Glorious

This weekend was, in a word, glorious. It was sunny and warm, so warm that I actually was walking around in shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops and wishing for lazy summer days.

Aliza was feeling better on Saturday, but we decided to lay low at home to give her one more day to recuperate. Her Grams and Gramps visited and we had a lovely picnic outside- the first of many I am sure:

Actually, this picnic motivated us to finally buy some patio furniture. We're hoping it will arrive before Aliza's first birthday so we can use it , but even if it doesn't, we are looking forward to spending many summer nights eating outside together. Speaking of first birthday, we did take a trip to Party City to pick out her party supplies, marveling the whole time that our little baby girl will be 1 in just three weeks....

Aliza took a nice long nap on Saturday afternoon (all that sunshine and fresh air!) which gave me the opportunity to do some much needed yard work. Our yard is a bit daunting, but I began to tackle two small areas, weeding and hoeing and envisioning the plants I wanted to plant. It was hot and sweaty work, but oddly satisfying to see the wheelbarrow fill with weeds and the flowers that were beginning to peek through get cleared off of winter's debris.

Sunday Russ decided to start my day with breakfast in bed, which was a lovely surprise and a super fun treat. Next, Aliza and I went to church with Nonna and Grosspapa and then returned home to take yet another long walk around the neighborhood- our third of the weekend. Before Aliza was born I used to look at the families walking around and wonder what it would be like to be pushing my own baby.....well, it is even more fun than I anticipated, especially lately as Aliza reaches and points and chats with me while we walk. During her afternoon nap I managed to scrub down the kitchen, do some laundry and run a bunch of errands (including buying the plants for the areas I cleared out!), leaving me feeling tired, but rather satisfied. Then we headed over to celebrate cousin Juliette's 6th birthday. Cosette and Juliette were, as always, excited to see Aliza. This picture was taken last weekend, but I think they stayed this close to her all night long Sunday too:

It was, as I said, a glorious weekend....filled with productive errands, long walks in the sun, playing outside and a baby girl who is, happily, feeling much better!