Golly gee, look who's three!!!

He obviously did not get the memo that he's to stay mama's baby forever and ever because my "baby" turned 3 years old today.

Today he kept saying, "I'm three today, not two anymore."

"That's right," I answered.

"And when I'm four," he started, "I can play tennis."

 Funny man! Already thinking about being four?!

 

We had his big family party on Saturday -- 68 degrees!

Michigan reunion

My grandfather is one of 8 kids, all of whom immigrated to the US from Italy at some point (some were kids, some were married, point being none of them stayed in Italy).

Eight kids means there are a lot of relatives. 

This is the 2nd cousins picture (22 people are missing):

Growing up, I saw my moms aunts & uncles and 1st cousins a lot (I'm one of the oldest 2nd cousins): graduations, weddings for the most part. Then it stopped and we rarely saw anyone. My wedding 10 years ago was a big "reunion" of sorts and then ... funerals. The first of the siblings and spouses began to pass away and we found ourselves gathering for times of sadness rather than joy.

At the last funeral over Christmas, everyone decided that we should have a family reunion and a cousin who has a campground in Michigan, where many of my family live, offered to host. The first Family Reunion was held this past weekend.

This is everyone who came!

Not everyone showed up, but a lot did and it was FUN. The campground was a great venue, with a pool and bounce pillow -- my kids had so much fun. We had tons of food, as expected from Italians, and caught up with relatives we remembered as kids and meeting the newest in the bunch (my own kids!).

Everyone hopes this is a yearly event and I hope so too. It's wonderful to know that you belong to a "clan" and so many families don't have that connection and can say - "3rd cousin? Yep, I know them!"

Florida vacation

Have I mentioned we haven't had a vacation in 2 years? We haven't, unless you count my pregnancy, Claire's birth, and the subsequent sleepless 11 months as a vacation, which I do not.

So we must have been delirious with a vacation withdrawal when we booked a Florida vacation with my parents, my grandparents, and my in-laws. (This was May ... so 2 months ago ... behind in posting!)

How does a vacation like this go? Hmmm ...

...Take eleven people, throw in sun and sand, swim diapers and sunscreen, confusing car shuffling and daunting dinner decision-making, stir in some pool-side vodka drinks and fried calamari, sprinkle in 1 toddler, 1 baby, seven sleepless nights squeezed in one bed, and one nasty blowout in the car at Sanibel, finally toss in some good seafood, tasty donuts, and delicious biscuits ... 

And you have what we call a "vacation."

Mothers Day Dinner:

Claire is walking!

We have a walker!  Claire took her first steps exactly one week before her 1st birthday on the outside patio. We were all jumping around, excited for her! Wow, walking before she turns 1, we couldn't believe it. We were so excited that she'd be walking for her birthday party and could show off her new moves ... and then she stopped walking.

 I guess falling down was too much, or she realized she liked crawling, or she didn't want to be anyone's trained monkey because she wouldn't take anymore steps for us after that. Se would especially not walk for anyone on her birthday. Then the festivities died down, grandparents went back to Nashville, everything returned to normal and ... she was back at it.

One week after her birthday, she was back walking, attempting small steps which quickly turned into steadier steps. And now (3 weeks after her 1st birthday) we have a full blown walking toddler who picks herself up from sitting to standing to walking, prefers walking over crawling, and gets around the house on her little doughy baby feet with her one arm up in the air for balance (she looks ready for us to give her a platter of food to serve). She is so little and cute teetering around the house. She almost looks too little to be walking.

Milestone: walking! 12 months

June 8: Photo shoot outside

June 8th ... A month ago ... Matt was blowing the leaves from the gutters and the day was beautiful, so I took advantage of the sunshine to get some cute photos of the kids. Well, mostly Claire cause Wesley was too busy watching Matt - "He's on the roof!"

Sunday morning bike ride

We are very lucky to have the Illinois Prairie Path so close (1/4 mile) from our house. I can't tell you how my times I have "strollered" down the dusty path. 

Or like this morning, we put both kids in the Burley for the first time. 

Now that Claire is a year old (and walking!) she can sit in the Burley for a nice trip down the prairie path.

Blueberry Galette

I've never made a galette before. I've tried -- using store bought puff pastry -- and the results were ..."eh." But I never closed the door on the galette and its unassuming simplicity.

So when we got 2 pints of blueberries from our CSA's fruit share, I knew they were destined to be encased in dough and baked to perfection (with butter & sugar of course, the way Mother Nature intended).

My new love interest, Pinterest, hooked me up with a recipe from Baking with Julia -- a book I own and deem too difficult to make anything from it turning my kitchen into a powder puff of flour, but nevertheless written by Dorie Greenspan so this counts as part of my Dorie baking marathon even though it didn't come out of the cookbook Baking ... Whew. That was a mouthful.

Deciding against puff pastry, the recipe for the galette dough was simple, combining ingredients in a food processor and chilling the dough. The dough rolled out easy, folded over easy, and took little precious counter space other than the cutting board.

Now I have 2 perfect little blueberry galettes to bring to my moms group family picnic today.

Recipe here.  (A lot of blogs participate in Tuesday with Dorie ... a group I'd love to be part of but can't be so disciplined at the moment).