This is Sylvie!

Hi again!!!! It's been like 6 years since our last post so now Sylvie is 8- THAT'S ME!!!
In the picture I'm Cleo Patra. Now I have 2 little sisters- Julia + Piper! Julia is in the pumpkin costume and Pipers the ghost. THIS IS NOW MY BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll tell a little about
myself. I love Bruno Mars and his new song "Uptown Funk" is great! I also have a favorite animal:
DOGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm crazy for them!!!!

Family Reunion, part 2

So this post is just going to be a bunch of pictures.

The couple that started it all....my great-grandparents William and Nellie Hepburn (Grandma Winnie's parents!). They raised 6 children and among those 6 kids it's become one huge family. I don't even know how long we've been doing the reunions, I think at least as long as I've been alive?

Sylvie and Kris walking together toward the pools. (And yes, Sylvie was holding his hand and going with him on her own! She had some sort of breakthrough this weekend, we think it happened when she saw Kris going on the rope swing into the pool. She thought it was the most exciting thing she had ever seen, and was totally speechless. From that moment forward she just wanted to follow Uncle Kris around all day!!)

My cousin Shara's 2 daughters, Morgan and Shelby. Morgan has Sylvie and Shelby is holding my cousin Chrissy's youngest baby Jack.

My brother Kris and his girlfriend Sabina.

Shara's oldest child Michael.

Shelby and Jack going down the water slide.

Shelby and Jack again.

Morgan and Sylvie! Notice Sylvie clinging on for dear life. Morgan said she was a little terrified and was half-crying by the end.

At this moment I think she was saying something along the lines of "I not like that slide."

My mom's cousin Bobby on the rope swing!

John did this just to impress Sylvie!


Kris on the rope swing.

Sylvie greets him, again just totally impressed by his feat.

Michael tries to coax Jack and Sylvie into the pool.

Jack goes along for a little ride.

Aaand then changes his mind!

Shelby tries out the rope swing too!

And then Michael, who totally shows everyone up!

Later that night at dinner, Sylvie hangs with my cousin Chrissy's daughter Stephanie.

Family Reunion, part 1

My camera battery wasn't charged today, so all I managed to get was a couple of pictures of Sylvie crammed into her too-small travel cot in our hotel room. Not that she seemed to mind though, she was so exhausted from the day that she fell asleep 1. with the lights on, 2. with the tv on, and 3. with our loud hotel phone (seriously what's up with the volume on hotel phones?) ringing off the hook and people coming in and out of the room all night.

Tomorrow's post will be pics galore!

Milestone #965

Well I'm not really sure what number milestone this is, but it's a pretty classic one! Today Sylvie learned how to blow bubbles in her glass.

The Princess and the Peas

Sylvie enjoyed her chickpea salad in high style tonight, courtesy of her dress-up trunk and her expressed desire to "look like a princess". Already with the princess stuff?!

Baby Beach

Sylvie and I visited the Cheesequake State Park Beach today! The picture above is very deceiving, because really this beach is tiny. Teeny! I've been dying to come here and swim in the lake, but John has this thing about swimming in lake water, so I've had to wait till a time when he wasn't around. It was a beautiful day today, we got out of work early, and it was just too nice to stay indoors. So off we went!

We packed up our gazebo, beach chairs, blankets and towels, and packed a little picnic lunch. Sylvie even helped me drag everything from the car over to our spot. We ate lunch, swam for a little bit, and spent a good chunk of time mining the beach for rocks.

It was a perfect afternoon until some gray clouds rolled in. I decided to start packing everything up when we heard thunder, and then the beach immediately went from calm and serene to full time emergency mode. Seriously, the life guards were running around and someone was speaking over a loudspeaker that we had to exit the beach immediately. I had just started breaking down the gazebo and was frantically trying to fold up this huge and heavy metal frame while the life guards are yelling that the sand is the most dangerous place to be during a lightning storm. Oy! All the while Sylvie is crying because she wants to go on the playground and she doesn't understand that the park is closing and of course everytime I try to talk to her she just cries harder. Somehow, by the grace of God for sure, I managed to drag everything back to the car, with Sylvie kicking and screaming the whole way, and get us home in one piece.

What a day.

You brush your teeth, ch ch ch ch, ch ch ch ch