KICKSTART! The start of Summer 2013: May 2-4 weekend

This past long weekend was simply amazing. I love when you can jam-pack a bunch of different activities together and have many good times in a weekend!

So friggin excited for summer 2013 adventures: beach, our engagement party, Appin bbq on Fridays between 4-6pm (I have seen this advertised on my country drives and I NEED to go!), Chelsea & Warren's wedding and associated activities, camping! I also just had this urge to go to the OLD Wally World... man that would have been good times... too bad its closed (for 10 years now?).

This weekend started with Saturday birthday celebrations with Kenny & Steph! 

We started 'er off with a good old bbq: pork chops & veggie skewers and spent some time enjoying the warm weather outside!

And Rachel said that it was the long weekend so to fully party, sparklers are necessary!

She was a little nervous about holding a stick of fire, but still drew her pictures in the air...

Of course, it wouldn't have been a complete birthday celebration without birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Steph & Kenny!

Birthday cake & wine: Saturday evening perfection.

Pre- card game here. Several games of Asshole later, I may have ended up Assole in the end (but I held my own in top ranks in the beginning!)

My niece and nephew are so friggin cute!

On Sunday, our little buddy Colton came to visit! He brought his parents and his doggy too...

Our little buddy has grown so much and is now more than a month old! Aleksy's gonna be such a good Daddy...

He decided to wear the orange shirt that we bought him when we were in Florida.. he's so thoughtful. His Daddy didn't wear his matching orange hat though...

We were very grateful that Colton brought this card to show his appreciation for all the hard work Aleksy did on the weekend he was born. Colton thought it was best to come on the Thursday before the home show where his Dad, Al had made arrangements to be for that weekend, so Aleksy worked his booth for those few days.

Colton showed his appreciation with a weekend date night for both of us! Dinner at Milestones and a movie coming up!










On Sunday afternoon, we made an impromptu countryside drive to St. Mary's. We decided that the weather was so beautiful when Al & Steph left, that we had to continue enjoying.

After a nice, sunny drive in the jeep with the top off, we walked around St. Mary's around the lake.

St. Mary's is the perfect place for a day drive and a picnic lunch. We already ate a ton with Steph & Al before heading over (breakfast complete with peameal bacon, an egg & veggie bake, chinese dumplings, and fruit tart!) so we didn't pack a picnic, but this would have been the spot!

What we did have room for: ice cream! We got our ice cream from this little spot, and GUESS WHAT? They served my FAV!! Starting off the summer right with my Happy Birthday ice cream from the London Ice Cream Company!! Mmmmmm

After further exploration in St. Mary's, we found this adorable garden area surrounding the public library, with a checker board.. complete with checker stones for play.

We played. I won. It should be noted.















On Monday, we made arrangements to meet the Browns in Paris, which is in between our cities and an adorable little town for a nice lunch and a walk.

After some lunch at a restaurant that served portion sizes that would be appropriate for children, but had a beautiful view alongside the river, we headed to the chocolate store! My favorite.... just finished up our chocolate covered pretzels and red velvet cherries.

Ice cream was also had... peanut butter goodness.

Andzelika & Paul had plans to take the girls to the butterfly conservatory in Cambridge and invited us along for the adventure after our lunch in Paris.
We bought our coupon from good ol' Dealfind for $5 and spent some time in the conservatory. This was my first time, and it was really pretty!

These cuties were so excited to be surrounded by butterflies! If you look closely to the left of this picture, you can see the butterfly flying around the girls!

Serena really really wanted a butterfly to land on her and this one was transportable. This butterfly first landed on Warren then he transferred to Serena (who is smiling here, but then wanted the butterfly removed pronto) then another little girl who wanted the butterfly!

Lots of pretty picture opportunities in the conservatory! They even advertised weddings...

What an amazing way to spend a holiday Monday!










We were so lucky to have such nice weather for our May 2-4 weekend! It definitely helped us to get full use of our weekend!