday. This was the photo we took of my generation....which, by the way had the poorest showing of all of them. This is the one time of the year that we're all together, and I hate to admit it, but it was a fun afternoon. Joshua had a blast and Lauren behaved relatively well. I count that a victory.

After the Reunion, we headed back to Nana and Pap's and spent the rest of the evening there. Lauren absolutely loved playing with the toys and exploring the house. She got into her fair share of mischief, but looked adorable doing so, as always.

Darn you, Gymboree for luring me in with the overabundance of color-coordinated cuteness. I bought this outfit MONTHS ago, but loved finally seeing Lauren in it. I mean, really....could this be any more precious?

And finally, look what I got a picture of this morning at the house! Lauren is standing!! This is what she does most of the time now. She's on her feet most of the time, walking from thing to thing. It's not always graceful, but she seems to be preferring being upright now that she's getting the hang of it. She absolutely loves this ball popper. It was one of Joshua's favorites as well. I get a kick out of how differently they play with it, though. Joshua preferred chaos when he was Lauren's age. The balls were always going every which way and he would giggle and then have fun chasing them. Lauren prefers to manage the situation and keeps all of the balls on the track as much as she can. Most of the time she tries to grab them as they pop out of the top. So, Aunt Libby, your gift lives on. The one thing that I was thinking about last night is that we've never changed the batteries in that toy....ever. Joshua played with it hard, and Lauren is too. How in the world is it possible that my digital camera batteries are constantly dead, but the batteries in this toy that makes me crazy with its incessant music NEVER EVER DIES?

Happy weekend everyone!