First Birthday Bash for 18 sort of 1 year olds

In March, I had the great luck of meeting my friend Jen Zupan at our church St. Mary's at the 10:00 mass one Sunday. She has a daughter Madeline born the same week as Keeley and I think our families were meant to be friends. Since she invited me to her Mom's group, a tight knit circle of 8 women, that has grown to 18, all who delivered at Danbury Hospital, my life here in Bethel has been infinitely more fun.

 Shout out to my Long Island born, close friend Jen Zupan, I owe you big time for bringing me into the network :)

The first playgroup with the Danbury Moms Group back in April- now they're all starting to walk!

Six months ago, the Moms planned a birthday bash for all 18 babies who have birthday ranging from June-December, and by some miracle, all husbands were able to come, and not one baby was sick for the occasion. Thrown by an the ambitious couple, the Levesque's in Brewster, the event was unbelievable, featuring 18 high chairs in a row on their lawn at cupcake time and all 18 families in their pool celebrating a year of parenting with cold beers and lots of food. 

 Keeley showing off all her friends to Daddy

 Shannon feeding the "pigeons"

 Hostess of the party- Mrs. Jen Levesque!

 Emmet making friends with other Dads

 Keeley and Maddie eating Cheerios

 Pool side

 Photo shoot in the tie dye onesies that we Moms made

 Future rock star

 Very comical to see from afar

 Not happy about being in her high chair at this moment or about wearing her birthday hat that I made!

Keeley has loved every minute spent with these other children and I am so grateful for my "play dates" with their Moms as well! It is so helpful to know so many wonderful families in Bethel and the surrounding towns of Newtown, Danbury, Redding and Ridgefield.  Being a Mom of a baby is a lot of work, but it's a lot more laughs when you do it together- it really does"take a village to raise a child."

 Playdate at Meckaur Park

 Keeley with Avery and Zeke in our kiddie pool

 Spencer, Keeley's love

 The girls trying out the walker

 Keeley stealing pacifiers...

Strike a pose

Looking forward to lots of memories, watching our kids grow up together.

Surgery Rotation finally over!!!

After 12 long weeks of Emmet getting checking in for surgeries at 5 am and weekly overnight "on call" sessions down in Bridgeport, he is finally finished with the most demanding medical school rotation! It was a tough summer with "Dada" gone a good chunk of the time, but I'm proud that he pulled through as that we, as a family, made some wonderful memories nonetheless. 

Next step is a five week long study period to prepare Emmet for the last portion of his US Medical Licensing Exam which will be on September 20th.  Looking forward to a beautiful last few weeks of summer with a much more rested Emmet and very happy Keeley here at home.

New Shoes for our Big Girl

Today I went to Stride Rite to buy Keeley her first pair of sneakers. I've been knowing that she needs them since she started walking a month ago, but for some reason I've been putting if off, as if I knew that she would look like such a big kid with them on. And I was right- I couldn't believe the sight of her in the playground with them on.

I've been taking Keeley to our neighborhood park,  Parloa, since the week we moved in back in March. It used to be just a walk by the playground in the snap 'n go stroller when she was 5 months old, then a few months of sitting on the blanket with toys when she was 6 and 7 months old,  then some Keeley brand crawling for a few weeks in her 8th month and out of no where stumbling around the grass taking her first steps this summer. 

Today and she was in her glory, playing on the Toddler Scape and running around and I couldn't believe how much she has changed since we got to Bethel. I got very sentimental watching her in the swing.  After ten months of figuring out what to do with this energetic little baby, I can see her becoming an active,  fun-loving little girl and I am one proud mama.

The Safino Twins!

The Safinos made a trip down to Bethel this weekend and it was incredible to see parenting of twins in action! We thought we were busy!

Pat with Maeve- Emmet with Harrison

Keeley was very interested in these two little cuties in their carseats sleeping and she had plenty of time to check them out when Emily and I stayed back while Emmet and Pat golfed all afternoon at Richter Park. 

Great memories- so lucky they're all only an hour away up 84! Looking forward to watching our kids become little people together.

Weekend at Groton- Long Point, CT

Jack and Debbie had us down for the weekend at their beautiful home in Groton- Long Point, CT. Keeley's favorite part was definitely her time with Sparky, Jack and Deb's dog, and all of the attention from her aunts and uncles. A swim at the beach and fresh seafood to top it off made for quite a special visit.

 View from the second floor

 Great Uncle Jack

 Auntie K

 Mae-Mae

 Mussel Feast

 Lobster dinner at sunset

 Family :)

AUntie Debbie

Another wonderful memory for Keeley's first summer!

Happiness is... your own backyard

Walking around town today it occured to me that I am so glad to be back in New England, with four seasons to get excited about. Everything in Bethel is in full bloom now, including the flowers at our own home, which Keeley and I love to smell and admire.

Thanks to our landlord, Ed, our house and yard have made a huge transformation in just 5 short months. Crazy to think we grabbed this three bedroom place in January off craigslist.com  in the midst of dreary, muddy winter, with no lawn and no landscaping to speak of, taking a leap of faith that it would come through for us. Here it is, August, and the place is more than we could have hoped for. 

 We came back from Lake George and we have more cucumbers and tomatoes than we can eat!