Best Friends for 25+ years

Way back about 25 years ago, I met two friends who would become two if my very best friends all these years later. We literally grew up together, did everything together and Lynn and I even went to VT and roomed together. Now, all these years later, our lives have taken us across the country (VA, NC and TX) but about a month ago, we were able to come together and meet at one of my most favorite places ever, Seabrook Island SC to a long weekend. Oh yeah, did I mention, we each have two little girls and two of them even share the same name, sort of. So, that would be 6 girls ages 2 months-4 years old. It was one wild and fun weekend!

Getting six girls to look at the camera at the same time is challenging. All the parents were jumping around doing crazy dances for this pictures. I think the girls thought we were crazy.

Girls L-R, Ella-4, Madelynn Booth-2, Madeline Hennessy-1, Abby-2, Emma-2months, Caroline-4

This summer has been so rainy and we were so over it but we lucked out and the 3 days we were at the beach were absolutely gorgeous. Blue skies, hot and sunny, just what you want at the beach.

Ella and Caroline are just 3 months apart and quickly became best friends. Lynn and her family came to visit us in Charlotte in April and these two played together that entire weekend and they picked right up again at the beach. I can just imagine fast forwarding this picture about 10-12 years when they are teenagers walking along the beach.

Water balloon toss game. Let's just say these two didn't take home the crown.

The second night, we all got showered and dressed up (no small feat for our gang) and headed out to eat and enjoy live music. 

4 out of the 6 girls

Then Maddie Grace took and off she went!

We were quite a spectacle at dinner. We took up almost the entire restaurant, good thing we ate at 5:15!

After dinner, we headed to the green area to listen and dance to live music. The girls loved dancing and jumping around.

Maddie would prefer to stick close to the cooler, smart girl.

 Lots of hugs for Daddy

 Ok, it was hot and we were all sweaty but had to post a picture of us girls.

 The next morning, bright and early (because no one really sleeps with 6 girls), we were up for cereal in the morning.

 The kids definitely preferred the pool to the beach so we decided to spend the entire day at the pool.

 Where we did lots of jumping and swimming

 This picture is HUGE if you know Ella. She is such a scardy cat and would not jump off the side of the pool by herself but after playing and watching Caroline, she actually tried and realized it was fun! For the rest of the day, they jumped together.

 As you can see, Caroline learned to swim without the floatie so next summer, we will need to rip that band aid off and Ella needs to really swim but for this summer and while we were watching two little ones, the floatie worked fantastic.

 Way back when, Ella was 9 months old and we came to this same pool and she sat and splashed wearing her fish hat.

 Now, fast forward 3+ years later, and MG is wearing the same hat and splashing in the exact same spot. I love creating memories for the girls in the same places and looking back on pictures.

 We have the opposite problem with Maddie, she is fearless. She wants to swim and dive right into the water. Only problem is she is so little that all the floaties are too big and don't keep her up so we just have to watch her and hold her hand. But she would walk right in all the way to her neck and then do this mini dive thing. It scared me but we would pull her up and she would laugh and run and do it again. Definitely not scared at all. She will probably be swimming before her big sister!

 Our final night, we had a mini birthday celebration since E's birthday was only 2 days away. These girls were excited about cupcakes!

 I still can't believe that little bald headed baby in the above picture is now my big four year old, where does the time go?

 What a fun vacation we had. Lots of laughs, lots of sunshine and lots of cocktails. It was so fun to see how even though we all live far away, we can come together for a couple days and reconnect immediately and LOVE that our little girls are now forming a special bond as well. Until our next fun adventure...

The azaleas are in bloom

When we came to look at our new house for the first time, it was back in July and our realtor told us that next spring, the backyard would be in full bloom with tons of azalea bushes. We both love azaleas and couldn't wait for them to bloom and they finally have! They are gorgeous and just add to our enjoyment of being outdoors. So, I wanted to get some pictures of the girls before we lose the moment so I dressed them in their Lilly dresses, very springy and a little homage to Lilly Pulitzer. 

But one major fail, it was super sunny this morning. Sun streaming into the girls eyes and lots of squinting and super bright pictures, oh well. Maybe next time, we will try for a late afternoon shot when the sun isn't so brutal. But hey, when you have them both up and dressed, you have to jump on the opportunity.

 And just to keep it real so I don't only post the happy pictures, this is how it ended. Maddie crying, Ella with a pouty lip, yup, picture time is o-v-e-r!

 Last weekend, we had such a fun weekend celebrating Mike's birthday and we had some very special guests. My dear friend Lynn who I have been friends with since elementary school came down from Richmond with her family. 

 Lynn has two daughters also, Caroline is 3 months older than Ella and their Madelynn is 2.5.  The last time we got the kids together, Ella and Caroline were just about 1 and I met little Madelynn when she was about a month old and they had never met our Maddie before so this trip was definitely overdue. The girls had a BLAST all weekend long. You would have thought they see eat other all time because they would carry on little conversations and stayed up late "partying" each night!

 We had some other friends over on Saturday to have a small celebration for Mike. It was so much fun and the weather was perfect!

 35 is looking good on him!

 Everyone was very sad on Sunday morning when they had to head home but we vowed it would not be this long before we got together again. Ella has already been asking when they can come back and play again soon!

 Monday was Mike's actual birthday and Maddie and I met him for lunch at work. We had a fun al fresco lunch before we had to go pick up Ella from preschool.

 Pretty much every single day if it isn't raining, you can find us outside playing in the backyard on the new swing set. Did I tell you how much we love it!

 And guess who learned to pump all by herself?!?!

 Last Tuesday was national ben and jerry's day where they give out a free cone all day. We had never been before and me being super naive thought there would be a line but it can't be that long. Well, we have a ben and jerry's 2 minutes from our house so we didn't have to travel far to realize the line was insanity. We would have waited for over an hour so I bagged it but Ella was so sad. I promised her, we could go the next day when there was no one there. Ella doesn't let you forget anything, she asked about it the minute she woke up so that night after dinner, we went and got our ice cream. Chocolate with sprinkles. I think it was worth the wait.

By the way, she asked me to take her picture with her ice cream and did the pose all by herself. Where did she come from?

We also started a soccer program a couple weeks ago. Ella hasn't always loved all sports from the beginning so I was a little hesitant but she loves it! There are only 3 girls and about 5-6 boys and she does great. Her favorite part is when they get to wear a jersey (go figure, dress up time is her favorite!). She was perfecting her "airplane" move in this picture for me.

Besides that, we are just loving the warmer weather, except for one thing, the pollen. The pollen is out of control this year and one reason we fell in love with our house and neighborhood was the big, mature trees but man do they make some serious pollen. Right now, Ella, Maddie and I are all coughing and sneezing up a storm. Really hoping for some rain and to start feeling better soon. 

Have a great week!