Flower Girl

Lauren was a flower girl last weekend at my cousin's wedding.  She said she was a princess, of course.

Our outgoing toddler turned out to be very shy and scared in her starring role.  Right after I took this picture, she started crying and clung to me the rest of the ceremony...which only lasted a total of 10 minutes.

 Congrats to David and Sam!

  Cousin David with Lauren and Uncle PJ

 Was someone else a little J-E-L-I-S of all the attention Lauren was getting?

First picture in awhile of Lauren holding William...she let go 2 seconds later.

The reception was a few hours later and Lauren made an appearance and then Billy took her home to be with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was nice to enjoy a few hours with my mom, PJ, and Billy without the kids.  

(belt courtesy of Megan L. -- thanks devoted reader, it totally completed my look!!)

XOXO

Aubrey

A lil of this and a lil of that

The Dog Days of Summer

Yep, its coming to an end, the back to school clothes are in the stores and you can almost smell a newly sharpened pencil through the tv with all the commercials on. And as much as I'm ready for school to start and to tackle the fall bucket list I'm creating, we are still enjoying these last few weeks. Because believe me....come February, I'll be ready to shove that newly sharpened pencil right up Jack Frost's a$$!

We blew bubbles and played with chalk...

And picked all the fresh goodness from the garden too. Our garden does look like a jungle, but you know you want some fresh tomatoes and basil!

William is 5 months old

Dude's got mad hair, seriously. I know I've said it before, but I'm in awe of its craziness everyday. Depending on the do of the day he is nicknamed....Albert Einstein, Conan, Nick Nolte, pretty much anyone with crazy hair.

He still isn't taking a bottle, but is enjoying his rice cereal. Thank you very much!

His eyes are almost all brown, he is rolling everywhere and talking up a storm.

My Friday night.

Billy was out with friends, the kids were both asleep by 9pm and this was exactly what I wanted to do.

Multi-tasking at its best! I got sucked into a marathon of Keeping Up with the Kardashians...is it just me or is Kim K's personality a total zero?

Breakfast Date
I'd been feeling like Lauren really wanted some alone time with me, so her and I spent Saturday morning just us.

A little bagel and coffee at mom's first place of employment, Bruegger's Bagels.

And then off to the Royal Oak Farmer's Market, where Lauren snuck way too many free samples. I got this awesome summer bouquet for $6!

An awful attempt at getting a picture of her and I.

Astro Coffee

We had a whirlwind downtown experience this weekend with dinner in the D on Saturday night and hitting up this new coffee spot on Sunday morning. We did a quick lap at a random festival Saturday night and out of the corner of my eye I saw this coffee shop I recently read about.

We headed down to try it out and we weren't disappointed. Single brew was oh so good.

The set up inside wasn't conducive for our foursome...two toppers, bar seating or one large community table, so we got everything to go.
It was probably better we did do that because buttermilk scones and to die for Zingerman's croissants are always a flaky, crumbly mess. Check it out, worth the trip!
And in case you're wondering, we did hit up the Dream Cruise. In the five years we've lived in Royal Oak, we had gone to the cruise once before and had never walked up there. Check!

XOXO

Aubrey

Weekend Schmorgishborg

Our weekend was busy, but great. Its actually my favorite kind of weekend. A schmogishborg of fun and chores. The kind where you are up and at 'em and can't believe what you've accomplished by noon!

(not to be confused with up and Adam, which is what I thought my mom was telling us growing up. I always thought, "who is Adam and why is he getting up so early?")

We checked a ton of things off the to do list. Things that had been lingering week after week, but also enjoyed some fun with friends and the kids.

We got to meet Tyler Windtberg on Friday and he is just adorable. He has beautiful blue eyes that I could just stare at all day and we love that our two boys are basically the same age.

Kristi and I have so many great memories from MSU and its probably a long shot but William and Tyler would make great fraternity brothers. I see ice luges and tailgates in their future!

Our summer planting is done, the bushes are trimmed,

the patio furniture is out and the cocktails were in hand. Cheers to our first happy hour of the season!

Ahhhhh, doesn't this look refreshing after a day of yard work?

Someone decided that the potting soil belonged in her pool.

And we enjoyed another summer favorite, grilled corn on the cob. I love it so much I've become a cob snob and really won't eat it any other way. Recipe here. We've never done the butter, just the grillin.

We treated ourselves to to a nice walk and ice cream after completing all our errands, going to church, yard work, grocery shopping, and various other miscellaneous to do's. This phantom walker is Lauren insisting on pushing her stroller. And I will also add that this girl RAN, yes RAN a half mile to get the ice cream and ran almost the entire way home. Crazy!

She has a new found obsession with Superman so we had to get her Superman ice cream.

And this guy is a SMILIN fool. It happens all the time and Billy witnessed his first little laugh last night too.

The coos are starting and more and more each day he is responding to you.

I love the way their little personalities start to unfold.

XOXO

Aubrey