Back At It

After being gone on vacation, we sure did jump back right into our fun, friend-filled life here in the Burgh this week.  I've been neglectful of the blog as I've caught up on housework, laundry, the regular day-to-day of not living at the beach with no commitments, so here's a quick pictorial view of what we've been up to our return last Tuesday.

Thursday - Big Playdate with dozens of friends at The Water Steps
I've been hosting playdates this summer for a conglomeration of moms that I know through church, our neighborhood, preschool and school.  Thursday was our third yet and it was well-attended and lots of fun.  My boys were probably most excited about their buddies Delia and Huck being there.  Koen and Tav love playing with these old neighborhood friends, but D & H are also super attentive to the novelty of Penn.  It's so sweet!  And Penn just ate up the attention!

Friday - Day in Suburbia
We had made plans more than a month ago to join our friends at the Car Cruise in Wexford for a night of family fun.  We've done the car cruise in years past and always get stuck trying to get there because of rush hour traffic out of the city, so this year we decided to outsmart the system and go up midday and spend some quality time with our friend Meaghan and her kids.  Turns out it was a fantastic idea!  We met up with Meaghan at the outdoor pool at her gym.  

After lunch at the pool, Doug took Penn back for a nap at Meaghan's place.  Meaghan and I stayed until 3pm with the big boys at the pool and when her son, Austin, got out of his little sports camp at the gym.  Then we brought them back for some rest time.  They were some happy little buddies to be together resting and snacking.

After the rest time, the boys were stir crazy again (man, the energy these children have), so it was time to pack it up and walk over to the car cruise.  It was a gorgeous night, by the way.  Not too hot and beautifully sunny.  

At the car cruise Uncle Nate and Aunt Megan, Alex and Andy met up with our crew and Meaghan, Mark and their boys, Austin and Charlie.  Yep, that's right, a total of 7 boys.  Despite my best efforts we didn't quite get a pic of all 7 at once, but here are some pics of the boys in different groupings.

Checking out some dude's really bizarre van from the 70's.

We spotted a safari yellow Corvette and although it was the wrong year, still had to take a pic for Grampa.

I had Tav and Penn pose for Grampa in front of this gorgeous old Mercedes convertible.  What a beaut! 

Check out this 1926 car in mint condition!

After dinner and awhile of gazing at cars, the boys enjoyed some time at the playground there.  There happened to be a soccer ball in the tennis courts next to the playground too, so that was fun for all as well.

Mark totally photo-bombed this one of my see-saw pair.

Two-year-olds playing soccer together is pretty funny.  Charlie is using his hands to throw the ball instead of kick it.  Penn is off in the corner concerned about a piece of grass on his hand rather than watching the ball.

Then it's a mad dash for the ball because neither of them are confident the other will actually give the ball up after they get it.

Tavin and Alex (or should I say, "Puppy," since Alex got his face-painted) LOVED see-sawing together.  They were singing songs and going up and down, back and forth for a long time.

Daddies hard at work or play.  Tough to tell.

A final shot of several of the boys getting into the soccer scrimmage.  It was so fun to see our little guys enjoying each other's company.  We have to do this again!

Saturday - Brooklyn's "Frozen" Birthday Party
We had a fun family morning at Frick Park and around the house, but I didn't catch any pictures of that.  I did bring my camera to a birthday party we attended in the evening for a neighbor friend, Brooklyn, who was turning 4 in all sorts of Frozen splendor.  It was such a cute party, Brooklyn's mom did an amazing job incorporating the theme and the kids all loved it since everyone knows the movie.  The family were such great hosts allowing so many little ones loose in their backyard.  I don't know if I'd be so brave.  My boys especially enjoyed the bounce house.

Sunday - Post-Church Playground with Uncle Nate, Alex & Andy
Megan had to work in the nursery at the 11am service, so after we all attended the 9am, Nate and I took our 5 boys to Andersen Playground at Schenley to get out all that post-church energy.  Nate gave the boys some real fun in developing this hilarious, rough-housing game "Dragon."  Nate, of course, was the dragon.  Koen and Tavin and Nate's boys loved it.

Penn wasn't really into the dragon game, so he headed to find his own stuff to do.  I spun him on the merry-go-round for awhile.  The cuteness.

Then Penn made a sweet little friend that wanted to play on the merry-go-round with him.  It was so cute!

He followed her all around the playground and she was really attentive to make sure he was hanging out with her.  He even followed her down the biggest tunnel slide (happily as you can see).

Well, that's about it for our week in pictures!  We'll see what we squeeze in this week before we take off on vacation again the following week (home to NH!).