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Wedding Shower

The families helped plan a wonderful bridal shower at the Deauville in Strathmere. THANK YOU EVERYONE - especially my darling sister. I loved every minute of it (even though it wasn't a surprise. Blame Pre-cana, not Mike). I'm glad I did know about it because I would've shown up with no make-up on, wearing dirty jeans. Here are some highlights.

Evan said, "Oooh, this is lovely. Can I borrow it, mommy? Peas?". Hands off mommy's underwear, Ev. The other menfolk were drinking at the bar during the shower.

During the shower Evan and Elizabeth went swimming in the bay right in back of the restaurant. Evan had no pants on and it was so cute to look out the windows and see his little naked hiney wading in the water (I'm sure the other patrons were not as amused). Mel (Elizabeth's mom) is pretty awesome. She always has a bathing suit for Elizabeth in the car, as well as other essentials. Elizabeth & Evan are pretty good to party or hang out anywhere. Thank God, because we don't stay home often and we bring Evers EVERYWHERE with us. Here's Becky with her pants on.

After the shower we all hung out on the little beach until the gnats attacked. That's Olivia, Samantha, Jessica & Janice on the dock. In the front is the back of Aunt Chicky and my dad's heads.

Here's good ol' Uncle JoJo being drunk again. Just kidding. I don't have an Uncle JoJo.

Here's Aunt Pat, Mike's Ma and Aunt Ella.

Here's my Godmother - Aunt Chicky.

And here's my Becky again.

THANK YOU AGAIN, EVERYONE!!!

weekend in VA

It's been a long time... The camera had been MIA for a long time. First of all, I left it at the Giffords' house in VA, then I "lost" it at my wedding shower at the Deauville. It was actually tucked in the diaper bag's changing pad pocket the whole time. I'm such a dummy. So here's what we did last month...

Here's Mike's birthday. He got this thing for his bike that keeps it stationary. He then set up the basement into the "man room" with a tv and old Playstation to play dvds (since we don't have cable down there). Poor Mike's been pedaling fast and furious down there with the cockroaches.

We then celebrated Mike's birthday once again in VA with Mima, PoPo and the Giffords. Here's Evan and his cousin Jack playing with trains.

Here's the whole gang!

And we'll end it with an eskimo kiss with Aunt Kelly! Awwww

EVAN ARMSTRONG

Evan recently became the owner of a brand new Radio Flyer tricycle and he LOVES it. The tricycle has a steering arm on the back that allows us to push him and steer at the same time. Evan will literally allow you to push him on his new ride for hours, and he's the envy of all the kids on the boardwalk and at the playground.

Here he is in his helmet. Trek bikes, Oakley sunglasses, and all other bike gear manufacturers - this is the new face of American cycling and we are available for contract negotiations Monday through Friday after nap time.

A side view of the bike after the ride. Note the absence of shorts. Evan likes to show off his newly toned leg muscles to all the girls!

After a long ride, sometimes you just need to collect your thoughts and chill. Right now, Evan is thinking...Bike again, peas (please)!

Aunt Brittany showing Evan how to finish a bike ride in style!

I CAN RIDE MY BIKE WITH NO HANDLEBARS...

Later on that night, Steph, Brit, Sarah and I headed up to the boardwalk to take Evan on the rides. Evan could not get enough of his bike. Normally squirmy, he jumped on the bike right after we parked, and rode it the entire time we were on the boards.

Evan then tried to get some part time work as an Ocean City summer bike cop. They said he's fast enough on his ride, but claimed that the majority of the work of a bike cop happens past Evan's 7:30 p.m. bed time. Evan said 'Whatev-ah, rent-a-cop!" and pealed out to get a f-r double E sample of fudge!

We couldn't pass up getting a shot with Stinky Pirate Pete, the most feared pirate south of Johnson's Popcorn!

And more boating...

This time with Josh, Brittany and the rest of us. Evan says "Josh" now. When I was showing these pictures to him Evan said "Jos!" without me even asking who he is. Josh bought Ev a batman towel that has a hood. I have to get a picture of him (Evan, not Josh) wearing it.

We started out at dinner time with Captain Evan driving.

We stopped at Lobster House, of course!

Evan's eating an oyster cracker. He didn't eat much else this night :(

Back on the boat after dinner. Josh & Mike obviously have had a few beers.

So did Pop.

Evan's the only male on board who didn't drink.

Wait a minute! Just kidding our baby DOES NOT CONSUME ALCOHOL!

It's getting dark. You can't see it here, but the moon is actually red over the coast guard.

Here's my very, very Special Sister.

We headed home with a beautiful sunset!

Out on the boat

This past weekend was a huge one for us. Evan's first boat ride on my dad's boat! The boat itself is a few years older than me, which would make it 25 years old. Just kidding... it's much older than that. My first boat ride was at 2 months old. Evan's is at 19 months, but he loves it just as much as Brittany and I always did. We also had an incredible time at Janice & Bob's bbq on Sunday (of which lazy me took no pictures... I was too busy eating). There were tiki torches, smores, and tons & tons of delicious food. Evan, Logan and Zoe jumped on a mini moonbounce that's very similar to Evan's cousin Jack's moonbounce. Isabelle came later, but I think the moonbounce was deflated at that point. Those 3 kids (and evan of course) are gorgeous little ones. Logan has these adorable blonde curleys all over his head. Of course, there are no pictures, but I did gain 5 lbs from the night. We stayed until the end, leaving at 10pm. Evan pointed to the flattened mooonbounce on the way out and said 'Oh no!'.

Anyway, here are some boat photos from when we went Thursday night with just me, Evan and my parents. Evan wanted to drive the whole time, so my dad just let him. If we started to drift toward something, my dad would take over. Evan also enjoyed accelerating and turning the boat off with the key. We didn't teach him that, but it only took a few minutes for him to figure it out.

We drifted for a bit so that we could eat our picnic dinner. Evan mooched tuna fish from Grandmom and Pop.

The next night was pure shenanigans because Chris came up to visit for the weekend. Giddyup lil' Brittany.

Evan loves spinning until he's completely dizzy. No alcohol was consumed by this baby at the time. Also, notice my poor, exhausted dad after a long day of work.

Man time in South Philly

Be prepared to be blasted away by total cuteness.

Mike came home from work early one day to have a little "man time" with Evan. It didn't look promising at first since Evan woke up from his nap cranky, clinging to me, but thankfully it didn't take him long for him to have a great time. There was supposed to be some sort of free Temple U. event at Lincoln Financial Field, but that was lame so Mike took Evan over to Citizens Bank Park and bought standing-room tickets to the Phillies game. They both came home a little after 9pm. Evan ran into the living room in just a diaper and a shirt. he was literally covered head to toe in chocolate ice cream and he was holding a plastic spoon in one hand and a Phillie Phanatic bowl in the other. He immediately started dancing and he smelled like a mixture of chocolate and poop. Apparently there was poop explosion and Evan's change of clothes had gotten wet in the diaper bag due to an overturned sippy cup. Mike ran out of wipes cleaning up the poop. O well. I got a good 4.5 hours to myself and was able to mow/weed the backyard, take a shower, eat pb&j for dinner and update this blog.

Here's Owlie the temple owl. I guess that's the owl's name

The guys were give 2 free bobble heads. great.

Our true Philadelphia fan, Evan booed one of the players with the rest of the crowd. Another fan (who was also booing) turned around in his seat when he heard the cute little boo. Evan hi-fived him and pumped his fist.