Summer highights...

well friends and family, i have to admit that blogging has been pretty lame these past couple months. the internet has really thrown some cold water on my fire...but i have had a surge of determination kick in and so i am giving it another shot.

i thought i would summarize some summer highlights and then pick up in the here and now.

this summer has been rich. the whole month of june we had some of our closest, dearest friends living with us. the weather was incredible, we ate outside almost every night on our porch, and just settled into all the sights and sounds that our new city has to offer us.

Claire and i explored and discovered a few of our favorite hang outs. One thing i have really embraced is the unpredictability of toots like CB. I love that we can get all dressed, snacks packed, talking and singing of our adventures to come...and then we get there and it is total melt down, crying...fussing..asking for "nummies" ( food) or just not enjoying this moment i tried to hard to create.

but then there are moments of pure bliss. of momma-baby bear laughing and giggling and bonding. like we were made for that moment. and all the meltdowns and fussing are on the road to those moments.

(this is blurry, but captures one of our favorite indoor playgrounds we would escape the heat from)

and then there was the beach. our favorite. we now have our beach routine- sunscreen at home, shoes on, bathing suits on, favorite beach snacks ( pretzels and fruit!), a song we sing just about the beach the whole ride there....and then just doing whatever we want once we are there...

playing in the sand...

the waves...with other kids...with baba..

we have had parties and play dates and we are so grateful to have friends here. sometimes it looks like all mommas just chasing their littles around...other times we can actually finish our conversations.

the mommas and the girls...

( one particular play date- yessica, Kelly and i took our three cuties to the women's beach. and we literally did not talk to each other for the whole 3 hours because our kids were running to different spots the entire time. ha!)

isaac had a really fun swim party!

(she loves her aunt Su-su and kopke...sarah has wooed her with playing with her hair!)

and of course the funny creative moments we get ourselves into trying to make new friends. my little sunshine bear is the perfect companion for me in those moments. Many times if a mother with children or babies passes us and does not greet us, claire runs right after them! which gets me into lots of fun conversations.

best meet-up: meeting one of the women that is one of my dearest friends here. Claire liked the looks of their picnic feast and ran straight to them for some handouts. they insisted i sit down with them, and wa-laa magic- a fast friendship blossomed.

worst attempt: mid morning, heat of about 95, the boardwalk next to the sea, not that many people out ( just people exercising) and Yessica, Sarah and i tried to meet people. I volunteered to watch Yasmin and Claire so they could walk around and meet people. disaster. two strollers, neither baby wanting to sit in their stroller, me running after them with two strollers as one dashes in one direction, the other one in the opposite direction, one side of us is sea( with safety rail ?) one side of us is streets, abandoning strollers and runnings to kiddos, strollers running into parked cars. you get the feel.

and of course you can't end the summer highlights without saying how much fun we have had with Ba-ba ( that is what claire calls drew, it is the arabic da-da)

he has tickled, teased, wrestled, read to, played with, buried in sand, tossed in waves, made up silly songs and lavished love on this little girl. this is a shot from his birthday: