Weekend of firsts

This weekend, Madeleine flew her first kite, ate her first s'more, saw her first bonfire and caught her first firefly. I'd say it was a pretty great weekend for her! Last night Ken had a gig and our friends invited us over for dinner. We had a great time just talking and sitting outside around the fire. On the way home Madeleine kept pointing out the fireflies, so when we got home, I got the kids both changed into their jammies and decided to go outside and catch some! She was thrilled beyond words, the kid LOVES bugs. And she's especially fascinated with the lightning bugs she sees out her window every night. Let me tell you, God sure does have a sense of humor. Come on now, who would think of a bug's butt lighting up??

I did take some pictures but I'll get to them tomorrow. Ken cleaned out the entire screened porch today, including windows, scrubbed down the hot tub (which has never been used in the 5 years we've lived in this house), tables and chairs and the biggest job.... he got rid of all the BUGS in there! It looks fabulous and I'm looking forward to eating out there more often. So after all that he needed a break so he went to the gelato place to read his book for an hour. While he was there, Madeleine, John Paul and I went to this great Antique mall in the town just north of us. I was a little nervous about taking both kids there but they did great. John Paul fell asleep in his Moby Wrap and I pushed Madeleine around in the stroller on the ground floor. We were looking for things for her new playroom we're working on, specifically a little tea set, a kid size table and chairs maybe, or some other things that we couldn't live without. I found this great wooden high chair for her dolls, complete with a flip up tray which I just couldn't pass up. It looks really old (which I think adds to it's charm) and she absolutely loved it when we got home. We set up her folding table and chairs and she "fed" the baby all kinds of food for an hour or so. She also got a Minnie Mouse pez dispenser only because the high chair was less than $10 and I couldn't pay with a card unless I was spending over 10. She was pretty fascinated by that pez dispenser. Madeleine did really well at the antique mall. When we went upstairs I told her she wasn't allowed to touch anything (because we had to leave the stroller downstairs), but that if she wanted to show me something she could tell me and point. She did exactly that! She told me what she wanted to look at and didn't touch anything unless I told her she could. She had a blast at the store, I'm sure seeing all those things she's never seen before was fascinating. I LOVE looking around Antique malls, maybe this will be something we can do together.

Also I had bought a great little wooden toy box a few weeks ago at a garage sale. I spray painted it white and we ended up using it for a bookshelf in Madeleine's room. It looks great but the only place for it is next to her crib.... and she likes to get all the books off of it and put them IN her crib. I'm SO glad to get all her books off the floor in her room.

Hope you all had a great weekend too!