Homemade Pizza Play Date!

Our house recently got a whole bunch more exciting for an evening when Mommy's friends from college and their kids joined Alice and Mommy for a Homemade Pizza Night and Play Date!  We feel lucky to be close by and to have a big enough house to welcome our friends for fun occasions like this one.

Here are Victoria and Anna keeping watch at the front door:

Here are Nick and Max enjoying juice boxes and pizza:

Alice enjoyed sitting at the head of the table of all her friends!:

Anna, Victoria, Alec, Alice, (Lypor), Nick and Max enjoying their pizza party!:

How times have changed!:

At the end of the evening, the daddies came back to pick up the mommies and the kids.  Here is Anna with her daddy, Jason, taking some photos for us!:

Here are the rest of the photos from the playdate.  It was lots of fun to get together and we hope we will have a chance to see everyone again really soon!

Happy 30th Birthday, Auntie Chris!

With Baby Mae new on the scene, Auntie Chris and Uncle Dan don't get out as much as they used to.  That doesn't mean that Auntie Chris's 30th birthday would not be celebrated!  Uncle Dan did a great job of planning a "surprise" brunch for Auntie Chris with lots of friends and family at a local restaurant.

Here are Alice and Grampie waiting to surprise the guest of honor at the front door of the restaurant:

Here come Uncle Dan, Auntie Chris and Baby Mae:

Surprise!

Alice had fun celebrating.  In addition to enjoying the festivities, she particularly enjoyed taking photos of Daddy and Mommy:

Daddy finally got a chance to sit and snuggle with his newest niece:

Happy Birthday, Auntie Chris!  We hope you enjoyed your big day.  Welcome to the 30s!  Here are some more photos from the birthday brunch.

Happy Birthday, Grammie!

To celebrate Grammie Baptiste's recent birthday, Grammie and Grampie came up to Salem for a day of fun with Alice and Mommy.  First, we were off to the Peabody Essex Museum in Downtown Salem to check out the exhibits.  Then, we ate a yummy lunch at the Tavern on the Green in the Hawthorne Hotel.  Then we headed back to the house to enjoy the cake that Alice and Mommy made for Grammie:

(Sometimes you can't help but sneak an M&M or two while lighting the birthday candles!):

Happy Birthday to you!  Happy Birthday to you!  Happy Birthday, Dear Grammie!  Happy Birthday to you!:

The cake was yummy, the company was the best and it was a fun day, overall!

Happy Birthday, Grammie!

Here are the rest of the photos from the birthday celebrations.  Enjoy!

Baby Mae is Here!

Early in the morning on January 24, we were very excited to be able to wake Alice up with the news that her new baby cousin had arrived... and she is a girl!

Mae Lisbeth Baptiste arrived on January 23rd and is perfect!  Here is Alice, checking out Mae's first photos on Daddy's phone:

... and already giving Mae kisses... we are all in love!

Mommy and Daddy ran over to the hospital right after work to be able to check out this kiddo in person:

Auntie Chris had a long labor and worked very hard but was doing great when we arrived! :)

Uncle Dan is the Diaper King we always knew he would be:

Cutie Pie!!!

Here are the rest of Baby Mae's first photos.  We are so excited to have this new love in our lives.  We can't wait for all of the new adventures ahead with our expanded family!

Goodbye Sweet Ella

After a lengthy illness and approximately 11 wonderful years together, we had to say goodbye to our sweet kittycat, Ella today.

This was an extraordinarily emotional day for us.  Ella was Mommy's cat before she met Daddy.  Ella has been with us throughout Mommy and Daddy's relationship, marriage and throughout Alice's entire life.  Ella was so smart and sweet and the type of cat that would give up anything for a snuggle.  We will miss those snuggles so much.  We will love you, forever, Ella - you take a bit of our hearts with you.

The Last Fire of Christmas - A Salem Tradition

Two weeks after Christmas, along with most of our fellow Salem residents, we made our way over to Dead Horse Beach in Salem.  Our garbage collectors had done a great job of collecting all the discarded Christmas trees from around town and dropped them in a giant pile here at the beach.  We were then treated to a celebratory bonfire!

Once lit, the pile of trees made the beach move from very dark...

to bright enough to see everyone else in town around the bonfire!

(and quite hot too!)

A local church sold hot chocolate and we enjoyed some of that on the way out.  Yum! 

This was a fun conclusion to our very busy holiday season, and a great start to a new year to which we are very much looking forward!  Here is a link to the rest of the photos from the festivities!

Christmas Break 2011

Once all the Christmas festivities had come to a close, it was time to relax, enjoy some special time with Auntie Bethany and Uncle CJ, and reflect on all the fun we had enjoyed over the previous week... and, of course, play with all of our fun new toys! :)

Here, Alice is snuggling with her great new teddy bear from our wonderful neighbors, Deb and Ed:

Alice was super excited to receive a fun computer in the mail from Grandma and Papa, and here she is showing it off to her new toy puppy, Cookie, from her Bisavo (Great-Grandmother):

Auntie Bethany and Uncle CJ enjoyed relaxing under our many Snuggies throughout the week!  We can't wait for the chance to see them again.  Miss you guys!

Alice is so excited to welcome her new baby cousin.  Here she is, giving the new baby (and Auntie Chris, too, of course!) a hug! :)

Snuggling and relaxing with Daddy:

Alice is blessed to be surrounded by so many very talented people.  Here she is admiring the amazing painting by her Papa Pete that he sent out for Christmas to adorn her new "Big Girl" bedroom:

Daddy would agree that a week of relaxing is not really relaxing unless it includes some video games and Alice was happy to use her new computer from Grandma and Papa to play some new ones with Daddy this week:

We hope everyone had a wonderful week after Christmas and whether you were working or not were able to spend some great time with your loved ones.  Here is to a happy and healthy New Year for all!


Here are some additional photos from our Christmas Break week.  Enjoy!