40 Years

This weekend was full of fun celebrating my parents marriage! I'm so grateful to be a part of their life, and look forward to many more years to come. 

Wedding albums, wedding planning notebook, and we collected 40 memories from guests for the happy couple. 

Wedding pictures

Mom's wedding dress, along with my grandma's dress she wore to the wedding, my great aunt's dress she wore to the wedding, and a bridesmaid dress. 

Center pieces...peonies from the garden. 

Guest book table...their original guest book still had plenty of room so we just added to it. 

Lisa, Mom, Dad, me, Beth

Cookies

Fruit/cheese/crackers and cake made by a good family friend. 

Gianna's Java & Gelato catered coffee, tea and gelato. 

Coconut/chocolate chip, French vanilla, raspberry cheesecake, lemonchello sorbeto...so good!

This is the closest I got to a photo of my family with mom & dad. I just didn't think of it in the midst of everything else. 

Cutting the cake. 

I love little Lewis peeking up at G&G. He was very concerned about getting a slice of cake. 

Kid corner

Later that evening we had a family dinner at my parents house. My aunt Carol hosted dinner. Since she didn't give a toast at the wedding reception 40 years ago, she decided to give one at the dinner. She did such a nice job! Logan said a few (very funny) words and then lead the meal prayer. 

Dinner was delicious!

My sisters and I gave our parents these beauties. Dad's shirt: Chemistry is like cooking, just don't lick the spoon. Mom's apron: cooking is like chemistry, only you can lick the spoon. We also gave them a night at a B&B of their choice. 

After dinner I arranged for a small surprise. They don't really like surprises so I kept it simple, but they were good sports about it and really enjoyed it!

We took them to St. Patrick's Parish where they were married, although the church has recently been completely rebuilt. My parents have a photo from their wedding day standing outside the church under a black umbrella waiting for their ride.

I arranged for the priest who married them, Msgr. Witt, to meet us at the church and renew their vows. 

Carol made my mom a bouquet and my dad a boutonniere. I only have video of the renewal of vows at the altar, so no photo. 

Guess who caught the bouquet!

It was a very fun day! Congrats Mom & Dad! We love you!

Six Weeks Old

Elias is six weeks old tomorrow! He is smiling at us, cooing, and kicking up a storm - especially in the bouncy seat. 

Weird angle but such a sweet smile! My mom said tonight that he's outgrowing his hair and that's a really good way to describe it. His head is growing and his cute locks seem to be moving further and further back on his little forehead. 

He's noticing anything that's in front of him. Sometimes we attach the toys on the bouncy seat now. We also put the bird mobile above the changing table. He notices when we read him books. 

He has been wiggling out of his swaddle blankets too. Arg. 

This is his super happy face. He loves it when we talk to him. 

Here he is in the middle of a kicking session. 

He likes to look at these guys on the changing table. He seems to bat at them too, but it could be coincidence. 

He was really really fascinated by the umbrella tonight!

Middle

It just dawned on me that Lewis is having a rough time transitioning to middle brother. He's never been a rule follower so it didn't quite click in my head. His behavior lately (but now that I look back more like since Elias was born) has been really terrible despite my best efforts. Like I said, he doesn't care much about rules, but he's been off the charts lately. This week I found him at the next door neighbor's helping make brownies. He's gone in a flash and I can't keep up.

He so desperately wants to have everything to do with his baby brother, but can't quite resist the urge to push on his head or squeeze his feet or talk too loud at him. 

(He is "mowing" here. He had Augustine and I laughing pretty hard because the bouncy seat isn't easy to push on carpet and when it would get stuck he would be so irritated and say "Me mower not working!" and give it a little kick.) He wants to like Elias and help with him but in the midst of helping he is a bit too loud or a bit too wild. He's trying. He really is. 

It'll just take time. And now that I see his struggles maybe I can help him more and be frustrated less. It always baffles me how little perspective I have on my own kids. 

Augustine Happenings

"I wish I had three hands: one to hold his binki, one to hold his hand, and one to rub his head. "

{We got a new-to-us pretend grill}

"When we first got home, mom, I didn't understand what you were talking about. I thought in my brain 'why would Lewis be playing with the real grill?' and then I realized it was a toy one."

Having a lovely tea party with Julia. He's becoming quite experienced with tea parties. 

And some fun playing afterwards. 

He graduated from St. T's preschool! It's officially his last time graduating from preschool. On to Kindergarten!

We made his teacher our very favorite scones. Augustine also made her a very creative card (dang...no photo) and he said it was his teacher's house floating on a raft. 

The boys decided they would like our traditional start to the summer to be getting ice cream on the last day of school. Yum!

He's been very happy rebuilding the fire station lots of different ways. I usually build it and they play for a day or two before we reconfigure. 

Fire Fighter Fun Run

We tried out the Fire Fighter Fun Run at the zoo this year! I didn't know about this event until this year, and it was definitely $5 worth of fun. They got a t-shirt too. 

Ready at the starting line!

Lewis was a little freaked out when the whole crowd took off running so he rode on the stroller with Elias and I. Augustine LOVED it and took off! Logan caught up to him and they ran the entire mile (1/2 mile?) together!

Elias was a really good baby and did this the whole time. 

There was Gatorade and water at the finish line. 

Another prize was a train ticket! Elias got his first zoo train ticket but we saved it for later because 2 & under don't need a ticket. 

All the emergency responders had booths and their vehicles on display. 

LES also had a safety demonstration. They showed the kids just how hot and dangerous electrical wires are. My favorite part was when they touched a hot dog to one of the wires and it blew up. 

This was a mini house the fire men educated the kids with, and it was really interesting. They taught the kids what to do if they are in a house and there is a fire. They talked about how to escape a fire and then let the kids try...they all came out the window and used the chain ladder to escape. 

Of course, we had to check out the fire truck. The fire men had quite a few calls during this event. Three engines were called away and a replacement came each time. Augustine was excited when station 7 showed up. 

Over all it was a fun event and we plan to go again!

Lately

Lewis is suddenly very good at these 12 piece puzzles. I showed him how to find the corners first and then build from there. 

Lewis' very good friend on her third birthday! We had a play date and lunch from JJ's. Mostly because the moms needed some solidarity. 

I bought this fire station set months ago and hid it for after Elias was born. We needed something new to do last week so I pulled it out. Win. 

Elais is loving Aden & Anias swaddle blankets so we walked to Circle Me and bought two more. Then we got adjustments (because our Chiro is attached to the store) and headed to the park. 

Elias was happy in the Maclaren for a while but it doesn't recline all the way so he can't ride in it yet. 

We picked up our t-shirts for the Firefighter Fun Run at Station 1, and Lewis could have watched the Bobcat scoop gravel for hours. 

Logan hosted an evening for some of his mission partners in town last week and the Kleins came! They were my Godteen sponsors in high school. It was so good to catch up with them and let them cuddle my baby. 

Said swaddler. Win again. 

We had a terrible morning one day and I finally packed everyone up and went to G&G's. They make everything better. 

I had to get blood drawn that day so my mom kept everyone and I ran to the lab. This is what I came home to. Completely under control, of course!