Summer Recap #9: Our NorCal Visitor

This July we were so excited to learn that one of our very good friends, Craig, came in from California for a much awaited visit.

Sean and Craig have been buddies since college, and he was one of his Best Men in our wedding. In fact, that was the last time we saw him - and that was 5 years ago!

While he was here, we went out with our families to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants from when we were in college, spent the day downtown showing him the sites, and finished the visit with another dinner with some college friends.

We loved every minute of the visit, and hope it's not as long in between visits as before. Craig - we miss you already! You are welcome back anytime ;)

Dinner at "Puerta":

Out at Scotty's:

Dinner with friends:

Later that night...

Summer Recap #8: Lilly's 1st Birthday

This July, we helped celebrate Lilly's 1st birthday. We had a cookout and played some cornhole before the typical birthday festivities took place.

It was so hard to believe it has already been a year! Time really does fly when you have kids.

This was probably the best smash-my-face-in-the-cake moment I have seen at a 1st birthday. Here it it unfolding...

Diving face-first into the cake, but being sure to pause for all to capture the photo op:
What? Why don't you have icing all over your faces? You weirdos.

Summer Recap #7: Take me out to the ballgame, part 2

For the 4th of July this year, we went to another Indians game. This time we went with my good friends from work - Ashley and her husband Andy, and Jenna, her husband Brad, and their little cutie Parker.

This time, we got tickets in the outfield. It was actually really nice to be in the grass with the kiddos, because the boys were able to play on a blanket and Ava was able to roam freely. (For those of you with small children, I would definitely recommend it over sitting in the stands).

Here are Parker and Aidan playing (watch out for the 2022 NFL Draft--you may see both of these bruisers there):
Sean and Ava getting a closer view of the field:

Summer Recap #6: Father's Day

This year for Father's Day, we took the kids to one of our favorite parks in town. We packed a picnic lunch, ate, played on the playground, blew some bubbles, then Ava and Sean took a ride on the carousel.

Later that evening, I made the dinner that Sean requested, and we went for ice cream afterwards.

The weather was BEAUTIFUL, we had a great time, and couldn't imagine a better way to spend the day.


(Ava wasn't like this the whole time. She eventually thought it was super cool!)

Summer Recap #5: The pool

This summer, Gram and *Dzia bought the kids their first inflatable pool. There really isn't anything too exciting about this particular post, however, I can't resist little kids in their cute little swimsuits.

Ava, being the diva that she is, thought the water was way too cold and refused to sit down:
Aidan, on the other hand, got right into things like he usually does:
(*For those of you wondering what Dzia is, it is the Polish word for 'grandfather'. I can't think of a way to phonetically spell it, but it starts with a soft g sound--like in the word 'gerbil', and rhymes with 'dodge'. THERE! Now you know some Polish!)

Summer Recap #4: Take me out to the ballgame, part 1

This summer, we were fortunate enough to spend a nice evening watching an Indianapolis Indians baseball game from a suite with our good friends Keith, Jessica, and Lilly.

Not only did we get to watch from a pimp (and did I mention free) suite, but the kids got to experience their first baseball game, they also got to meet the starting pitcher for the home team, the Indians won in the bottom of the 9th with two outs, AND there were fireworks after the game. Talk about the perfect night at the ballpark.

Here are a few of our favorite shots:
(notice Aidan's very cute and very appropriate baseball romper)

(A view from the suite)

Summer Recap #3: Mudmen

Ava's best friend in the world is Ian. Ian's parents - David and Jenny - and Sean and I are convinced they will end up married one day.

Just about every weekend, our families get together and hang out. On this particular day, Ava and Ian decided it would be fun to play in a mud puddle in the flower bed. This was the end result...

"Mudmen" is what they were calling themselves:


A face only a mother could love:

Meanwhile, Aidan just sits on a blanket watching the whole thing unfold:

I am willing to bet that next year Aidan will join the ranks as a "Mudman"...

Summer Update #2: Bend it Like Ava

Some of you know that this past spring/summer, Ava participated in her first round of "organized" sports (I do use that term very lightly) and played on a parent/child soccer team.

At first, she was a bit timid. But in true Ava fashion, it didn't take long for her to think she was too big for a simple game of Red Light/Green Light, and want to get right down to the actual soccer stuff.

Here she is setting up the "trees":


Here she is knocking them down:

And here Aidan is on the sidelines with his typical pensive look:

(can you say 'Daniel Craig', anyone?)

Summer Recap #1: Crawling

Aidan has been mobile now for about 2 months. I remember thinking, "will this boy ever crawl?" Now that he is crawling, I find myself asking, "why can't he be in the same place where I left him?" For those of you that are parents you know what I mean.

Here is big sister Ava trying to help her little brother out:

I have a feeling there will be a LOT of Ava trying to show Aidan how things are done!

Our First Post!!

OK, OK--I know what you are all thinking. People usually start a blog when there is something exciting about to happen like a birth or a wedding. As most of you know, we've been through the whole wedding thing, AND we already have two beautiful children.

So you may be asking yourself, "Why the long wait?" I guess all I can come up with is, well, there is no excuse! Better late then never, though - right?

This blog is being maintained so all of our family and friends - near and far - will be able to keep tabs on us and so that we can share the fun and (hopefully at times) exciting things going on in our lives.

As one of our favorite TV personalities, Joel McHale would say, "Please to enjoy..."