Play Dates = Happy Kids, Happy Mommies

On Friday, I took the Madore-ables out to western Massachusetts to visit my good friend, Chrissy and her daughter, Abby for a long, over-due play date. I've known Chrissy since college, and Samantha & Abby birthdays are just a few months away from each other. It's always good to get together to catch up...play dates aren't just for the kids you know ;)

After we arrived, we drove to Winchendon to Lake Dennison Recreational park. We stayed for a solid four hours and the girls had an absolute blast. The Madore-ables certainly played hard, and had so much fun. It was a quiet drive home, except for my iPod that was on shuffle the entire ride. The girls had a HUGE dinner, then bath time and immediately afterwards, bedtime. It's amazing how a little fresh air will knock you out.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the day:

Samantha testing the waters with her "piggies"

Sarah and Abby building a sand castle

Samantha just watched the sights and sounds

Sarah had so much fun digging around

It was breezy and Samantha was cold

In between sand castle building, Sarah decided to run laps between the water and the sand

It's Madore-able...Family Style!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We certainly had a great one. Jeremy's friend Rob from college came to visit us and stayed for dinner on Saturday. My girls loved seeing a new face, and of course loved having someone new to play with. Thanks again for coming to visit Rob :)

Today (Sunday) the Madoreables, Jeremy and I drove to Winslow Park in Freeport, Maine to celebrate my father-in-law's 61st birthday...but don't tell him I announced that ;) We had a great time even in the drizzly rain. Thankfully, two of Jeremy's brothers brought large "pop up" tents and we were all able to huddle underneath to keep dry. Jeremy comes from a large family, so when we get together, there's a ton of food, a lot of laughs and good conversation. Samantha and Sarah had a great time playing with their cousins.

After we left Freeport, we had a nice drive home. Thankfully our girls are fantastic passengers. Sarah was asleep in her carseat after 10 minutes of being en route, and Sam played with her new laptop that Jason & Rachael gave to her for her birthday last week for the entire way home. (By the way, this laptop receives a big recommendation from me to any mom who's kids are learning their ABC's & 123's. 2 thumbs up from this Mom). Once we hit home, I ran inside real quick to grab some leftover hotdog/hamburger buns and we went to Newburyport, Mass to feed the ducks. Well, unfortunately the ducks already had their dinner, so they had no interest in our sustanence...however, the fish were very happy to eat the bread that was being thrown to them. Samantha was quite intrigued at the fact the fish were eating the bread so quickly. Afterwards, we drove home for a quick splash in the bathtub, some story time, bottles and lights out. These girls had a long, but fun day! Time to rest up and do lots of errands with Mommy tomorrow!

Here are some photos from Sunday:

Fantastic menu as always when we get together...
















My sister-in-law Cathy made some YUMMY whoopie pies...chocolate and vanilla.
















My sister-in-law Jessica made a YUMMY home made cheese cake.
















I did manage to sneak a picture of Samantha just before lunch























Sarah playing on the playground at Winslow Park
















Samantha and her cousin Anna taking a ride on this crazy, teeter totter, bouncy thing at Winslow Park. Well, whatever you would like to call it, I think they had a pretty good time on it...don't you agree?
















Hmmm...I don't know...let's look at another picture to be sure there's plenty of fun going on here
YUP!

















As of today, there are 20 Madore grandchildren in total (17 were at today's picnic/cookout, and 3 live in Pittsburgh, PA who couldn't be with us today.) There are 2 more on the way...one due in September 2010 and one in January 2011.
















Sarah snoozed the entire ride home tonight.

























Samantha feeding the ducks...who we found out really weren't hungry after all. The fish had a great snack instead.
























Sarah trying to get a better view of the ducks.