Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Blueberry Bush Party!

Those are Eliana's words. Ellie and I had a "blueberry bush party" with her good friends Robertson and Simeon, and their mama, Ali. Every berry Robertson and Eliana picked ended up in their mouths, so they went home with empty buckets, but Ali and I picked a good bunch. Yum! I'm looking forward to some blueberry muffins, pancakes, smoothies...!

Saturday Fun...

Saturday wasn't the typical day of yard work because there was too much fun to be had! We went to my dad's company picnic during the day and then our friend Julia's wedding that night.

The family at the "picnic party", as Ellie says (the last one is of Eliana thoroughly enjoying her Cheetos):




At Julia's wedding with friends, Kim and Matt; and the bride and groom:

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The best way to Nap...

...after a long, hard day at the beach. :)

Monday, July 21, 2008

Baby Shower!

It's that time in my life...just about done with any foreseeable bridal showers, and loaded with baby showers! I love it! This past Saturday I helped give a baby shower with my friends Ali and Melissa for our friend Suzanne. Ali and I were friends in high school, as were Melissa and Suzanne. The four of us met the first day of freshmen orientation at Mary Washington College (I don't like calling it University of...), and we have been friends ever since. Marie, another friend from MWC, was so sweet to make the long drive to come to the shower.


Melissa had a fun idea to do a 'onesie' theme. She handmade some very cute onesie invitations, Ali made a really great onesie cake, and we asked everyone to bring a onesie for the baby so we could have a 'greatest onesie' contest (and Suzanne could get a bunch of unique onesies for Lily!). Suzanne's baby, Lily Ruth, is due October 8th. We can't wait to meet Lily! One really cool thing about her name- 'Suzanne' means 'Lily'!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jess.perky/2008_07_18SuzanneSBabyShower

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Overheard...

Stu: "Come here, Princess"
Eliana: "I'm not a princess, I'm just Eliana"

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Road Trip

My mom, Eliana and I spent the week of July 4th in New Jersey with my mom's parents and two of her sisters and their families. We had a really nice time. Eliana was very excited to see G.G. and Papa, got especially attached to my Aunt Mary ("Oma, I love your sister Mary...where's Mary?"), and had a really great time playing with my cousin's kids, Clara and David. We missed fireworks last year, so this year was her first real experience with the "bright lights and boom boom that hurt [her] little ears"!

Check out the picasa album for more pictures. Remember, if you have a google account and download the free picasa software from google, you can also download any of my pictures into your account. It's pretty cool. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/jess.perky/July08NJTrip

We have pictures of me and my brothers, about Ellie's age now, posing at these same trees.

Aunt Mary took us to the Bergen County Zoo. We had a fun little train ride around the park and saw some pretty neat animals.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Finally, a Beach Day!

It took me until June 25th to get to the beach this year. And I haven't yet been again. What a shame. Some beach bum I am! I guess I don't deserve that title anymore. I do still love to go to the beach, but it's awfully nice having a pool at home, and so much less effort is required to get to the water! I do feel blessed to live so close to the ocean, though.


My mom, Eliana, and I had a beautiful day. Ellie wasn't too sure about the waves, but she loved the water once we were past them! When I laid on my towel to read a book, Eliana wanted a book too. It was so cute. My little mimic.

Eliana's Announcement

"My mommy has a baby growing in her tummy. That means I'm gonna have a brother or a sister!"

We're, of course, very excited about the new-one due February 16th! Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Sleepy Girl

Ever since Eliana started sleeping in her big girl bed, nap times have been a challenge. We're at the point now that they're basically nonexistent. I try to enforce a "rest time" where Ellie has to stay in her room, hopefully in bed. She just reads her books. No napping occurs. My dilema is that she often gets too tired to make it to 7:30 or 8pm.
Cases in point:
-Falling asleep at dinner.

-Falling asleep while on a bike ride.


It has been nice to get her in bed a little earlier (for her that means 8 or 8:30), but it's tricky. Tonight she fell asleep in the car on our way home from a friend's birthday party around 6:00 and slept a couple of hours. When we got home I changed her into her jammies without her even stirring, so I was hoping she'd sleep til tomorrow...but no. We'll see how late we're up tonight!

Stu in St.Petersburg

It took me a while to get this up here, but I wanted to let you see a bit of Stu's trip to Russia. He left June 20th and after some harrowing travel trying to get home, finally did return on the 28th. Check out the picasa web album for more pictures and commentary from Stu, but here are some highlights:
-Working with some great guys.

-Seeing some really cool architecture.


-Marathon dinner. Russians treat dining out quite differently then we do. I like their way! It's an event (at least it was this night with Stu). Everybody ordering food at different times, filling up the table, sharing...for hours!

-Bringing matrioshka (nesting dolls) home for Eliana. (I got a really cool gift too, but Eliana's delight was priceless!)

http://picasaweb.google.com/jess.perky/June20282008StuInStPetersburg