FOUR YEARS OLD!

What the WHAT?  We have a FOUR YEAR OLD?!?  Elliott amazes us every day with her vocabulary, her imagination, and her energy level.  She is wonderfully sweet and loving to us, her sister, and her dog but I'm pretty sure Dee Dee is her favorite.  Jas took the day off and we wanted to take her to the movies, but when Dee Dee arrived to babysit Talie, E didn't want to leave her.  She just wanted to stay and play with all her birthday presents!  She immediately appreciated and played with all of her presents -- it is hard to say what was her favorite because each one was her favorite in the moment.  She makes us laugh all the time -- whether it is with her nonsensical stories, singing in a Spanish accent, putting on complicated dance shows, or doing her fake smile for photos (it's her new favorite thing -- you'll see in the next post.). She exhausts me almost every day but I love her more every day.  Very often, she'll call me from across a crowded room and say: "Hey Mommy! Excuse me? Mommy?" "Yes Elliott?" "Umm ... I love you."

First thing she does before she comes down for breakfast?  Puts on her fairy wings from Auntie Lauren.

There was an extreme purple theme this year.  EVERYTHING was purple.  She loved it.

Purple golf ball for mini-golf! 

Mini-golf isn't stroller friendly.  It. was. hot.

I'd describe it more as "chasing" than "golfing."

Sweaty babies.

We are all covered in jewelry tattoos.  COVERED.

Like I said, every gift had to be played with IMMEDIATELY.  She loved her headlamp from Uncle Matt and Ant Lindsay.

Mm mm cupcakes.

Massaro Fun

We've made several trips up to the Massaro's house recently.  E and E both have birthdays in August and we had to sneak in as many visits as we could before SCHOOL starts!

They have the best waterslide bouncy house EVER!

As usual, just one of the boys. :o)

We asked them to grab fizzy waters from the bottom shelf of the fridge and they came back with beers. Ha!

Rockaway

E spent the weekend at Nana's house.  It was QUIET around here!

Papa Dan and Pop Pop's band had a tie dye themed concert

Not quite big enough to ride alone

Ladies Night

We ... are no longer 22.  But we try to pretend we are.

We left the dads in charge and they immediately taught the babies to box.

Auntie Lauren!

Dee Dee Day

Poor Elliott WANTED to sleep on the red eye but just couldn't get comfortable enough to get good sleep.  She was SO well behaved but she is SO tired.  Dee Dee took her to Mendon on Monday and she napped on both car rides and then slept for more than 12 hours that night.  I've been waking her up at 9:00 every day this week.  Vacation is tiring!!

Dee Dee's view Monday evening.  Not bad, eh?

California Dreamin'

We had a fabulous vacation in California this week.  It was by far the most exhausting vacation ever, but it was still lots of fun.  The girls were rock stars on the flights and troopers on all our adventures.  Talie barely slept but was still super smily all day and Elliott slept the bare minimum but was funny and sweet 98% of the day.  Being on vacation is fun.

Yes, yes I did dress them alike for the flight. [hangs head in shame] 

E's favorite thing to do was to have a dance party after dinner.  So funny,

Scout went on vacation to the lake house.  She only got loose twice.  Hee hee.

Big Sur

Elliott was quite entertaining at the rehearsal/welcome dinner the night before the wedding.  She has a VERY active imagination and is not at all shy.  She was running around warning all the guests that there were DINOSAURS AT THIS PARTY.  But apparently they only eat boys, not girls because girls smell bad?  I had to remove her from the main area when the speeches started because she was not willing to give up the spotlight.

Cookie's BFF.  Oh, when we walked into the hotel room, E looked around and asked in awe if this was Cookie Brookie's house.

The remarkable thing about these giant trees is that they are completely unremarkable when compared to other bigger, older trees.

One of 15 identical photos E took.  There are also 2 short videos of us standing here.

We may have been in impractical footwear, but we made it to the waterfall.  Talie took a good nap in the sling (should've had the Ergo -- can you tell it was an unplanned hike?) and E only has a small bruise on her face from taking a giant digger ... It was fun, I swear!

Hiking pose!

Best Babysitters!

Somehow we convinced the Flahuvans that it would be fun to come to Big Sur with us, stay in a hotel room with us, and babysit the girls while we went to a wedding ... :o)  It all worked out and I think everyone had fun. 

Post dinner dance party

Bedtime stories by headlamp!

Wedding

The main reason for our California trip (other than the Flahuvans of course) was to attend my college roommate's wedding in Big Sur. Oh. My. Mama.  Big Sur is GORGEOUS.  The wedding was at a private estate on a CLIFF on Rt 1.  The pictures are gorgeous but I am telling you they do NOT do it justice.  SO GORGEOUS. The bride and groom were easy on the eyes, too.

Bonfire and some fog

ROOMIES!

White knuckle bus ride of terror looking over some GORGEOUS scenery.

Loo with a view ... how can you NOT take a photo of this?