Birthday Parties and Fun in the Sun

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Time easily gets away from me these days and the next thing I know, I am downloading over 400 pictures from my camera. Don't worry, I am not going to post them all here.

Josie continues to improve with her walking. She is now walking more regularly of her own accord. She is walking much longer distances and she will walk to her toys instead of to only a person such as me, Wim, or her brother and sister.

I found this cute little play slide and climber at a local consignment shop last week. In typical Dong Dong fashion, Josie was very tentative about the new toy at first. Josie does not like grass. It is quite funny. If you put her feet on it she lifts them up and whines. I was sitting on a blanket with her in our backyard and showed her that I put my feet in the grass. Josie didn't care for that either. She whined and used her hands to try to pick up my feet and put them back on the blanket.



With some parental encouragement, she soon overcame her nervousness about the toy and being in the yard. After a couple of days, and much to our amazement began scaling her slide and using it without any help from us.






Notice the blanket at the bottom of the slide.

Last weekend was very eventful. It was Gabrielle's 12th birthday. Can we have a drum roll please . . . the last year until we hit the TEEN YEARS!

Gabrielle was up and ready for the day Saturday, but being the gracious young woman that she is fast becoming, she wanted to wait until everyone was awake before she opened her presents.

Josie Dong Dong was very interested in Gabrielle's presents and kept offering to help her out if she needed it.

Being a typical brother of age 10, Xavier was sort of awake-- awake enough for Gabrielle to get started on her presents.

Josie Dong Dong was very interested in Gabrielle's presents and kept offering to help her out if she needed it.

The end of May and first part of June is a busy birthday time for the Shaw/Chase clan. Gabrielle's is the end of May as is one of our Nephew's; Wim's sister's is in early June and mine is about mid-June. So, we all decided to get together last weekend and celebrate!

Wim's Sister, Becky, was great at volunteering to host a wonderful cookout with her hubby Bob, as the master chef.

It was a lovely sunny day and everyone had a great time just hanging out, catching up, and enjoying the food.

Here is Becky, Wim, and Josie Dong Dong chilling on a blanket. Notice that Josie is sitting solo a little bit these days-- not always right on top of (mostly me). She still mostly wants to sit on me in these types of situations, but she is relaxing a bit and doing some of her own thing at least for a little while.

Steve and Cheri's son, Ethan (one of the b-day stars) is in the background playing with a really REALLY cool glitter ball.

Here is Bob manning the grill while Wim's brother, Steve, gets a jump start on being first in line. The men in the Chase family are big and come with big appetites!

Do you think Josie Dong Dong liked the food at the party?

"C'mon DAD! Give me my bite!"

In case you can't quite make it out-- here is a close-up shot of Josie Dong Dong, the Red Sox's newest and cutest cheerleader.The kids had a great time playing with toys.Here is Steve pushing his daughter Abbie around in the backyard.

Even Xavier and Gabrielle joined on the fun with the kiddie toys.

Here is our nephew, Nate (Becky and Bob's son). He is fresh from a nap in the picture and ready to get the party started!

Also fresh from a nap, Becky and Bob's little baby girl, the ever so lovely Miss Emily.
That pretty much sums up all our latest news.

It is suppose to be gorgeous and hot this weekend so Wim and I are planning to hit one of the beaches in South County with little Dong Dong. I am sure I will have more tales and pictures to share.

Until then, here are some closing ham-bone shots of Josie Dong Dong with one of her newest favorite activities-- crawling and walking around with Mommy's shoes on her hands! Time to buy stock in Antibacterial Hand Gel!

Love,

Reena