Life in New England

We spent the end of our summer in New England. We have family in New Hampshire and the hubs has an office in Boston. So for more than a month we "lived" on the East Coast. The experience will be hard to properly re-cap in writing but I'll give it my best shot. If I'm honest, I feel as though I left part of my heart in Boston. It's a great city rich with history, beauty, and family friendly activities. We all enjoyed it so much that the vacation hang over has been long and brutal. We've been home nearly two weeks and when we get in the car a little voice in the back seat often says "I wish we were on the subway." When we go in the backyard someone says "I wish we had Boston grass." When we go for a walk on our street "We miss the playground at our Boston house." and of course "WHYYYY IS IT SOOOOO HOT, MOM?"

We'll adjust eventually but for now we're still longing for what we've left behind. Here's a few glimpses of our trip and I'll post more as I blog out some of our favorite memories:

Ahhh Boston, beautiful Boston:

City life means free grocery delivery. A mother's dream:

High in the 60s....my Texas babies were "cold"

Our sweet landlady was so loving to the girls. Here she set up a sprinkler in her "soft" grass for the girls to play...she played too. Fun times!

City Feed Lot!!! Walk distance from our home. Groceries, sandwiches, coffee. With this moto: Buy Fresh, Buy Local. Now can you understand why a piece of my heart is there? LOVED this!

Here is the home we "lived" in. Our landlady occupies the bottom floor and we lived up top. It was a charming house built in 1925. 

Public transit was GREAT for us 99.9% of the time. But there was that one time when we had to get more than a months worth of luggage from the home we rented to the hotel for our last night in Boston....

Cupcake LOVED the night view of the "sparkly" city. Both the girls could be city girls.....

These two bonded in new and sweet ways when for more than a month they were each other's only friend. 

A taste of summer

It's random...but here are few pictures of what summer is like around here: 

Manis & Pedis: 

Beating the heat with a yummy treat!

Best friend bike rides:

Mom's Day out

Splash Drench Zone at Sea World

Cow day 2013

If you've been a blog stalker for any amount of time you know we have a thing...albeit strange considering our attention to healthy foods....for Chic-fil-a Cow day. Gigi was in town for the week so she joined in the fun and we MOOzied our way to the local fast food joint for some free chicken. Moooooo!

Artist in the making

Cupcake loves to draw, paint, create. 

I recently cleaned out an entire shelf in my pantry that is a walk-in pantry for her supplies. I'm always finding her creations here, there, everywhere. I always try to ask about them and her creativity comes out even in the explanation of what she has created. Some times it is really abstract, detailed, and interesting. Like this porcupine: 

Other days though it is simple. Like this one. Daddy was out of town for work. We were all missing him. She decided to draw a picture of what it is like when we are all together. Sunny, happy, all four of us. (Swoon!) How I love her sweet creations!

Happy 4th of July!

Summer is flying by and in the coolest summer in many years it's hard to believe July 4th came and went with only a handful of days over 100 degrees so far. 

We attended our neighbor hood pool party and then were able to see the fireworks display from our street with friends. Then we participated in the 4th of July bike parade with our neighbors. 

Later we headed to our friends house cook out and celebrate the 4th in these patriotic flower dresses that Gigi sewed for the girls. It was a patriotic day of fun!

My littlest princess

Of course while Cupcake was having a total blast each day at Princess camp, Cutie pie was the one who had to drive back and forth from camp and see all the big girls having all the fun. She was a VERY good sport but I could see her heart sink a little each day as she peered into the explosions of princess fun. So I decided we'd have our very own princess "camp" and invite a few friends. We had a super fun morning of making princess cookies, painting a princess project, reading a princess story, and of course dressing up all fancy. I didn't do a great job taking pictures but there were a few to show my littlest princess's very own camp!

Princess camp

Cupcake was THRILLED to attend Princess with a Purpose Camp (think: VBS on Royal steriods) in June. I was overcome by the cuteness that was involved with hundreds of little girls dressing up for camp each day. They learned about inner beauty, grace, God's love, and how they are daughters of the King. It was a really incredible camp and I can't say enough how much Cupcake loved going each day to. 

Dress up

Best friends

Pink explosions

Crafts

Nail polish

A performance to practice for

It's every little girls dream week!

Oh....and it was even more awesome that her other best friend was down the hall at warrior camp. This little princess didn't have to look far to find a prince!