Summer Photo Dump

We did so many fun things this summer- I can't believe that it's over! :( But, fall is around the corner and we have many more fun activities planned for the next season. Here are some pics from our summer adventures.

Erie County Fair- despite her looking a little nervous, she loved the horses!

The beach at Green Lake

Woodlawn Beach- first time in Lake Erie!

Possibly one of my favorite photos from the summer!

Peekaboo Evie

"Ma- look at those super cool river otters!"

My parents got us a family membership to the zoo for our anniversary, so get ready for a year full of zoo trips ;)

It's a fake pig- she loved it ;)

First kiddie train ride!!

Evelyn Clara: 16 months

Favorite books: Green Eggs and Ham (at least twice a day), The Circus Ship
Favorite food: eggs, rice, yogurt, strawberry fruit flats, veggie stix, popcorn, homemade chicken nuggets, anything that mommy seems to be enjoying
Favorite activities: coloring, washing the toys outside with a sponge and bucket of water, filling bags with stuff and carrying the bag around the house, reading books, running around naked after bathtime, pretending to drive daddy's car, being tickled
Favorite places to go: Green Lake park, Nana's house
Favorite words: "dog" and "woof" - which is so funny to me because we do not have a dog :)

Skills mastered: going up stairs using just hands and feet (no knees- and she can do a few without hands sometimes), going backwards in the Cozy Coupe car, kicking a ball, using a fork and spoon properly and unassisted, climbing into boxes/baskets (just needs help getting out)

Activities we did this month: baby shower for Pippa and baby Ezra, baby shower for Tammy and baby Evan,  mommy and daddy's 6th wedding anniversary- sleepover at Nana and Grandpa's, first trip to the beach, Erie County Fair, first haircut, family pictures today!

This is my favorite face that Evie makes these days, I call it the kissy face! :)

Mommy's New Toy

Eric got me a wonderful anniversary present this year- a new camera!! :) I am SO excited to learn how to use it, but already I see a difference in my photos, they look amazing! Stay tuned for about a million more photos of Miss Evie, because I need lots of practice. ;)

The Strong Museum & Convention

Well, I certainly am behind on posts huh? :) Summer is busy, it's crazy hot here, my camera had a battery leak last week... you know, the usual list of things that get in the way. So here I am to catch up!

Hanging out in the Sesame Street library- we did Sesame Street first, and I think Evie was really overwhelmed. But we found this little nook with books and she settled right in. :) After a couple minutes of book reading, she was ready to go check out the rest of the museum!

"Digging" in the rock pile.... or throwing rocks.

Daddy teaching Evie how to use the saw in Berenstein Bear land- this may have been one of Evie's favorite parts, it made a saw noise every time you moved it and she thought it was awesome!

Lifesize chess board. Evie won. ;)

We did the museum with our pals Aaron and Micah, and the kids all had a blast! It was really fun to go with friends, we'll definitely do it again.

Here we are on our way out, sitting on the steps in Sesame Street!

Our last stop at the museum- Evie's first ride on a carousel!! She really seemed to love it. Also, my photos in the kid-sized Wegmans didn't turn out well, so see her 15 month post for a video of her shopping, too cute!!

We did the Strong Museum on Thursday before our annual District Convention in Rochester. I was nervous for this year, everyone was telling me it would be our hardest. It's a tough age for a little one to sit in a seat quietly- for an hour, let alone all day! ;) I kept my expectations low and brought LOTS of things for Evie to do. Overall, she did better than I expected! The worst part was sleeping in the hotel room, she was NOT having it at all and didn't fall asleep until around 10 pm all three nights. She didn't like being in the same room as us, even though we turned off all of the lights and sat on the bed, she knew we were there and wanted to play. But, I think getting less sleep at night worked a little in my favor during the day because she was tired and she sat in my lap a lot. And I didn't have to walk her to get her to sleep, she fell asleep on my lap on her own. On Saturday afternoon she actually slept for almost 3 hours!!
She did play with some of the things I brought, but now I have a better idea of what works and what doesn't. And next year she'll be old enough to do more things (like coloring, which we tried but Evie wasn't interested), and she may understand a little better about sitting in our seats. We had a good time though and learned a lot!

Evelyn Clara: 15 months

Yes yes, I am behind. Let's move on shall we? ;) Evie is 15 (+) months, and the summer is flying by!! We've been very busy with swim lessons, playdates, parties, and mini trips. 

Evie finished up her swim lessons at East Aurora Community Pool this month, and I think overall they were a success. :) We learned that Evie has a great "superman float" as her teacher Miss Bree called it- that means floating on your belly. Evie is very comfortable in the pool which is good, and she really enjoyed all of the songs we sang for our lessons. The only thing she isn't fond of is floating on her back, when I'd try to hold her there she would put her legs straight up in the air everytime! :) I think we'll definitely do it again next summer.

Eric and I had two weddings this past month, so Evie spent some extra time hanging out with Nana and Grandpa, and she had her first overnight away from us!! She did very well, taking just under an hour to settle down to sleep, then going straight through the night- woo hoo!! Sorry for all of the exclamation points, I'm just pretty excited. ;) She's not away from us (or mostly me) that much, so it's good for her to spend the night with my parents occasionally. We're planning it again this coming weekend since it's mine and Eric's 6th anniversary.

New skills: running, identifying body parts (teeth, eyes, nose, ears, belly, toes), fetching toys/objects when asked, helping mommy clean up our toys (woo hoo again!), following more verbal commands, starting to learn the hand motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" on her own, hugging her stuffed animals and dolls

New words: ball, dog

I'm low on photos this month due to some camera issues, so check out a couple videos from the last month with Miss Evie. The first is one of her new games- being a monster. ;) Her little growl is the cutest! The second is her shopping at the kid-sized Wegmans at the Strong Museum that we went to last week- it was so fun!!!

Evelyn Clara: 14 months old

Evie changes and learns more every day- it is so fun to watch! She has opinions and she voices them- sometimes very loudly! ;) This last month has been a busy one- we went to Seneca Lake for a week with Nana, Grandpa, Aunt Ally, and Uncle Matt, plus tons of playdates and plans. Evie learned to throw (which she does constantly now), and is very steady on her feet now. I would say she will be full out running really soon!

Some words that Evie has started saying consistently: mama, dada, nana, woof, hot, no, yea. She can also sign "all done" and "more".

Evie's favorite games and songs: 5 little piggies, Wheels on the Bus, Rockabye Baby, Itsy Bitsy Spider

Evie loves her little Cozy Coupe car a lot these days- even more than her wagon!! She also likes the kiddie pool, sidewalk chalk, coloring, and playing with her baby friends.

A big thanks to our friend Shaunna for these gorgeous photos from our portrait playdate!

Seneca Lake Vacation

We went on our first family vacation with my side of the family this past week- we rented a house on Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes. We had a great time relaxing by the water, eating tons of food, and seeing some of the sites. But mostly just relaxing. ;)

Here's the whole gang, at the pier in Watkins Glen. Sorry Evie's not looking at the camera, there were too many exciting boats to see.

 Evie and Grandpa, hanging out at the lake.

 Friday my parents and Allison took Evie to tour the Rose Hill Mansion so that Eric and I could go out to lunch by ourselves. We had a lovely time, and Evie was great for Nana and Grandpa!

 Evie LOVED the water- it didn't take her long to get comfortable with wading in by herself, and this week she officially learned to "throw" things by throwing tons and tons of rocks. 

 This trip was to celebrate my parents' 30th wedding anniversary, which was May 29th of this year. So we got them gifts, including Evie painting them mugs, complete with her adorable little handprints on them. SOO cute!!

 Relaxing at the State Park up the road

 Evie and Mama at the beach! We had our own little beach access across the street from the house we rented, complete with chairs, a fire pit, and a little boat house with life jackets and 3 boats that we made good use of throughout the week.

Evie wasn't a huge fan of the boats, but I suspect that's because she didn't like the life jacket. We took her out in the canoe for about ten minutes, but she wasn't happy and we were worried about tipping! So back to the shore she went. :)

Uncle Matt was so patient and sweet with Evie all week- here they are building a little rock wall together.

Mom and Dad all dressed up to go to Belhurst Castle for their wine tasting and dinner that we got for them as a gift.

This is the only photo I have of the front of the house- it was called Dey's Landing. It's an old farmhouse and it had so much charm! It was decorated really country which was cute, and it had 4 bedrooms so Evie had her own which was convenient.

Here we are on the last day- there's the boathouse in the background.

It was a really nice trip and we look forward to doing it again in the future- it will be so fun when Evie's a bit older and can run and swim and play more. :) We love our family!!