Sadie's 2nd Birthday

So obviously I am a month (at least) behind. But that is my life these days! In any event, we celebrated Sadie Rose's Second Birthday last month on August 4th. It was a wonderful day! She is getting so big. We were beginning to get concerned that she wasn't talking all that much... but come her birthday, the talking began! And there is absolutely nothing she can't say or comprehend. She is like a little parrott. She is such a little love... she makes people smile everywhere we go. I absolutely delight in her little laugh. She has such a sweet and fun energy. And she is still so light and little that I still carry her on my hip everywhere I go as though she was still a baby! She loves her brother and sister, and greets them heartily every time she sees them. "HI SISSY! HI CHAHDIE!" She is delicious and I could not imagine our lives without our little Rosie!

We started the day having coffee with our good friend Erika and her little girl Jordyn. Since their family moved back to Seattle from Phoenix this summer, Sadie and Jordyn have begun a little friendship. Sadie calls her "JoJo fend" (JoJo friend).

Then we headed off to U Village for lunch with daddy and a visit to the toy store.

Later in the evening we had a little family birthday party with Grammy and Papa, Nanny (Paul's mom), Chelsy, Auntie Val and Christian, and Grammy Carol and Papa Tom.

I don't think two little girls were ever more different! Goofy Avery always either making a silly face or brooding for the camera...

I can never resist an opportunity to make a Barefoot Contessa Coconut cake!

In other news, Charlie learned to ride his bike with no training wheels the week before...

Backyard Play Toy!

Growing up, we always had a swingset in the back yard. Grammie has been talking for almost a year about how she wanted to get the kids a swingset. So finally a few weeks ago, we headed out to a place to pick one out. They called me pretty quickly to set up the delivery, so we were very excited! The day it was delivered, it was a Tuesday. It was going to take the entire day to install it, but the kids waited, looking at the kitchen for literally three hours, watching the workers install the playtoy before they realized it was going to be quite some time before it was finished. I've never witnessed such anticipation!! It was worth the wait. They are entertained for hours... Avery would swing ALL DAY if someone would just push her. The next challenge is to teach these kids to pump their legs so that we don't need to stand there and push them. Sadie climbs up and down the treehouse like it's no big deal. And all the neighborhood kids have made their home in my yard. But that is okay with me! Thankyou to Grammie... we are so blessed!

Papa's Boat Race

A few weeks ago, Papa had a boatrace at Lake Wilderness Park. It was a spectacular warm sunny day... in fact I think it was the last "real" sunny day we've had, and the only one so far this year that has really felt like summer. For those of you who have heard me talk about my dad's boat racing, this will fill in some of the gaps for you. He races scale model hydroplanes at various locations throughout the region and has been doing so since he was a kid growing up in the Genesee area of Seattle. Hydroplanes have always been a big part of our life growing up, and continues to be my dads passion, and now it is so fun to take our kids to be a part of it. We had the best day playing out in the sun... there was even a carnival at the Lake as part of Maple Valley days, so the kids got to go on some rides. Papa won all his heats and would have won the entire race if he hadn't gotten taken out by a crash in the final heat!

Birthday!

In May I celebrated my 31st Birthday. Paul got me a Keurig coffee maker which has changed my life. I was able to celebrate with great friends and family and had a great day. The day before, I also got to celebrate with some of my best girlfriends from the neighborhood, but I didn't get a picture :(

Little Miss Clippies

This one is a tribute to my friend Elizabeth. One day I found the kids in a clippie pow-wow. Charlie was having a grand time putting ALL the clippies we own into Sadies hair. She ended up looking like a Little Miss Clippies lampshade!!!

More T Ball

I'm going to overlook the fact that I have utterly and completely neglected my blog and just move on to updating you on what has been happening in the Merritt family for the past couple of months. This post concludes the end of what must have been the most pitiful T Ball season in the history of any kid's life. We had about 12 scheduled games, of which we played about 6... the rest being rained out. The weather so far this summer and spring have been spectacularly gloomy, and it made for a sad, short little t ball season. But we enjoyed what we got! Although Charlie was not particularly interested... we shall see if baseball is something he persues in the future or not.