Four Best Friends

Here is Miss Josephine with her three best friends from school - Lucia, Mia & Hazel. Today we got the girls together at Essencha Tea House for a fancy tea party. The girls are just so sweet together and it is unbelievable how much they have all grown and changed since they all met this time last year. Their moms are also super fabulous too. (Bonus!) Crazy that school is starting already, but it is infintely easier this year than it was last August when we didn't know how well this whole full-time preschool thing would go. I love these little girls and their families. And the fact that she is growing up alongside such little sweeties makes that whole "she is growing up" thing so much easier.

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Nature Camp

(can you tell I am playing blog catch-up?!)

Josie absolutely loved Nature Camp at Ault Park. It was a full week of very hot half-days and she did great. I am not sure what she liked more - the camp or the fact that she had five of her girlfriends in her group. This is a quick pic I snapped of her group on the first day and all of her stuff from the week that she piled up on Friday. Oh and get this...her camp counselor was a former student from my teaching days in Milford!
And, too funny not to share...when I asked her what the best things were about camp she said holding hands with Lucia and Te on the hike, getting to keep her daisy nametag to bring home and the best part of the whole week was having a turn tobe the line leader. How cute is that?!

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Pig and Whale

With all the birthday excitement, the middle of August just sort of hit me today. There is a lot more going on right now that I'll blog more about later in the week. Things have been so unbelievably hectic and WHOA - Josie starts back to school in just one week. Anyway, the realization that summer is coming to a close is beginning to set in and I'm feeling a bit of a rush to enjoy what's left of it with my wee ones.  On Wednesday, the three of us girls headed to "the pig and the whale" park and spent quite some time there. Josie is getting so independent that it was hard to even keep track of her, and Bea just hung out (literally) in the Moby wrap.  We had popcorn, hid under a big pine tree for shade, raced around chasing each other and smiled a lot.  Every time we go to Lunken, she tries something new that was too big or too intimidating the time before. Maybe it's the fact that she's four now, but she just ran up and tackled things that were too much just a few weeks ago. She swung from the monkey bars and dropped down by herself and then tackled the zip-line! I am so proud of our big girl.  (And Josie - four seems pretty good so far. That's enough growing up for awhile. Ok?)

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Woodland Mound

A couple of weekends ago we all headed out to the spraypark at Woodland Mound. It was so much fun and everytime we go we realize it is closer than we think it is and vow to go more often. Great playground too and the view is spectacular! Cincy really does have such wonderful parks.

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Second sunflower

...and it is a big one!

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Need to work on that poker face

Josie was totally into this dino at Kings Island. She wanted to climb on it, and when I told her she couldn't because it moved this is the look I got.

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Captain Bones

Here is Josie's latest artwork to appear on my desk. She named him "CAPTAIN BONES, PIRATE OF THE MONSTERS!" Arrrrrr!

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Birthday Love

We just got the sweetest most special video for Josie's big 4th birthday. I just showed it to her (since we spent the WHOLE day yesterday at Kings Island for her birthday). And she seriously thought this video was the best thing ever.  And Lyla - Josie smooched the computer back which put a tear in her mama's eye. And she totally talked back to the screen: "Hi Jacky! Hi Tio!"  and "I can see you Tia!"  Thank you guys for putting together this sweet video.  I have a feeling we'll be watching it a lot. ;)

FOUR?! Yep, FOUR!

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY 

TO OUR BEAUTIFUL DEAR SWEET JOSEPHINE MARIE 

WHO IS FOUR TODAY!

(And boy oh boy there are LOTS of photos that will show up from her whole birthday week! Stay tuned.)

Our NY Family

I gotta say, we have always loved Carissa but the fact that she grabbed her boyfriend and drove eight hours to come to Josie's birthday party takes our love for her to a whole new level. We love you so meech Sisis! Thanks for being Josie's best friend (yea, and one of our best friends too). Xxxxoooo!

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Two Birthday Videos

While Josie's actual birthday isn't until Thursday, we had her pool party at the Mt. Adams Pool last weekend. It was our third year doing a pool party and this location was probably our favorite. Great pool, great playground, great picnic area, great time! I will post some photos soon (although I didn't take very many so if you were there and have any pics I would love it if you would email them to me) but here are a couple of videos.