Weekend Fun

We had another wonderful weekend despite the hot and humid weather!  :)  Abby and I spent Friday night hanging out with Mandy.  :)  I captured a cute video of the two of them playing:
Abby and Auntie

On Saturday Abby and I braved the humidity and visited the Old North Bridge in Concord, MA.  This is the site where the minutemen from Concord, Acton, Bedford, and Lincoln stopped the British advance and turned it back toward Boston during the Revolutionary war.  I just love Concord- passing by the former houses of Emerson, Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott is always exciting to me and walking along the dirt paths that hold so much revolutionary history is such a treat.  Abby walked over the bridge by herself (well, with the help of my hand) and walked much of the hiking trail by herself as well, waving to others on the path.  I noticed that she was more likely to wave at the runners and bikers and shied away from the walkers who wanted to stop and talk to her.  :)  Abby and I walked up to the visitor's center and looked at mannequins dressed in Minuteman and Red coat attire.  She pointed to each man multiple times and asked me, "Who's that?"  I think she's going to be a revolutionary buff before we know it.  :)  We also stopped at the garden by the visitor's center and Abby smelled all of the blossoms in the flower beds.  Here are some pictures from our morning adventure:

 After our trip to the Old North Bridge, Abby and I returned home for some sensory play (my current obsession).  I had frozen blue sprinkles in to some ice cubes.  I filled some containers with luke warm water and plunked the ice cubes in to them.  We played with wooden and measuring spoons in the water and Abby really enjoyed playing with the ice cubes.

Video of sensory play with Abby

Leif and I then took Abby to my cousin Jen's house for her son's birthday party.  Abby was particularly impressed with the buffet of fruits and vegetables set down on her level (on a coffee table).  I have never seen her eat so much!  She helped herself to everything and almost single-handedly ate the tomatoes in the veggies platter.  ;)  Her favorite this time was the grapes though.  Unfortunately I don't have a single picture from the party.  It turns out that watching an active toddler in a party setting like this takes all of your time and energy.  ;)  It was really wonderful to see my Stander family though.  Abby really enjoyed her second cousin Paul too and Paul had cleaned off a lot of his toddler toys for Abby the day before to give her.  He had explained to his grandpa, my uncle Paul, that he wanted the toys to look as nice as they did when he had them as a toddler.  How sweet is that??  :)

On Sunday we had a clambake for Matt.  Happy 30th birthday, Matt!  The clambake was Curious George themed.  This theme was completely conjured up by Mandy and it was impressive!  We had balloons, grab bags, lots of decor, and of course wonderful company.  We had a wonderful food spread and were all stuffed by the end! :)  Abby wasn't a huge fan of lobster this time around but she really enjoyed the Spicy Ketchup potato chips.  I was impressed because the chips were quite spicy! :)  Here are a couple pics of the spread. :)

Leif and I are DYING to get through this week!!  We fly out for MN on Sunday and both could sorely use a vacation!!! :)

Sending love to all!!  xoxoxoxox