Playdate at Gabe's

Ahh The Summer funHow we miss theeWe are over at Gabe's House for a play dateThis was not too long after his little sister came onto the sceneGabe was missing his friends so we all came over to playIt has been months and the kids are all so much more grown upBaby Elena is so big now, it is hard to believeAnd several new mommies are not expecting new siblings for next summerHow Gabe's life changedHow every ones life will change when the new siblings arriveWe are feeling it already. I think Pregnancy prepares you in waysIt slows you down, so many of our friends have tired Mommies who are less busy nowThat means we don;t get to see them as often. I guess it is good practice as once the new baby arrives everyone will be sleep deprivedHolly is hoping for a baby Brother or Sister some day, she is so readyI think the last of our friends who planned on having second babies are now pregnant,So we are the last. That said, we have some friends who do have a 5 year spread between kidsLike me and my sister, so we still have some time.It is cute Chloe calls Holly her little sister, and she is convinced Kathy will be having a girlBut it will be at least another 6 weeks until they know.Another big change is pre-school and potty training.Most of our friends will be starting some type of Pre-school in SeptemberThey are growing up so fast, the changes are upon us.We are in the days now when they still need a nap, but a nap is rather inconvenient.In order to get up early they have to go to bed early which means an early nap or none at allThese changes have been very hard on us. It makes it so difficult to find time to do the fun stuffOr see our friends as much as we would like.We hope to start having some regular play dates however So that after school we can have friends come to our place.This summer will be so fun with the play set and a baby pool,I imagine a sprinkler on top of the slide and water tables and lots of outside funIt has been raining now for weeks, though we still go outsideIn the rain some days, other just after with a towel to dry things off.On this day the kids picked apples from Gabe's tree.We filled two bags, some the kids ate and other's I brought home and Joel made several pies.We brought one back for Gabe and his family as a Thank You.We have missed our Neighbor's apple tree. We had this old Chinese Orange treeThe kind where you use the peels for cooking but the fruit is not sweet. It fell over in a stormWe have had our eyes on an apple tree as a replacementThough I'd like to get a nice mature one that will fruit right away.We will see, we still have a stump to remove and concrete to haul and a patio set to buyOur backyard is a work in progress but it has come a long way.