Vermont Loves Maple!

April 29th - May 2nd

Vermont loves maple and I do too!

We headed up to Vermont for my cousin's wedding - which happened to fall on the same weekend as the Vermont Maple Festival. I was excited to be up there again to enjoy some goodies! We hit up the festival (or as Shawn says it's "festibal" DUH!) on Friday afternoon with Selena, Shelley and all the kids. We enjoyed lots of yummy food as we watched a magician perform - the bigger kids were up near the front as we stayed back with the little ones. They were cute with their snacks.

The bigger kids then wanted to go on the rides - and when Charlotte saw them, she was in a daze with a smile on her face. Lots of lights and movement. The girls were brave as they got on the Tornado!!

In the minute it took me to walk around to get the picture of the girls in the ride, Charlie was out! I think watching the rides move all over was a lot for her little mind.

I remember the days of loving rides ... all the kids had fun, even Luke and Trey.

Charlie was pooped from the festivities - I loaded up on maple cotton candy and she slept the whole walk home!

The next day was Jordan & Eric's wedding. I was a bit nervous about this day for a while - we were leaving Charlotte with the Bowler family for the evening. Yikes! She's only stayed with Nanny and Papa a few times, and only for a little while. And since the little bugger won't take a bottle, (which I had tried again the week before - *gag* city), I knew it was going to be a tough night for all. She was asleep in the stroller when we left her, and we were off to the wedding. The ceremony was in St. Albans and she did "okay" while we were there. Before heading to Burlington, we checked in and they had just calmed her down so we skipped stopping in for me to feed her. :(

The reception was a long wait, but we made it through dinner, dances, the candy bar, and some family photos ...




... Then I got the "have you eaten yet?" text - we knew it wasn't good. We headed back to get Charlie and got there around 8:30 - she was okay on and off but wouldn't eat dinner and wasn't going to go to sleep. It broke my heart when we walked in and she saw us and broke down a bit with the saddest little sobs of happiness - I really think she thought she'd never see us again before that. Poor bugger. Well, it will make us all stronger for next time - which happens to be May 14th in NYC, when we go to another wedding and Charlie gets to hang out with Nanny for the evening!

The next day was the Maple Festival parade where we met up with the Senesac clan to watch. It was hot, but the kids always enjoy getting the candy and Charlie always enjoys people-watching. Nanny handed out candy for the Elks again this year and went by in the parade a second time in the truck!

Until next year bread dough and maple cotton candy ...

Our Little Robeez Girl!

Robeez (a brand of baby shoes that we LOVE and Charlotte is always wearing in any pics) announced to Facebook fans that they were having an open casting call for their next campaign. All we had to do was submit two photos - a close-up and a full-body ... we thought, why not? We know Charlotte looks different than most babies and catches the attention of strangers everywhere we go, so we thought we'd give it a shot for fun.

These are the two photos we submitted about a month ago:



Well, the photos caught their attention and they asked us to come to the next round, which was an in-person round in Boston! We went on the Thursday that Laura and Austin were here - we all packed into the car and made the 1 hour trip down for Charlie's big day. When we got there, there were a bunch of babies all around her age and we were given #58. I filled out a sheet with Charlotte's info and noticed some boxes for them to fill out on the bottom - "behavior" and "shoe fit". We timed it well and had arrived after the masses had gone through. We did have to wait about a half an hour or so where we met a little friend, Stella. She was sweet and adorable with a full head of hair that Charlie must have been jealous of since she had decided to pull it at one point! But, she WAS competition!!

Charlotte did start to get a little restless waiting around, but we were called in and I brought her in to the photographer. She did try to crawl away after a piece of fuzz on the floor, but once the photog got it out of her way, she said Charlotte's name and Charlotte looked up at her and gave her a big gummy smile - so cute! She then took a picture of Charlotte's feet and then tried on a doggy Robeez shoe (Charlotte patiently let her get the shoe on her) - she looked at the woman with our sheet and said "perfect fit - toes are exactly where they should be". They looked at me and said she was all set - a whole 45 seconds after walking her in!! As I picked her up and was walking out, I heard the woman with the sheet say "she was REALLY cute" to the photographer. Hearing this and knowing she aced the two boxes they were filling out, I walked out so proud of our little girl!!!

So we waited ...

I got the email this past Friday letting us know that she has been chosen to be a part of their campaign and photo shoot in a couple of weeks!!! We will be getting the details in a few days, but we know on either May 12th or 13th, we will be heading back to Boston for her gig. She will be receiving a $150 gift card for their shoes and a free 8x10 photo from the shoot.

This is all for the fun and we won't be making Charlie into ones of those girls you see on those pageant reality shows - NEVER! We couldn't be more proud of Charlotte for doing such a great job so far!!!!

Laura and Austin's Visit to NH

April 20th-23rd

Our friend Laura (from Syracuse) asked her son, Austin, what he wanted to do for his spring break - he wanted to come to New Hampshire to visit us and collect rocks!!!

We had a great time hanging out, collecting rocks on a hike (though the bugs were BAD), playing dominoes, shopping at the mall and Ikea and having dinner in Faneuil Hall in Boston.

Laura and I enjoying sangrias

Aaron and Austin with their "normal" faces

Austin and Charlie dancing to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - (look at her, haha!)

We don't get to see them enough anymore.

House Updates

We've come along with the house and have finally gotten to some of the bigger projects with the help of Uncle Pete and our neighbor, Ken -- those being the fireplace and Charlotte's trim. The only "bigger" things left to do are to paint the closet/laundry folding doors white and get them hung back upstairs. And then just a few more pieces of furniture and some remaining decor (curtains, wall decor, etc.).

Here are some of the before and afters of the rooms and things that have been "done":

Kitchen -

Dining Room -

Fireplace -

Breakfast Area looking into Living Room -

Living Room -

Charlotte's Room -

Guest Room -

Master (the "now" pic is a bit old ... her cradle is no longer at the foot of our bed. We now have a bench and cushion there) -

And this is my finished master headboard project - I love it!!

We invite any family and friends to visit ... we always enjoy company, especially now that we are able to give guests their own space.

Moms Club

When we moved into our house, I was very excited when a woman from our circle on our door knocked to let me know that she is the President of our town's Moms Club. I was so very excited to join and start attending the play groups with Charlotte ... and then the Swine Flu hit. Since she was so little and too young for the vaccine, her and I hibernated through the winter and we were both close to losing our sanity until spring hit.

About a month and a half ago, I asked to finally join and we were welcomed by all. We have attended a handful of play groups at the other's homes, went to a spring party at the public library, went on an educational tour of the Stonyfield Yogurt plant down the road and are looking forward to a Cinco De Mayo party this Wednesday along with many more play groups and events this month!

Charlotte has definitely enjoyed meeting and playing with the other kids - we even think she has a little baby crush on a 11-month-old, Aamir, and vice-versa. I am also happy to have a few girls around my age to talk to! We are hosting our first play group on May 17th, which should be fun!!

Girls Trip to Vermont

April 14th-18th 2010

Charlotte and I headed up to Vermont on our first girls-only trip last Wednesday. I was hoping she would sleep most of the 2.5 hours to Burlington and she was indeed asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the house. We stopped at McDonalds in Randolph for a stretch and a diaper change and were on our way again. We made it to Shelley's where we got to hang out a bit alone (and I slid down a few stairs with Charlotte - SHE was okay!)

We spent a few days at Shelley's since Tyler was away for a couple of weeks - we hung out and played with Tori and Trey; got to shop with Selena, Matthew and Luke; Charlotte had a photo session with Beltrami Burlington (they take AMAZING photos); and we ended up staying over night at Nanny & Papa's house on Saturday. We had a great time seeing everyone, including Shawn and Spuds and were glad we spent that extra day up there.

While we were gone, Aaron, Uncle Pete and our neighbor Ken worked on finishing our fireplace project and getting the trim up in Charlie's room. It was awesome to come home and see the progress (a new post with before/after pics to come).

Shelley and Charlotte at Tori's softball practice - it was c-c-cold!

Goofballs

Fun in the tub

Group hug

QT with Papa

Easter Weekend 2010

April 1st - 4th 2010

We were heading up to Vermont on Thursday evening for Easter weekend this year. We had some Easter goodies for her, so gave them to her here before leaving.


Of all the gifts in the basket, she loved her new rubber ducky the most - I think she knows it's for her bath and we all know she LOVES her baths.


We drove up to Vermont and Charlie slept the whole way since we didn't get on the road until 9pm! She did wake up to visit with Nanny and Pap when we got there at midnight - but after everyone else went to bed, Mommy was up with her until 2am!

On Easter Sunday, we got Charlie in her pretty dress and had a little photo shoot - such a ham, she is!



The whole family was there and Charlotte had fun with all of her cousins. She didn't understand why she was walking around looking for eggs, but she enjoyed them once they were in her hands.



Selena, Shelley and I got our annual Easter photo taken - drinks for all this year!! (No pregnancies this year)


We attempted to get a photo of all the cousins - this is always tough with the little ones. This is the best shot:
Still cute!!!

And we didn't want Shawn and Spuds to be left out of any photos since they love them SO much, so here's a picture of the 5 of us kids.

Another great weekend - we got to see friends and family and had wonderful weather too.