The Tuesday before we left for Omaha, we headed back down to Southern Maryland to spend the day hanging out with friends. Angela and her girls were still in town from Indiana, and we wanted to spend as much time as we could with them before we left.

We went to the sprayground, we played at our friends’ house, we met everyone for a chaotic but fun dinner at Applebee’s where the waitress was awesome and earned her generous tip. And then, of course, we all went to get tiny cones on the boardwalk!

Well, some of us got regular-sized cones, but that’s okay. The kids are all bigger now than they were in the old days when we used to go get tiny cones together. The point is, we all enjoyed our ice cream.

The kids had a great time watching this mama duck and her duckling, who obligingly stayed close to the boardwalk the whole time we were eating. The little one would scamper up onto the rocks occasionally and send all the bugs scattering, but not before she caught one or two for a snack. It was quite entertaining.

The kids played on the playground, ran around on the grass, made silly faces, and just enjoyed being together.

I made silly faces myself at Miss Kate, and got her to smile for me. I love gummy, scrunchy-faced baby smiles!

I even remembered to grab a quick photo of me and Ang, for once. I rarely remember to get myself in any of the photos. I’m really glad I took this one, though, because I love it of both of us.

As we all started to leave, Gabby asked if she could take a picture of Annalie holding her baby sister. Then a few other kids jumped in, too.

We had parked by a small beach near the boardwalk, and as we all walked to our cars, Annalie noticed the sun setting over the river. She climbed onto one of the posts to sit and admire the view and exclaimed, “Isn’t it just beautiful!? I could sit and look at the river all day!” I don’t know where she gets this stuff, but I love it.

Even though that week was crazy and we had a lot to accomplish before we left for Omaha, I’m so glad we made time to spend a day with friends. It was well worth it.

The last weekend of June, we packed a lot of fun into a few short days. In addition to teaching the dottery class, we attended two birthday parties in one day and then drove four hours to the beach to hang out with Anna and her family, before driving three hours back home the next night. Whew! It was crazy but totally worth it.

First, we went to Karalyn’s 6th birthday party. It was a puppies-and-kittens party! The kids did puppy- and kitten-themed crafts and played games. The parents who hung out either helped as they were needed, pretended they were paparazzi, or hung out chatting, eating snacks, and passing around baby Kate.

Jill decorated Karalyn’s cake with an assortment of Littlest Pet Shop toys and candy bones, and there were also cupcakes with puppy and kitten toppers.

The weather was HOT that day, so the classic fill-the-buckets water relay game was especially welcome.

The party officially ended after a couple of hours, but we stuck around, eating Jill and Andy’s food and visiting with friends. It was particularly nice to see Angela and her girls, who had come from Indiana for a long visit just in time for the party. It was so nice to see them, in fact, that Angela and I lost track of time as we blathered away and we were late leaving for the next birthday party…

…for Jack! It’s hard to believe our adorable godson is already four years old, but it’s true.

We celebrated by climbing all over the PlayPlace and eating Happy Meals and Ronald McDonald cake and sundaes, because that’s the kind of birthday party smart parents plan when they have a tiny newborn daughter to take care of!

Did I mention the sundaes? They came with mini M&M’s and Oreo bits for topping. Those sundaes were a big hit.

Can you tell these two goofballs are related? They both posed like that, without prompting, when I pointed my camera at them.

Basically, a great time was had by all—what kid doesn’t love a McD’s PlayPlace?—and no one had to clean up their house or clean up after the party. Win! And with that, we said our good-byes and headed out to our minivan to make the long drive to the beach.

I was gonna write about the beach too, but this post is long enough and our trip to the beach deserves its own post. Standby…

We got to the airport a little early, and had to wait for 20 minutes or so for Brenda and Bug to arrive. When they finally walked around the corner and we saw each other, Bug smiled hugely and ran towards us as Annalie danced a little with the effort of keeping herself from running past the security sign. They hugged each other happily, then held hands and chattered nonstop as we walked to the baggage claim. The past month is probably the longest they’ve gone without seeing each other in the past two years!

That night after the kids were in bed, Brenda and I worked on unpacking the kitchen. When we came across the box that had our ridiculously-large-for-people-who-don’t-really-drink-much wine collection in it, I found a bottle of cabernet sauvignon and decided it was just what we needed. Apparently I was right because around midnight we finished the kitchen.

Yesterday we celebrated my birthday by having lunch with friends and painting pottery, which was a lovely way to spend my birthday. I was also treated to many emails, texts, Facebook and Twitter greetings, and phone calls wishing me the best. My birthday was rather anticlimactic this year what with being in the middle of moving and everything, but all the kind, funny notes made me smile and feel loved. Thanks for all of those!

Today we unpacked a bit, then went on a monster trip to IKEA where we bought Annalie a dresser and picked out a couch and living room rug to buy later and Annalie and Bug discovered that they completely love Småland (the kids’ play area). We were all wiped out by the time we got home. Also, it’s been raining all day (yay!) and the hole in our ceiling we were assured “is just cosmetic, the roof is fixed, we just need to repair the ceiling” has been leaking on and off (boo!). I used my recently-unpacked kitchen to make some really delicious homemade chili which was perfect for the rainy day. While I made the chili Brenda cleared the empty, flattened boxes out of the living room and did some more unpacking. I’m starting to think we’ll have this house DONE in no time.

There are more photos on my Flickr in Brenda & Bug’s D.C. Unpacking Adventure, if you wanna see ‘em.