Summer BBQ

Chloe and family hosted an end of summer BBQ in late September. They set up the backyard as a fun play ground including playhouse, sand box, pool, and water and sand table.Daddies cooking on the grill, buffet of pot luck items on the table up stairs, and toddlers running around in the backyard playing, what better way then this to spend a sunny afternoon as summer turns to fall.I love that I caught this moment on camera. Out of the corner of my eye I spied Chloe dumping out a bucket of water on Holly head, and she liked it. So cute the two of them.Here is Teagan, out and about while her Mommy looks after her new baby brother Rowan. She is dancing in the Sand Box. I always love how pretty her hair is and she has the most stylish cloths, she is a doll.My little doll on the other had decided to get her Hawaii garb soaked to the core splashing around in the water, so it became her little swim dress. This little one is my water pixie.She flits in and out of the pool with ease, running circles around the other dancing fairies as she has so much energy. She loves the water, splashing and kicking and dancing. Chloe loves the Water almost as much as Holly, she is really good at pouring it, and would take it from the pool to the water table and back again.Here is Gabriel and Maya playing in the sand box. He is such a sweety, he is shy and slow to get comfortable in a new situation, but he is ready to splash and play in the dirt as much as the next kid.I love this image with the water in the air. Its a great shot of Gabriel. For me, this is what summer is all about these days, shade for the parents, sun and water for the kids.Here Holly found a towel to dry off a bit. She is such a sweetie. She kept wanting me to pick her up and put her in my lap and hug her, so I would wrap a towel around her so I wouldn't get soaked.I love the face she is making here, almost like indignation, she has her mind set to something, she is going to do something with the Sand Box, and darn it you better not stop me.Here is sweet sweet Ruby. Another quiet one in the group, probably because she is a little bit younger, she is very laid back but you can tell she really enjoys the energy of the older kids.Here she is having a snack with her Mom and Dad. The food was so good. We brought Turkey Burgers, there were hot dogs and cookies and cake and fruit salads, so much yummy stuff to eat.Here are Sachi and Maya. Sachi is also very shy. Maya is so friendly and sociable and outgoing, she went right up to her and gave her a big hug. So cute. Here is Tristan and his mommy. He is playing in the sand box. He is another little cutie. a tad younger then the others, quiet at first, but then warms right up, and big for his age.Holly had so much fun playing with all her friends and it was so fun for Daddy to meet them all again. He has met many of them before, but he really only gets to see them in person every few months when we have a weekend activity.Here she is playing with Sarah. Filling and dumping out the buckets of water, she loves watching it flow and splash. Sarah is pretty fond of the water herself. She wasn't walking yet, but was able to find a way to climb right into the pool.Sarah was having a lot of fun in the water. She was happy to sit and play all afternoon. Holly on the other hand would come and go, back and forth, in and out always on the run."Who me? Couldn't be? I didn't do it!" The words are written all over her face. She is such a mischievous little monkey finding trouble wherever she goes and getting into everything.The kids were all having a blast at the party, Katherine and Eric really went all out. They were so lucky too, Eric had acquired the Playhouse, Sandbox, and table from a client of his. They have the perfect backyard for it.Here is Satine sharing her water with her Mommy and bringing a shovel over to the other kids to play with in the sand and water.Here is Maya checking out Chloe's wagon. Inside hiding is Chloe waiting for a ride. I love Maya's little party dress, she is getting to be such a big girl. Sadly, we haven't been seeing her lately.Tristan is her little buddy, I see them together all of the time. We haven't seen Tristan for a while either. He is such a sweetie, looking so grown up in his sandals.Here the girls are playing at the Sand Table. The little girl on the end is Shamara, she was almost 4 in this picture. This was the first time we met her family after many months of missed play dates.Shamara has twin little brothers. It was amazing for her mom to come with her and the two boys, she certainly had her hands full.
Here are Tarita, her Husband and Jayla there two month old baby. New members to the group that we were happy to welcome. It was fun to see so many newborns.Here was Rhonda and Rowan, a few months old now, our second outing to see him, but the first time many of the other's in the group got to meet him. I really admire these mom's for coming out and attending an event like this, I know after I had Holly I certainly wasn't up for this kind of activity. It was impressive.We took a break dried off and went upstairs to play for a while. it was fun having Daddy in the play room which we are not used to seeing.Here Richard is playing piano with Sarah and Tristan, Holly is amusing herself with all of the fun toys.It is great to go to these weekend events because the girls get to have there Daddies and the Daddies get to see all the fun types of things we do all week on our many play dates.Here Holly is having a snack, Isabel standing bye, getting a break to relax and chat and eat the yummy food while Richard was on Baby duty.Here is Maya Playing Peek-A-Boo through the back window. During our Monday play dates the girls are always trying to look out the back window.They were on the stairs out back, you can tell Maya is tickled pink to be peeking into the play room from this unique vantage point.Here is Holly playing a game of peek-a-boo herself. Hiding inside Chloe's tent and peeking out to see what everyone is doing. She loves her little secret clubhouse.Soon though she could not be contained and she was ready to go back outside. here she is playing with Tristan in the play house.This is a video of Holly playing Peek-a-boo with Daddy inside Chloe's Playhouse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwQSl9-9u88 But like the butterfly she is soon she was flitting off onto her next adventure. I should have known better then to dress her.But I was well prepaired and I brought a second bathing suit and another full set of dry cloths, so I let her have at it and get wet all over again.How could I deny that face, when she was being taunted with her favorite thing, splashing water. The water sand table is a wonderful thing. I think on this day, katherine put water in both sides.But Holly was soon to get back in the pool as well. She needed the earlier break to have a bottle and eat a snack, which was hard to do when she was wet, but that of course ment she now had her second wind.It was really nice having Kat with us. We would all take turns being on Holly duty. For the most part she was fne on her own, playing int he water or sand.But its the steps we have to keep an eye out for. there were steps down into a second level of the yard and another set up to the house, so when we kept her away from those and the BBQ she was doing great.Here all of the kids are having fun crowding into the playhouse out back. I keep wondering if I should get one for Holly to play with in the back yard, but we don't go out there enough, maybe next summer.Here Holly is with a bucket and shovel she found, I think that shovel is just about as big as she is, there wasn't much she could do with it other then make big waves in the pool.I would know this look anywhere. iIs the look little miss Holly makes when she wants something, when she is asking for something, being extra cute of course, I imagine her batting her little eyes, "Please Mommy"I think Chloe decided to add some juice into the water. Our 4 year old Shama decided to add a bunch of Sand, the little ones didn;t even have the idea to do it until she did, but now the water is pretty muddy.Back into the club house again, Holly flits around from one thing to another faster then I can take photos of her doing it.Splashing the water, making waves, a little scientist. What will happen if i hit the water this way, or drop this thing into it. She almost dunked her head right in, but I stopped her.She found herself a cozy little seat inside of Chloe's wagon, a place to take a break and look out over the realm, what will I do next she plots and scemes.She soon got it in her head that she wanted to stay in the wagon, but she didn't want the wagon to stay where it was, but who could she get to pull her around?Convincing as she is, Chloe and Holly got Eric to pull them around and around the yard in the wagon, what fun they had on there ride.Holly and Chloe got to go all around the yard, First down the pathway and then in a circle around the picknic table and chairs.Then Sarah joined in. Soon everyone wanted a ride. This was a lesson in turn taking. We set up a bus stop where the kids could wait until there turn and we would take one out for the next to get a ride.But in the end they followed the wagon around and wanted to help push the other kids, which was fine with us, less work for the parents.Holly was quite good at the pushing, here she is giving a push to Chloe, Maya and Tristan, and with a little help steering she was actually moving them around quite a bit. Its actually super good proprioceptive work for her, a great therapy. In one of the other blogs I read a mom made up the "push mommy" game to help regulate her son so he could concentrate during his upcoming therapy session.
Here is Daddy watching Holly, I think he was exahusted by this time of the day, even with Kat to help us chase her around, after about 15 times up and down the steps and running every which way, everyone was tired out.Except Holly of course. I think this backyard was paradise for Holly, a club house to hide in, a water table to splash, a pool to swim in, sand to get muddy and even a wagon to take rides in, such a spoiled child.Here we are waving goodbye to Sachi and her family, the day was coming to an end, and it was getting late, soon we would all have to head home.

Here is Sarah all dressed and dry, her parents are much more disaplined and didn't let her get all wet a second time after they put dry cloths on her, only 18 month old and Holly already has us wrapped around her little finger.