Jake in June!

The beginning of June (and end of May) marked the beginning the nesting period for me. I'm ready to get the house and everything else in order in preparation for the baby girl. I remember cleaning out the garage of our townhouse as a nesting project before Jake was born. I'm pretty sure Alex thought that I was totally crazy.

Thankfully our "Handy Manny" obsession has continued so Jake loved all the work being done around the house. He even enjoys trips to Home Depot as long as we go see the tools.
To calm my nesting need, we've tackled some long standing wishlist items...new garage doors and we had the front lawn landscaped.

Ugly mismatched, non-working doors - before:
Matching and functional -after: To be fair the "before" pictures are from before we even bought the house. We cleaned it up and kept it mowed but that was about it.

And the lovely "after" shots:

Although there is still a huge project in the back we did tackle some changes to the back deck, had some debris and one tree removed.

Deck before:
Deck after without the railing, power washed and stained:
Now on to the adventures of Jake in June!

June 3rd was Jake's last day of school as a Ladybug :(. To mark the occasion we started off the start of our summer with a fun outing to see "Max & Ruby" (a bunny brother and sister and the tales of their adventures)we had free tickets and it was a fun excuse to hang out with ladybug friends, Jacob and Jack and their families.

We met up at Jack's house for a quick dinner and then walked to the venue. It was our first time at the Austin Music Hall, to bad we weren't actually listening to any music. Below, Jake and Jacob chillin' pre-show and the extreme cuteness of how excited and engaged all the kiddos were in the show.

After a week off "camp" started at ECP. Jake is a dalmatian for the summer and is happy to have the majority of the ladybugs together plus a few new friends. It has been a bit of an adjustment but so far things are good. They require so much more stuff in the summer for activities and for the hot weather. Jake is taking swimming lessons two days a week and gymnastics two days a week. He seems to like gymnastics and can't seem to decide about swimming.

Let's hope the boy develops an affection for the water because it is hot here. Thankfully, we're back down in the 90's after something like ten straight days over 100! At least the hot weather has led us to discover the splash pad phenomenon. We met up with friends at Pease Park for some splash time and it was so fun. It took Jake a while to really enjoy it but then he loved it. The pictures really don't do it justice but I'm sure we'll be back again soon.


To celebrate our favorite dad we had a special brunch for Father's Day! Together with another great dad, Alex's good friend Brian and his daughter, Lily, we had a lovely meal at Roaring Fork.


After brunch we went and got Jake his new big boy bed! He's an "active" sleeper so we went for a full bed and he's loving his new dinosaur sheets!


We also celebrated Alex by giving him the afternoon off to enjoy some down time and a Braves game. Jake and I headed out to another splash pad to cool down.

I thought I'd throw in my attempt at a "belly-shot" to show the growing bump.
To start my birthday weekend, I took a 1/2 day on Friday and treated myself to a mani/pedi before Jake, Alex and I headed to see Cars 2! Jake was a huge fan of the original Cars and all the guys from Radiator Springs so he was beyond excited to see the new movie. Now it wasn't the best Pixar I've ever seen and it was no Toy Story 3 but it was fun and full of adventure and most importantly, Jake loved it! Saturday afternoon Jake and I headed to a Ladybug pool party at Avi's. It was so fun to just hang out and see the kiddos play. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures! Saturday night Alex arranged for a babysitter and a night out to celebrate my birthday. We had a really great dinner at Shoreline Grill over looking Lady Bird Lake.

Sunday, my actual birthday, we had about 35 including 8 3-year olds for brunch at our house. It was crazy but really fun and a perfect way to celebrate. It also proves once again how much we love entertaining in our house!

Once again giving up the dining room for a playroom was an amazing decision! These pictures don't even come close to showing the true damage done.

In addition to cake, Alex and Jake gave the most beautiful birthday gift, a necklace that I wasn't expecting even a little.

With a little help from Jake blowing out the candles and a ton of love from Alex, it was a great birthday and a great month! Bring on July!