Nature Journals

Thank you, Kim and Reece, for the beautiful nature journals for the girls! They are just perfect and were adored from the moment they first saw them! They will definitely be put to good use!  xo

Scenes From The Lake

It's been another absolutely gorgeous week at the lake! 

The weather has been truly magnificent, and the girls have logged countless hours swimming and building sandcastles. 

It's also been another fabulous week of swimming lessons for these part mermaid children of ours. 

They swim before their lesson, swim during their lesson and stop by to say hi to me and head right back in to the water after their lesson. This is what summer is all about, my friends. 

We also loved having so many friends join us at the lake throughout this week. It was such a treat to have different friends to visit with each day! Thank you to everyone who came and spent some time with us. It was lovely to get to share our lake days with you! xo

A Summer Bouquet

We are so happy to once again be part of a flower CSA. Getting to have fresh flowers in the house (twenty stems a week for the twenty week CSA season, nonetheless) really is such a lovely treat! xo

And She's Off!

 Tonight I discovered Grace helping Emma learn to ride her bike. Emma gave it a good shot on Grace's bike but ultimately decided she'd rather give it a try on her (much-too-small-for-her) bike. She went back to our house, got out her wrench, removed her training wheels and...

 walked her bike back down the street to her sister. She proclaimed all the way that she would spend the next days and weeks figuring out how to ride her bike without training wheels if that's what it took. 

Grace headed home to change dresses.

 And no sooner did I say to my friend and neighbor Lily that "she'll probably start riding her bike like right now" than she did!

What a sight to see! 

 And us mamas just smiled with pride as another little from the street was now on two wheels! There's truly nothing like watching them learn to ride and seeing the pride on their face when it all just comes together right before their eyes. It's pretty much as awesome as when they first laugh, or first figure out how to walk. It's a moment that none of us shall ever forget! 

Grace returned and was super surprised to see Emma riding (as we knew she would be)! 

She is so proud. We all are so proud. And what makes me even more proud is how she waited until the moment it felt right in her soul for her to take her training wheels off (for good). They had been off before and were then put back on and remained so until this very night when it was finally her time. Watching her glide past us tonight was as if she had never had those training wheels on at all.  It was as if she had been riding a two wheeler her whole life. What an absolutely beautiful sight on this absolutely most beautiful of nights! Congrats, Emma! We are so very, very proud of you! xo

Friday Morning In Fairyborough

Yesterday was an absolutely perfect day to head to the Discovery Museums in Acton for their Fairyborough event! We arrived first thing in the morning and stayed until it was time to head to the lake for swimming lessons. The girls had a wonderful time writing fairy mail, building fairy houses and writing fairy stories to be included in the Fairyborough Library! More details of our adventure will be over on the New England Fall Events website sometime this autumn (I'll be sure to post when our piece has gone live over there). Thanks to our dear friend Alexandra for choosing us to attend this truly fabulous event (and the Dirtopia event last month)! We had a truly fantastic time! xo

{This Moment} Bathing Beauties

{This Moment} - A Friday ritual. A single  photo  - no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments section for all to find and see. We wish you a fun-filled weekend! xo

Fun With Dick And Jane

A little reading before our daily trip to the lake. xo

Wordless Wednesday: A Beach Treasure

A Gift For Grace

 On Saturday we arrived home to discover a package in the mail for Grace from our friends over at Mothering with Mindfulness! 

 The card was read and the gift unwrapped. 

 And a beautiful nature necklace was discovered! 

Thank you, Kim and Reece, for this very special gift! What a lovely ending to Grace's ninth birthday celebration and a fabulous way to begin her next trip around the sun! Thank you for always thinking of us and for helping to make each birthday celebration so special even from so far away! xo

A Glorious Day At The Lake

Is there any place better to be on a hot and humid July day? We think not! xo

Sunday Fun

Any day that involves a giant slip 'n slide is definitely a fabulous day! xo

A Gathering Of Friends

 For the last few years Grace has chosen to have her birthday celebration with her friends at the lake in town. It's always a joy to have everyone there with us and this year was surely no exception. The weather was incredible (thank you, Mother Nature!) and everything about the day was simply fabulous! 

The sunflower theme was so absolutely perfect for our summer birthday girl. It wasn't something that we had planned, but rather something that happened very organically. As soon as she decided to put a sunflower on top of her birthday cake the rest just fell into place. From there it was decided that she'd like cupcakes with sunflowers for her friend gathering, and after that we were fortunate to happen upon the final packet of sunflower seeds at the farm when we stopped by to pick a few things up for dinner. "Let's decorate little envelopes with sunflowers and put a few seeds in for each family as a thank-you gift." I suggested. She loved that ideas so much that that's just what she did. 

 Thanks to a recommendation from the girls beloved yoga teacher and our dear friend Alexandra we found an amazing cupcake shop for the cupcakes for Grace's gathering. With the renovations going on I knew that it would be best not to take on the baking and decorating of cupcakes this year, and goodness we are so very glad that we went this route! The cupcakes from CocoBeni Confections in Northborough are simply the best around! Everything about them was fabulous and if you are local to us we highly recommend them for all your cupcake needs! We were thrilled to see that they offered mini-cupcakes (as that is really what we wanted for this celebration) and just loved how gorgeous they all came out! Jess is beyond talented, and we are so very glad to have had the chance to meet her and have her decorate these sweet cupcakes for this wonderful gathering yesterday. Thank you, Jess, the cupcakes were a big hit and we'll definitely be buying cupcakes from CocoBeni for years to come! 

 A gorgeous setting to celebrate her ninth trip around the sun. 

These two have known each other since they were about three months old and have celebrated every birthday together (they are two weeks apart). Their friendship is so very sweet and it is my hope that it continues for the rest of their lives. 

 Allison painted this picture just for Grace. Such a sweet gift and as soon as the renovations are done we'll be hanging it up! 

 "Mama, look, it's a deer!" 

 You cannot go wrong with a Magic 8 Ball! We've had lots of fun with this one already! 

This year in lieu of gifts Grace asked that her friends bring donations for the animal shelter. She was so excited to see all the wonderful things that everyone selected for the dogs and cats! Thank you, friends, for helping the animals in honor of Grace's birthday! We can't wait to drop off these wonderful gifts at the shelter. We know that they will be very much appreciated!

Thank you, friends, for coming to celebrate with us! Having you all there truly was the cherry on top of the sundae that was Grace's ninth birthday! We hope you had as much fun as we did, and we look forward to many more wonderful celebrations with all of you! xo