Summer Splashin'

Oh, the backyard! We love having a backyard. And two kiddie pools, and a swingset, and a climber that Josie has outgrown and repurposed as a diving board.  Life is good this summer for the Schneiders. And after several busy, busy, busy weekends - we finally had a weekend just to hang out in the sun and splash around.  

Josie has become quite a daring little individual and has spent quite a lot of time over the last week trying to outdo herself and break her own records when it comes to jumping into (and sometimes over) the pool. (oh - the video - must upload the video!) Here are some of my favorite photos of our rip-roarin' splashin' good times in the yard (the yard we daydreamed about for a good year before we finally sold our condo and got this house). Enjoy!

Sweet dreams?

Josie served up quite a feast to sleeping Beatrice.

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Celebrating 10 years!

On Friday night, we held off on dinner until after the girls were in bed then we had a "just the two of us" dinner here at home. It was SO nice to eat slowly off of real dishes in the dining room and enjoy one of Lou's delicious home-cooked meals. (I really am very lucky.)  I think this picture sort of says it all - a vase of irises (that my adoring husband brought home because irises were in my wedding bouquet), a bottle of champagne, and the baby monitor.

We read our vows as we do every year and sat in awe at how quickly TEN YEARS has passed. There is still a full ten years post in the works, but I had to share the news of our perfect anniversary celebration - that way I will never forget it.  (Although we have a pretty good reminder from the evening as well. Check out where the cork landed - we couldn't have nailed this shot into the chandelier if we would've tried.) 

Fourth of July Weekend

In keeping with the tradition we started last year, the Austins and the Johnsons came to visit the Schneiders for the long Fourth of July weekend.  There were a few MAJOR differences between this year and last year:

This time last year, we had just moved into our new house.  My sister was very-pregnant with Jack and I had just found out that I was very-surprisingly pregnant.  Louie and I sat on the side steps and told everyone, very cautiously, that we were pregnant again. I can't speak for everyone, but I definitely spent some time last 4th of July hoping that this 4th of July would turn out exactly like it did. Instead of Three Austins and Three Schneiders...there were Four Austins and Four Schneiders this year!  Twice the kids, twice the fun!  This year, we sat on those same steps except now we weren't looking out into a tangled mess of overgrown weeds, scraggly pine trees and mega-honeysuckles. This year we were looking out at all four kids playing in the backyard & swingset Lou finished just in time for us all to enjoy over the holiday weekend.  

(Oh, I should mention that Lou wasn't even there to enjoy the fruits of his labor being enjoyed so thoroughly. He was off at Phish's Superball Festival in upstate-NY. He got to celebrate a big birthday with one of our favorite people on the planet and I got to be distracted enough by the house full of family that it didn't stink nearly as much as it would've if I was here alone with the girls. Still, I missed him massively and just happen to know that he missed us massively too.) 

So - on to the photos! (In the interest of getting these off of my camera and on to the blog, I just can't spend as much time editing these as much as I wish I had time to. So here's the quickie job. Enjoy!)

SCENES FROM THE YARD:

 SCENES FROM THE PARK:

Tio, aka "The Big Bad Wolf" and our two little piggies!

 SCENES FROM CONEY ISLAND:

Remember that turtle picture from TWO years ago?!

And yes, we have officially put Josie's immune system to the greatest test imaginable!

SCENES FROM EDEN PARK, LATE NIGHT FOR FIREWORKS:

Josie dances with glowsticks (ha-just like her Dad was likely doing that exact moment at the Phish show) 

Popcorn and glowsticks, overlooking the city

SCENES FROM THE EWH NEIGHBORHOOD PARADE & POOL PARTY:

A pep-talk from DD helped ease Josie's fears after a scary incident last time she went swimming...

...And she was smiling and giggling in no time (THANKS DD!)

SCENES FROM OUR REUNION WITH DADDY:

It was a GREAT (and exhausting) weekend, and sweet Josie declared Sunday "the best day of her whole life."  In other funny moments, we will never forget Josie coming down the stairs after a perfect day playing with Lyla incident-free and stating, "Lyla did not frustrate me at all today."  And I am still giggling about Josie's quote when we were up in Eden Park much past bedtime when she looked at me with super-drowsy eyes and asked, "Mommy, did you bring any pillows?"   It was also pretty hilarious later about 10:00ish when we were all back home after the girls had ice-cream and were watching Backyardigans when Lyla climbed on my sister's lap and said "I'm DONE."   And the girls hiding the Amazon box...and Jack's obsession with Baby Bea...and all the cuteness of cousins!   I imagine Tia will have some pics up on Four Austins soon, too (hint, hint).