This past weekend was 4th of July Holiday Weekend. It really was a great mix of family, friends, neighborhood, bbq’s, pool time, fun, and even a few errands in between.
The weekend started out with horrible thunderstorms late Thursday night. They lasted through the night and when I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to nurse Harper, I was a little worried that the neighborhood picnic event scheduled for 10:00 would be called off. I shouldn’t have been worried though. In a few hours timeframe the weather turned sunny and was in the high 70’s and not humid. It was gorgeous. We went to the event and had a chance to meet a few more neighbors, which was nice. The girls were a little too young to participate in some of the events but it was still really neat nonetheless just to see yet again what a great community we live in.
Friday afternoon we set out to take pictures of the girls with the primary goal of getting a good picture of all three of them….one that we could use for their birthday invitation. EPIC FAIL in that sense! The girls just did not want to take their picture together. I don’t know what was going on but they just wouldn’t cooperate and all three stay put at once and that stayed true for the whole weekend.
Friday’s pictures and this includes several rounds of photo sessions throughtout the day.
By the way this orange outfit has become Emerson’s all time favorite outfit the past few weeks. If the pants are dirty, she wears an orange skirt to go along with it. We do laundry fairly often so she probably wears this outfit about 3 times a week. Maybe I should do laundry less…lol.
Avery on the other hand is wearing one of her bathing suits from two years ago. I was planning on having Harper wear it and Avery wanted to try it on and I think it actually fit better now than it did two years ago…guess that diaper took up a lot of space!
Friday afternoon we went to Brophy’s. Avery even wore this bathing suiit there….and not even under her clothes. This was her outfit! The Niday’s were there as well. Emerson’s tummy didn’t feel well at first but after awhile I think she forgot about it and was fine. The girls had a great time playing with Hannah’s toys and each other. The girls are becoming increasingly independent in their play especially when we go to someone else’s house. It is nice!
We got back to our house in time to watch our neighbors do a few fireworks in the cul-de-sac. All three girls were scared at first. We ended up putting Harper down to bed. Emerson eventually was okay watching them but covered her ears the entire time. Avery never really warmed up to them so she went inside with daddy to watch them from the kitchen bench.
Saturday morning we went to the Farmer’s Market. Karolin, our new au pair, even joined us!
Saturday afternoon Justin and I did something that we don’t do very often and actually spent 6 ½ hours together without the girls. It was good. We went for a nice bike ride to Reston followed by some yard work (mostly trimming our overgrown garden). Then after a quick shower we ran a few errands and even went to Matchbox for a late lunch/early dinner. We got back in time to even spend a few hours with the girls before it was bedtime.
Sunday morning we went to Meadowlark. While we brought the camera as we always do when we go to Meadowlark, the goal of the trip was certainly not to get a picture of all three girls together, but once we got there, I thought why not try AGAIN….
Their lack of cooperation for the staged picture had me becoming increasingly frustrated. Justin kept having to tell me to let it go. Finally I gave up on the picture and we all continued to enjoy ourselves more. Thoughts of getting Harper in the picture began brewing in my head. 
The girls started running in the fields and were having a great time!
I thought if I placed Harper in the grass the girls could run on opposite sides of her and we could get a picture of all three of them and the girls would be more cooperative since it wasn’t as staged.
As you can see both girls ran to the same side of her! The idea worked much better in my head!
We got some cute pictures but not the one that I was trying to create for their birthday invitation. BUT I am all about the flowers….and I LOVE some of these pictures of my babies!
Sunday evening we went to my parent’s house for some pool time and a barbeque. Each time we go in the pool, the girls are gaining more and more confidence. I just smile as I see them playing in their rafts…it is so cool to see these little kids that they are becoming. All in all we had a really good weekend!