First Family Meal in Woodstock!

We all went up to Woodstock to see the progress last Friday and it was great.  In an amazing development, the Great Room is finally complete enough and safe enough that we were able to open up a folding table and chairs and have some lunch.  Imagine that! We ate our first family meal at the house!!  Sandwiches, macaroni salad and chips never tasted so good.  Hooray for us!!

Simply Delightful!!

Mommy was at an acting workshop all weekend so, to start off the weekend together, Sadie and Papa went to brunch at Zoey's house on Saturday morning.  Papa enjoyed hanging out with Zoey's folks and Zoey and Sadie had a ball.  For those of you who can never get enough, here is an awful lot of splendid!  

They just kept going and going and going.

Flying, Grandma V's House, the Beach & Gruffledoink!

We had a 6:30am flight on Saturday morning and it went swimmingly (except that Sadie and Papa didn't really get to nap much).  Sadie seemed happy to have Gruffledoink along for the ride although she certainly wasn't as mesmerized by him/her(?) for hours as I had hoped she would be.  Oh well!

Happily, Sadie got a nap in the car on the way home from the airport.

Sadie did not adjust to the time out here overnight so on Sunday morning we made an early trip to the playground with her cousin Brianna.

I half expected Sadie to pass out in the car but when we got home we had another birthday party for her and the ice cream cake gave her enough energy to play for quite a while with Uncle Ben while papa napped. And then Uncle Ben found a way to get Sadie to take a nap without a walk in her stroller.  Thank you Uncle Ben.

We had another rough night last night with a 4 am argument about whether it was an appropriate time to eat grapes, go outside, go downstairs, go home, go to grandma and much much more.  She finally dropped off to sleep again but was up at 7 and demanded to go to the beach. 

Papa was sitting on the sofa and Sadie came right over and grabbed his hand and tugged and said, "Come on.  Get up.  Let's go beach."  I was so charmed by such a perfectly phrased request that I hopped right up and called Brindon (I have been feeling under the weather so I needed reinforcements).  

Now, regarding the beach and two year olds, it is worth noting that the ability to phrase a request to go there does not necessarily indicate an understanding of what the beach is or what it entails.  When we arrived, Sadie complained immediately about all the sand, said she didn't like it and then asked to go to the beach.  She seemed dismayed to discover that the beach is entirely made of sand.

We found a perch high above the sand and managed to have fun anyway.

At some point, Sadie got hold of papa's phone and took about forty selfies.  These are the best.

And, finally, because Sadie makes such a compelling case for eating ice cream, we went to Mission Hill Creamery BEFORE dinner! She ate the whole thing with very little help, ice cream, cone and all.

Sadie is clearly enjoying her cousins, aunt, uncle and grandma, though she occasionally asks for her mommy and says she wants to go home.  

Sadie Turns Two!

Tomorrow is Sadie's second birthday, but we had a party for her today and it was a smashing success.  Grandma India and Uncle Preston were here to celebrate with us and two dozen friends (among whom were 11 kids, mostly under the age of 6).  Anyway, it was a great day and here are some photos to prove it.  (click on any photo to enlarge it and then use your right and left arrows to scroll through the lot of them)

This is Sadie's friend Zoe who is only one day older than Sadie - today is Zoe's birthday although Zoe had her birthday party yesterday.

Sadie insisted on shooting some selfies with Auntie Michelle.

Sadie was happy to see her friend Vera again so soon.

Here are Arash and Momo and their son, Toshiro.

Here are Jessie and Jeff and their daughter, Wesley.

Jasper decided to photo-bomb the party!

He is one handsome dog though, so it is okay. 

That is Jessie and Jeff's daughter, Wesley, who Sadie is hanging out with.