Around the Neighborhood

We are fortunate to live in a neighborhood with lots of kids around Alice's age.  Right next door is a two-family house with five kids of various ages.  Down the street there are more kids!  It is not unusual for Alice to find herself in a bicycle parade in front of our house!

Here she is sporting the Easter Bunny ears she made in school during the walk home:

This is Alice and her good friend, Devin, from two houses down the street, at the newly updated playground we can see from our front door!

Fun!

Home from Vacation

We are happy to be home from vacation and reunited with our Alice.  Here she is showing off what she learned to do at Grammie and Grampie's house on vacation!:

During our first "Alice and Mommy" day after returning from vacation, Alice and Mommy had a picnic in the backyard.  Here is Alice, enjoying the grapes:

Daddy had some projects to do around the house once we were back home.  Grampie and Grammie came up to help, and Uncle Dan and Auntie Chris brought Baby Mae by to say hello.  Here is Baby Mae, doing her part to help:

As you can see, Alice is a doting big cousin, always excited to help out whenever she can:

And she loves Baby Mae to pieces!

Hi, Baby Mae!

Everyone got in on the action, snuggling with the new girl in town:

This photo chronicals the early days of "Alice and Grampie Fix-It Shop":

And this photo shows off the fact that Alice literally has Grampie wrapped around her finger (or maybe vice versa!).  She convinced him to twirl her hair here:

Quite the helper:

Alice takes a photo of Daddy, working hard!

Here are the rest of our photos from our return home.  Enjoy!

Panama Cruise! (Featuring ONLY Mommy and Daddy!)

Alice recently spent a bit of time at Grammie and Grampie's house while Mommy and Daddy took a much enjoyed vacation!  While Mommy and Daddy missed Alice a lot, it was a really fun trip.

The trip began in Panama City, where Mommy and Daddy stayed for a couple of days:

A visit to the Panama Canal was necessary, of course!  It was very interesting to learn about the canal and watch some ships go through it:

Mommy and Daddy also spent some time in a section of Panama referred to as "Old Town."  Seeing the modern skyscrapers of Panama City just across the water from this beautiful but ancient area of Panama was a bit surprising:

The heavily armed security presence everywhere in Panama was a bit jarring as well.  We never felt as if we were in danger, but the approach to security in Panama is very different than we are used to in the U.S.!:

After a couple of days in Panama City, it was on to the cruise ship: The Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas:

Soon after boarding the ship, Mommy and Daddy learned that cruises are usually conducted in the language of the country from which it departs.  So, seven days of Spanish it was!  Luckily Mommy had taken four years of Spanish in high school but it had been a while so Mommy and Daddy played lots of charades throughout the week.  This did not hinder any of the fun, though!:

The American specialty, "Broasted Chicken" was available in Cartagena, Colombia:

Cartagena was a beautiful city!:

We were fortunate to be able to take advantage of modern technology at each cruise port, using our iPad, Skype, and WiFi hot spots, to see Alice's face and talk to her throughout our week away.  Here is Mommy, showing Alice, Grammie and Grampie the cruise ship:

Mommy and Daddy spent much of the cruise relaxing, which they both needed.  It was a perfect break from all of the hustle and bustle of regular life:

Mommy and Daddy also visited Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba during the week:

Mommy and Daddy had fun on the ship as well.  Here is Daddy climbing the rock wall...

And Mommy, reading a book in the solarium by the pool:

Mommy and Daddy very much enjoyed the trip but were very happy to be reunited with Alice at the end of it.  Giant thanks to Grammie and Grampie for keeping Alice company throughout the vacation!  Here is a link to the rest of Mommy and Daddy's vacation photos.

Going "Bonkers"!

Daddy's love of arcades and games recently led him to the discovery of a fun palace in the next town over (Peabody, MA) called "Bonkers"!

Just a week ahead of Alice's trip down to Grammie and Grampie's for the week while Mommy and Daddy went away on vacation, we stopped at Bonkers for some family fun:

With the tickets we won, we each chose a prize.  Alice's prize was a Twizzler.  Here she is, enjoying it, and looking forward to heading down to Grammie and Grampie's house:

Here are the rest of the photos from our fun at Bonkers!