Julia's new toy

Julia got a water table for her birthday. She loves it of course. I'm certain that Julia will love summer. She loves water and she loves going barefoot.

Ellie's first ski lesson

Waking up to a sunny morning led to a spur of the moment decision to take Ellie skiing today. For some reason I became interested in skiing at Bretton Woods.  I forgot how far it is to drive up to Mount Washington!  Aside from the driving and related timing issues, we managed to enjoy a wonderful day.  

Birthday Weekend begins

This weekend Julia turns one year old. We began celebrating yesterday with a trip to the Maine Mall, which we have been looking forward to for months.  Ellie, Julia and I went on a girls trip to Maine, where the mall has many interesting shops including Build-A-Bear.  This was Julia's first time to build her own stuffed animal. We let her look around the shop. We showed her several of the stuffed animal varieties to choose from and she gave each one a giant hug. It was pretty cute! Ellie was so excited the time had come to go to Build-A-Bear that she was dancing around and doing sprints from one end of the house to the other. Ellie selected the newest Bunny in the bear line, with rainbow ears. She chose an elaborate fairy costume and a wand, and named it Rainbow Bunny. Julia picked the orange tabby cat. I picked jeans and a purple top that would match Julia's baby shoes, which we plan to put on the cat for remembrance. This will be the last item where we have to guess what Julia would like because this coming year, her personality will develop into her unique little self! 

We added to the day by having our portraits done at the Picture People portrait studio. I don't have any great pictures of the two sisters together. This seemed a good time to capture their image. It was quite a challenge getting Julia to pose in any way for the photos. However the lady was so positive and with the help of baby puff snacks, we got some good pictures. I picked the best and will be sending one to family. 

Another highlight was cruising the mall in a rented stroller in the shape of a bus. Julia still refuses to ride in the fancy double stroller I got before she was born. I regret picking that model! But she did get into the rented bus buggy as did Ellie. It was so fun to push them around the mall and to see Julia riding happily for a change. She fell asleep and that was our cue to come home.

I would have loved to include a wonderful meal in our special day but the girls aren't up for a restaurant yet so I didn't push my luck. At least I got my Starbuck's coffee!

I'll get a photo of the cat and bunny up here later.  The weekend continues now as the girls recover from the excitement of yesterday and look forward to our family party for her cousin Ava's birthday tomorrow in Massachusetts.

Good Mom Day

Today after cleaning the house a bit, I got to play tennis for 2 hours, enjoy a big fat soup and sandwich lunch from the Full Belly Deli, and then go cross-country skiing for 35 minutes before picking up the girls in the mid-afternoon.  It's nice to live in a place that can offer double sporting opportunities in the same day.  The sun and snow were excellent today.  Great stress relief for a mom.