June: Could it have been any better?!!

When June rolled around I knew it would be a busy month. June was LOADED. With three birthdays, Father's Day, the much-anticipated move north by the Stromberg Family and Charlie's 6-month 'birthday' - how much more 'happy days' could we squeeze into one little old 30-day month?!











So the cousins had an opportunity to get re-acquainted at the end of May when Ashley, Gracie and Emily came north for a visit. Jim has been up here working and sponging, er...visiting and staying with his California fam since April 24. Charlie seems very enamoured with his older, more worldly cousins, but just wait. Mr. C. is going to be giving these girls a real run for their money in another year or three.




I think Charlie has that "deer in the headlights" look - what do you think? :)

Charlie is going to enjoy knowing "TiTi" Ashley (or is it "TeeTee?") and his Uncle "Jimmy." Here's a good group photo where Charlie is saying hi to Auntie while Emily (Em-i-wee) wonders what happened to her spot on Mommy's lap...Daddy is apparently chopped liver at the moment. That's ok. Mimi can relate...and fortunately that feeling is short-lived.

Other monthly milestones... Charlie has discovered that rice cereal is extra yummy when it's made with Mommy's milk. What d'ya know...he already knows where the business end of the spoon goes......

Yep - good to the last molecule, right Charlie??!!!

And you just never know...if you store a little bit of cereal on the edge of your highchair tray, you can always come back for seconds. Or leftovers. Whatever.




Other milestones we celebrated this month...Alyssa's BIG 30th birthday where I rocked my Little Kid Party theme...we ate mac and cheese, hot dogs, jello salad and birthday cake on "Dora the Explorer" paper plates, napkins and the like. We blew the roof off (well, not REALLY) with noise makers that didn't make noise, silly, curvy straws for our pink lemonade and fun sunglasses. Pictures would be here except unfortunately they are on the home computer...so you'll just have to use your imagination. We capped the 30th celebration with a rousing game of "Pin the tail on the donkey" where the "pins" are history and you "Stick the tail..." instead. Oh, those safety police people! Rob and Ralph went at things with a scientific approach and were most accurate while Alyssa's tail was pretty much hanging out of the donkey's mouth. No prizes for the birthday girl!

Plus we had Ralph's birthday celebration at Rob and Alyssa's where we made the s'mores we didn't get around to making for Alyssa's party, and where Ralph purchased the first NEW vehicle of his entire lifetime, an awesome Ford 150 pick up with a neat-o backseat for his golfer buddies and Mr. P.

We traveled to Long Beach for the last visit by Mimi and Poppy to the Stromberg abode for Gracie's big 3rd birthday bash! Gracie was the hostess with the mostess at her Fancy Nancy party - and where a real live "Fancy Nancy Fairy" arrived and did fun games including painting a pretty butterfly on Gracie's sweet face.

And THEN we traveled back to Morgan Hill in time to celebrate Father's Day - and Rob's FIRST Father's Day - with the Wagners, Kathy and Michael and little Carla (and where Kathy and Michael announced that, yes, MORE little bundles are on the way), Lorraine (Michael's mom) and Rob grilled his great big heart out with a yummy dinner of steak, chicken, grilled veggies and Alyssa's famous chocolate cake. Yumm-o!!!!

Finally, the end of June drew near - and so did the Strombergs. Jim, Ashley, Gracie and Emily pulled into our driveway about 10:15 Saturday night...June 26. Tired and ready to call it a day, we welcomed the Stromberg's to Morgan Hill and put them to bed - and the next day they began the move into their cute little rental home on Via Corfino. The girls stayed with Mimi while the movers arrived at the rental, moved in the boxes and set up the furniture. Yesterday we visited Ashley and the girls to see their new casa - it's adorable in my book - ESPECIALLY because it's about 10 minutes from our house to their's. With ALL of our kids in Morgan Hill - at least for now - I couldn't be more happy.

So what a month! Whew...I think I need a vacation. Which is what I would love to do NEXT June. Rob and I are dedicating a few months to the prospect of getting back into shape. Rob has lots less "getting back into" than I do, which is why I thought next June would be a lovely time to take a Family Cruise - or whatever - if I can manage to keep both oars in the water and make some SIGNIFICANT progress on my weight loss journey. Rob is a great coach (I have nicknamed him Jillian after the infamous personal trainer on Biggest Loser). He has been kicking rear end and taking names. That's ok - if he can get some junk out of this trunk I can sure take it!

So...it has been a looooong time between postings, but reading over this entry - I now know why. Adieu for now :)