It's been a great few weeks here! Back on July 22nd, Tony and I took the kids to the Flushing Concert in the Park. The music was '60's and '70's and not very good, but we still got some great pictures!

Emma and her Daddy!

Emma - just happy to be outside!

Bradlee - getting into the diaper bag!!

"Walking" around with Pat (Tomasik)!!

There was a threat of rain, so we made a tent with the umbrella!

The kids loved sitting under it!

We had Bradlee's 1st Birthday Party on July 26th at our house. That morning, Tony was feeding Bradlee his morning breakfast of yogurt and stepped away for a minute. Bradlee decided he wanted to feed himself, so he got the yogurt (which was about half full) and the spoon and went for it! The result? Bath #2 for the day!!!

Again, there was a threat of rain, so we had things ready to go inside and out. We grilled outside and everyone had a great dinner outside...then it POURED....so we all headed inside for presents and dessert! Emma and I picked out a cupcake-cake from VG's with a Sesame Street theme. When we went to pick it up, though, we noticed that they had spelled his name wrong! So, they "fixed" it right then, and it looked okay, but not perfect. We ended up getting the cake free! Bradlee got his own little cake to enjoy as well. We had a great time with our family and friends that were able to make it...including my friend from grade school, Julie, and my college roommate (who lives in Waterloo, Canada and drove over just for the party!), Lauren!!! Bradlee, of course, decided it was a good day to mess his diaper all over his outfit resulting in bath #3....and then after the cake (see picture below!)....Bath #4!!! What a clean and great way to celebrate Bradlee turning 1!!

For Emma's birthday each year, we go to Red Robin for dinner with my parents, just like we did the day before we went to the hospital to have her when she was born...so we decided we had to have a similar tradition with Bradlee! The night we went in to have him, we dropped Emma off at Tony's parents' house and had Sorrento's (Italian) for dinner...so that is now the tradition! So on Wednesday (Bradlee's birthday, the 29th), we headed out to Flushing and enjoyed Sorrento's take out! What a great night we had! We had another little cake and some ice cream and celebrated again! Emma just loved giving Bradlee attention...and of course, having even more cake! LOL Here's the birthday boy and his daddy goofing around on Bradlee's birthday!

This week I am on vacation, so I am taking the opportunity to spend as much time with the kids as possible! Sunday night I played a concert in Saginaw, so we all went up there and spent the afternoon together...Emma just loves coming to my concerts! She loves trying to play my clarinet after each concert I play! She's pretty good, too! She can get a really good tone and I play the keys! We just have to work on her breath control! LOL

Today (Monday), Emma and I picked up my mom (also on vacation!) and my sister, Karyn, and went to Canton to the IKEA store. What a place! It was the first time I had ever been there, and we had a great time, just the girls!!! I can't wait to see what we come up with the rest of the week!!