Off to Seabrook

Last weekend we headed down to Seabrook to spend the long weekend with some good friends for an extended birthday celebration. All week, it rained everyday in Charlotte so getting down to the beach and sunshine was so nice and it didn't hurt that it was 70 degrees on Sunday in January. I will take it! 

Every time we had gone down to the beach, we always take a group shot and this time was no exception. We added two cute little munchkins to the crew this time which made it even more fun. We had a gorgeous sunset for the picture and of course, Ella posing!

We stayed busy all weekend and spent as much time outside as we could. We brought down bikes and scooters and the kids loved riding around.

We headed to the marina for lunch

This little one is on the go lately. She is crawling all over the place and doesn't like to be confined for too long. She was so happy to be able to crawl all over the grassy field.

I mean come on, how cute are these girls? 7 little girls all ages 6 and under and sure to be BFFs for life (if their parents have anything to say about it!) The kids actually got along so well all weekend, shared toys, watched movies and just had so much fun playing together.

And she's off!

 Maddie got lots of love from everyone, She enjoyed hanging out on the deck in the sunshine as well.

Tracey and sweet Braelyn who is walking up a storm and hard to catch!

We had three amazing sunsets and this was our best attempt at a family picture, Maddie with her hands in her mouth and Ella in her pjs, oh well.

 Toasting to another fun day and great sunset!

 The guys all went fishing and low and behold caught three small sharks. Yes, I said sharks! I will think twice about swimming in that water next summer! Yikes!

 Soaking in the warm sunshine on the back deck

 Another night, another amazing view. This never gets old!

 Even the little ones enjoyed watching the sunsets and spotting the dolphins swimming in the water.

 Maddie is seriously the happiest baby (or least in my biased mind) and I love capturing all of her cute and smiley expressions!

 Check out those big blue eyes! Can you tell she was ready for bed? We all played so hard during the day and the kids crashed early and hard at night.

 The sun was shining all weekend, we had coronas in our hand and the kids were running on the beach in January. It really doesn't get better than that to spend your birthday weekend and we all had a blast. Can't wait to return back this spring/summer!

Lake Toxaway

The last weekend in September, we were lucky enough to be invited back to Lake Toxaway for our third year with the neighbors and all the kiddos.

It is hard to believe the first time we came, Ella was only 3 months old and bald as can be!
Now, she is sporting her cute pigtails and running all around the yard and playing with the other kids.

It was an absolutely beautiful weekend. No humidity, sunny skies, temps in the 70's during the day and cooler at night, perfect for an evening fire. Mike even got to see his favorite thing, throw the football around with the other guys.

These two best buddies played together a lot as usual. Here they are taking a break to enjoy a snack on the back deck.

And because they are girls and divas in the making, they had to compare their own pigtails of course!

Loving the beautiful weather and even more beautiful setting!

We went with 5 other couples and 7 kids total, 6 of which were girls so of course, we had to play nail salon. Miss Jaime was the manicurist for all the girls to get their nails painted.

Ella patiently waited her turn and then was concentrating very hard while Jaime painted her nails blue! She even blew on them when she was down to dry them. She woke up the next morning and one had chipped off her thumb nail and she immediately noticed and wanted it touched up!

And these two are double trouble when it comes to cheetos. They made such a mess but had the best time. Allie even taught Ella how to hold them in her teeth and stick them out like she is doing in this picture.

Early Sunday morning before everyone else was up, Mike and Adam decided to take the kayaks out. The lake was calm in the morning and perfect for the kayaking.

We had a great time as usual although since 3 of us were pregnant this year, I have to say, things were more tame than some past trips but still just as much fun. We are lucky to have made such good friends and the kids are so lucky to have such fun memories to look back on. Can't wait for the next trip, next time there will be three new little babies to add to the mix!

A week of firsts

This week was a busy week in the Hennessy household. Almost every night we had something planned and were on the go a lot. We did lots of fun things and Ella got to experience a lot of firsts!

Something that is not new is swinging at the park but it was a first that Dad took her and the dog after dinner one night when Mom had a girls night with her friends. She does still love the baby swing but is getting more brave each time and trying out the big kids swing.
On Thursday night, we headed out for a night of baseball to watch the Charlotte Knights, the minor league team here in Charlotte. These two got right into the swing of tailgating, drinking their juice boxes in the tailgating chairs. Fast forward 20 years and they will be doing this same thing at their college football games except substitute the juice boxes for something else!

One of our best buddies, Kayla turned five this week and we did lots of celebrating for her big day! Before the baseball game, we all sang to her and celebrated not with cupcakes but munchkin donuts. Ella had never had one before and liked to lick all the glaze off it and then throw it away.

Giving the birthday girl a big hug!

This shot is rare and will probably never happen again but here are all the kiddies lined up ready to head into the game. I still can't believe they all actually stood for a picture.

We had never been to a game with Ella before and weren't sure what to expect out of her there but she was mesmerized from the moment we walked in. Here she is getting her first look of the game with Daddy.

She was most excited about the team's mascot, Homer the Dragon! She loved looking for him, waving to him and following him around. However, when she went down to see Homer, she of course got super scared and gripped onto Mike's arm with the jaws of life. He tried to give her a high five but she wanted nothing to do with him. That is until he walked away and then she kept saying, "Dragon high five" over and over. Maybe next time she will be a little more brave with Homer but I think the game was a big hit since she has been talking about it and Homer all weekend.

(She had to get closer for a better look)

On Friday, despite the monsoon rain we had here in Charlotte, we had a fun lunch play date and got to meet a new friend! 3 of my former coworkers from Bank of America came over for lunch since one of them, Elizabeth was in town from South Carolina and we got to meet her new baby girl Chandler that she had in February. Katie also came over with her little girl Emma born in April. The four of us girls used to sit right next to each other everyday and now have all moved onto different things and we don't get to see each other very much so it is fun when we get to catch up like old times. I tried to get a picture of the little girls but this was the best I could do. As you can see, Ella wasn't very interested in posing for the picture.

This weekend Ella got to try a new treat and boy did she love it! We went over to Addie and Wesley's house for dinner with the neighbors and all the kids got Oreos after dinner. As I mentioned before, Ella's sweet tooth is growing by the day but she had never had Oreos before, mainly because I do want them in the house or I will be tempted to eat them all! She quickly learned from the others the proper way to eat an Oreo. On the plus side, I think she did drink more milk with that Oreo than she did all week so at least she got her calcium!

This morning was hot again but after being cooped up for 2 days, we had to get out of the house. Dad decided to take Ella to the park solo again for some bonding time while I took Dakota on a long walk. It was so bright, it was hard to see but Dad quickly fixed that problem by adjusting his hat for Ella to wear.

He said she kept it on the entire time so I guess she likes Dad's masters hat more than her sun hat which she constantly takes off the minute you put it on her. But all that playing in the heat makes you really tired and take lots of rests.

This afternoon was a big new first! Ella was invited to a princess party at Pigtails and Crewcuts for Kayla (as I said, we did a lot of celebrating for Kayla)! Ella put on her tinkerbell dress, since all the girls had to come in their princess costumes and we headed out!

Since Ella just started growing hair 6 months ago (no lie!), we obviously haven't been to Pigtails and Crewcuts which is a mini spa for the kids. They give kids haircuts and paint their nails, etc. I wasn't sure how Ella was going to react since it was her first time but she has happy when she saw all her buddies!

First up, painting the fingernails. I doubted she was going to sit still and was a little nervous after nail one when she got up from her chair but she decided the pale pink color she started with was too light and switched to the hot pink. She sat so still the entire time and was fascinated by the whole thing.

After it was finished, she walked around so proper with her nails making sure they didn't touch anything. I see lots of Mommy and Ella manicures and pedicures in our future!

The nails went well and she even got an Ariel tattoo on her arm as well but I was nervous about the hair. She watched all the other girls get their hair done and we tried once earlier and she wasn't ready yet but after seeing all her buddies with fancy hair, she was ready. She definitely had the shortest and most fine of the bunch so it took lots of hairspray to do anything with her hair.

And here comes the ponytail, her first one ever! And her first time sitting in a hair dresser's chair.

And the final product! Our little tinkerbell got a pebbles hairdo. She kept walking around after saying, "Ella hair pretty!" Mom may have to try and do this do at home, with lots of hairspray of course! I love having a little girl and getting to do these fun girly things together.

Addie, Wesley and Ella with their fancy nails and hair.

Getting pampered and primped is nice but Ella really came for one thing, the cupcake! Here she goes, right for all the icing of course. Note to self: load up Ella's cupcake with lots and lots of icing for her birthday.

It was definitely a very busy week full of so many new firsts. This next week will be even more busy as our little princess turns 2 on Saturday. How can our little peanut already be turning 2 years old, I feel like she was just a newborn. But we do have a "monkey themed" party on Saturday so let's hope for a little less heat and no rain please.

An Eggcellent Easter

I think this picture below sums it all up, we had a great Easter. An eggcellent Easter in fact! I was a little sad earlier in the week that this Easter we wouldn't be with any extended family but it turns out, we were with family, our Charlotte family.
Our next door neighbors and some of our closest friends, Adam and Jaime invited us to spend the weekend with them and their families and everyone welcomed us with open arms. Adam's aunt and uncle live in a beautiful home in Charlotte complete with swimming pool, great lawn for hunting easter eggs and perfect kitchen for gathering and talking. We were invited over not only for Easter brunch but also Saturday night for a steak dinner.

Ella quickly found a new toy, a cane that sqeaked when you hit it and she quickly discovered a second use for it, perfect for splashing bubbles in the pool.

Check out my new cane Mom! Oh and by the way, can we come here all the time so I can swim in the pool??

Oh and big surprise, guess who found the necklace and had to put it on immediately? This girl is already a sucker for jewelry and she isn't even 2 yet. I guess I have taught her well.

But luckily, she is happy with a bright blue necklace from the dollar store.

(Note: most of these pictures were taken by Jaime with her fancy camera. I have major camera envy)

This picture is so cute because it is so typical, Ella and Allie giving each other a hug.

And there they go, off to play in the backyard. Oh yeah and we also have major yard and garden envy of this house. The yard was so big, you could definitely have played a full soccer game with all the room.

And Ella found some other new "toys" and her Dad was so proud that it was a Giants helmet! At least the helmet matched her necklace!

Later that night, all the little ones got on her pjs and watched a movie before we had to head home for bedtime and guess who became Ella's best friend? Their sweet dog just hanging out between Ella and Allie. Sammy should be scared, Dakota could tell her some good stories.

Sunday morning, the three of us went off to morning church with the rest of Charlotte apparently. I have never seen so many people at our church or any other church before but it was nice. Then after church, we headed back over to have brunch with our "Charlotte family." The weather was really nice and hot! Very sunny and almost 90 degrees by the afternoon.

Jaime took some great pictures of the family and these below of Ella are my new favorites.

She is wearing the same dress she wore to Brad and Whitney's wedding because it was just too cute to not have her wear it again and I am so glad she did because the pictures are perfect!

And Daddy looks pretty nice himself!

After a quick change because it got hot and Ella had a run in with a Reese cup (don't worry, the dress survived and is fine), we headed outside for the kids Easter Egg Hunt.

She got the hang of it after last week's hunt but still not too aggresive. She is happy to have just one as long as it is full of jelly beans.

There was lots of open space and good hiding spots for the eggs.

Forget the basket, it is holding me down. I just want to hold onto the eggs so I can eat the yummy candy inside.

The day was definitely a success and while we missed our families, it is nice to know that when we can't get home, we have family right here.

Check out this Irish baby's red cheeks! Outside for 10 minutes and they immediately become flushed. I love them, match her strawberry blonde hair perfectly!

This hunting business is tough but look at all the yummy candy I got!

And that look says, it is time to head home for a nap. Which is exactly what we did and then just had a quiet dinner the three of us that night and toasted to a wonderful weekend and a fun Easter.

Each new holiday just becomes more and more fun as Ella grows up and starts to be able to really participate so seeing her this Easter already makes me excited for next year and with how fast this past year has flown by, I am sure it will be here before we know it. Hope you enjoy all the pictures and hope your Easter was an eggcellent one also filled with lots of jelly beans egg hunts!