Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.
I think this is my most favorite summer yet. I absolutely love the kid in me that Hadley brings out! We’ve had so much fun together lately. While I certainly don’t capture every bit of our lives with my cell phone, I do make an effort to snap one or two from our fun outings because I don’t ever want to forget how simplistic and innocent these days truly are.
Here’s a little slice of our lives from the last few weeks. 🙂
Hadley had swimming lessons a couple weeks ago, and afterwards we spent a few days over at the Blue Earth Plaza near downtown Manhattan. We love this area because it’s shaded, it’s right by a local cafe (I love their quiches and Hadley loves their cookies), and it has a more toddler-friendly splash pad area and tiny lazy river. Hadley was most enthralled with the dancing water (aka her water fountain).
A few weeks ago we joined the National Donut Day fun and grabbed some free Varsity donuts after dinner one night. Hadley’s little hand could wait to dig in!
We had to be on post for something recently, so we stopped in to Jamie’s work to see his new office and meet his new soldiers in his shop. She had a field day banging on that keyboard!
I went through about a weeklong rut recently when I had zero (and I mean zero) motivation to make dinner. I knew I needed to come up with something for Hadley’s sake, so one night I threw together these pizzas on english muffins. She loved them, and so did Jamie and I! Ha! So quick and easy! I snapped this picture and sent it to my dad since he and I love swapping homemade pizza pictures. I figured he’d give me a hard time for not making my own dough like usual, but he joked that english muffin pizzas were his favorite years ago. So funny.
I watched Jack for a little while recently, and they loved playing out back like usual. I love these kiddos!
Sweet kisses before I left for a night out with my MOPS steering committee friends.
The drive from between Colorado Springs and Manhattan pretty much looks like this the entire way. I asked Meg to take this picture while I was driving because I couldn’t get over how gorgeous the half rain/half sunshine view was. Add in those windmills and it’s just picture perfect! I promise it’s prettier in person. 😉
We finally decided to rip out our old garden bed because the wood is starting to rot, and Jamie got himself a good workout using that ax to break it up. Hadley stood here and watched almost the entire time! Of course this distracted him and he had to come greet her at the window every five minutes. Love these two!
She loves (love love loves x10) walking Teddy! Her plush Minnie Mouse (any of the four she has) is also a constant these days.
Jamie & I are way more fascinated with the nest in our hanging basket than Hadley is. She couldn’t care less.
My bestie Jessica had a baby a few days ago (be still my heart!), and we texted a bunch while she was in labor before things got real. 😉 I joked with her that I was sad we wouldn’t get to text about The Bachelorette that night (obviously joking), but sure enough she texted me this picture a few minutes later. She totally watched. Love that girl.
Hadley loves to torment Teddy with snacks and treats! People always ask us if he gets her food, but the short answer is no because she’s too stingy and teases him with it!
Hadley had a little message for her Auntie Jess and new BFF Mia this week! In our perfect world Hadley and Mia will be great friends just like their mamas, so in this case I want to be able to show this picture to Mia one day and tell her that it was taken the day she was born. 🙂
We’ve officially cleaned up the high chair and stored it away for future DeSpain babies! We’ve moved on up to using Hadley’s big kid table. She’s loving it so far! I’m already missing the confinement of the high chair though.
Though motherhood can wipe me flat on my butt sometimes, I often find myself so consumed at the most random times with love for this girl. During a pool break the other day we shared a lounge chair and container of chopped up strawberries, and I was just totally blissed out. I know this moment may not seem like anything special, but for some reason it just filled me up with so much happiness.
These two cuties went on a little chaperoned movie date today! 😉 We hit up the 10 a.m. showing of Monsters vs. Aliens, and it went as well as we expected. Hadley didn’t quite weigh enough to keep the seat comfortably down without help from me, but she didn’t mind because she much preferred to bop around between my lap, Meg’s lap, and standing up watching between the seats in front of us. Neither kid moved during the first 20 minutes because they were just so captivated by the big screen. After about 50 minutes we called it a day and went to hang in the lobby arcade. We’re definitely going to hit up another movie or two this summer!
What do you have on tap for the upcoming Father’s Day weekend? We’re going in with some friends to rent a boat for a few hours Saturday and then of course Hadley and I will be spoiling our main man with lots of love and fun on Sunday! Here’s a letter (found here) I wrote to Hadley last year about her dad around Father’s Day.
In case my own dad is reading this, Happy Father’s Day to you! I love you! We cannot wait to see you soon.
Have a fabulous weekend, friends!
Previous Slice of Life posts:
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo