One BUSY Summer Week

It's hard to believe we're in the waning days of summer - it's already in mid-August!

This past week was busy ... it's funny because there really isn't one specific thing I can really write about, just lots of little things ...

There were the regular daily summer activities - summer camp and our weekly play date with the Hoovers (Gretchen, KaraLin and J.J.) ... and then we also had special visitors too.

During the week this past month, Sophie has summer camp until noon, then a nap and an afternoon activity. It makes our days just fly by!

Sophie is enjoying summer camp and seems to be growing up right before my very eyes. It's fun to hear her come home, talking about friends she has made and things that she has done that day. I've also really enjoyedhearing her sing all those children's songs that I grew up with and dancing along to them ... with no particular rhythm. Sophie is definitely becoming a little girl ... which is so so bittersweet.

As Andrew said to me the other day, some days you wish she could stay a toddler forever, other days, Sophie just can't grow up fast enough!!! How true that is!

We receive weekly photo updates
and here are the two from this week.

This week we had also had two visitors."Ankie Brooke" (otherwise known as Auntie Brooke) came to visit us on Wednesday. Brooke just got engaged so it was a real treat to visit as well as meet her fiance, Claude, who was also here for a few hours. While they were here, I was able to take Brooke and Claude's engagement portraits Brooke spent the night after dropping Claude at the airport (he had to get back to work in Dallas) and we were able to visit and spend lots and lots of time together. Brooke is Blake's Godmother and it was the first time they had met so it was a special visit.

One of my favorite photos from their session

Brooke and Blake

Then on Friday, we had another special visitor. For about the first 18 months of Sophie's life, we struggled to get her to hit physical milestones. While babies her age were crawling, she was still flat on her back. When babies were starting to walk, she was starting to crawl ... nothing was wrong with Sophie, just a big head and a small body ... and a little bit of time and patience. We've kept in touch with Susan (otherwise known as Suzu), Sophie's physical therapist and we were able to visit with Suzu last Friday. It was a great visit and we can't wait to see our favorite therapist again!

On Saturday, Andrew took charge of our crazy two (brave, brave man!). Later this year, Brooke and Claude (who visited on Thursday) are getting married in the Bahamas so on Saturday, I had the honor of going with Brooke, her mom, Susan, and sister, Brittany, to go bridal dress shopping. Maybe, just maybe ... we found our girl a very pretty dress for her very important day!

Then on Sunday, we headed over to our friends Ryan and Tricia's apartment for a pool party ... their last of the summer. Ryan served up a 4-course BBQ and everyone, especially Sophie, enjoyed swimming in the pool. I'll bet Sophie spent about 2 full hours "swimming" while Blake watched and slept on the sidelines. It was a really great way to end the week ...

Ready for a pool party!

My sweet little man, Blake, is ready to go too!

Ryan took over the chef duties ... yum!

Swimming with Daddy!

Wheeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Sweetest little friends - Malia, Sophie and Holly

Sophie and Holly
These two met at Ryan & Tricia's wedding a few months ago.
They were instantly best buddies back then ...
and rekindled their friendship at the pool!

It was a great week ... I wish summer could last forever ....

Daddy's Birthday!

Yesterday was Andrew's "21st Birthday" ...

It began as a normal, regular Sunday with church and naps. But while Sophie and Andrew napped, I went to celebrate my friend, Holly, at her baby shower. Holly, her husband, Chadwick, and daughter, Reagan, are expecting a new little one, a boy (Mason), who is expected any day now and I can't wait to meet him!

Holly, Blake and Charlotte
Blake can't wait to play with Mason!

Yummy cupcakes for Baby Mason!

The boys who can't wait to meet their new buddy ...
Noah, Blake and Jacob

I couldn't help but include the next series of photos ...
just because they were so cute and funny!

Then, it was time to come home and get ready for a fun date night with the birthday boy! Since Andrew had mentioned to me a few weeks prior that it would really be nice to just have dinner, just the two of us, with no distractions from Sophie or Blake and to have a conversation ... so I though it would be nice to gift him with just that ... a nice night out.

Admittedly, I had no real plan coming into the weekend ... well, not true. I had a plan. Dinner - yes ... where - I have no idea. So of course I turned to my parents, the true foodies in our family. After some thought, they suggested Bazaar - a fun and fancy tapas restaurant ... which sounded like a great place to celebrate Andrew!

Before dinner, we celebrated Daddy's birthday with our babies with birthday cards and cake at Gung Gung and Pau Pau's house. Thank you to my mom and dad for keeping an eye on our kids ... for our first date night alone to celebrate Andrew's birthday!!! It was the best gift ... thank you, thank you!

Of course Sophie offered to "help" open the
Birthday card that she and Blake gave to Daddy.

Cake ... possibly the best part of a birthday!

Celebrating Daddy's big day!

Then we were off on our date ... which was so lovely. The food was delicious and so unique. Good food and conversation - flowing and interrupted. It was so nice ... we even treated ourselves to a cocktail and a half (sharing the second one). We talked a lot about our upcoming trip to Brazil and of course of Sophie and Blake. And when there were silences, we just relished it ... and enjoyed watching everyone around us. It was a nice way to celebrate my favorite guy!

Caiparina bar ... came right to us
... and it came to us frozen - yum!
A floating coconut desert to celebrate the birthday boy!

Happy Birthday Andrew!
I'm so glad you were born!
I love you and am so thankful do life with you.
May the next year bring more fun and more adventures!

Sophie's First Day of (Summer) School

Sophie started "Summer of the Son" this week at preschool which in reality was pretty much the first day of school. She missed the first day of school because she had a slight fever but by day 2, she was ready for the new adventures awaiting her! It's a great big world out there ....

Ready for her first day of school!

In the classroom ....

It's hard to believe that my sweet baby, my first born, was heading off to school ... and this mommy was at least slightly anxious. I wondered if we had made the right decision to put Sophie in the summer program - it was going to be the longest period time I had ever left her so many days at a time ... but in the end, I know the parental side of me having a panic attack. Everybody has to grow up sometime ... even my own little baby.

The end of Day 1!
Sophie had SO much fun!

And as is tradition in the Lee house ... spaghetti dinner the first day of school. Always has been since my first day of kindergarten and t's fun to pass this tradition onto my own kiddos.


Miss Jessica, the head preschool teacher in Sophie's class, sent an email with photos of the first week of school ... try to find Sophie (hint, she's the two eyes behind the curly head blonde in a green t-shirt!)


And you wonder what Blake did during the 3 hours he had without his sister ....

The major bonus of Sophie being in school is getting to spend some alone time with Blake. Until now, the only alone time I had spent with Blake was taking him to doctor and the few hours he spent in the hospital when we thought he had pnemonia. He's such a happy little guy and seems to love the one-on-one attention ... and I'm happy to be able to spend time with my little guy ...

Blake's 2 Month Checkup

It's hard to believe that Blake is already 2 months old! Blake had his 2 month checkup last week and boy has he grown! It's hard to not compare Blake and Sophie but in comparison, Blake is a chunky monkey ... nearly 3 pounds heavier and nearly 2 inches longer than Sophie was at the same age. At this rate, they are going to be the same weight and height in a matter of months! The only thing smaller was the head size ...

12 pounds - 50th percentile

23 1/4th inches long - 50th percentile

15th 1/4th inches around - 50th Percentile

The only sad part of Blake's "Well Baby" checkup was his first vaccinations but as usual, my sweet boy took it like a champ ... crying for about 15 seconds and then cheering up. I'm telling you, this kid is amazing and is going to do big and great things with his life (I am not biased at all!). I can't wait to see him grow into an amazing person (Again, no bias here)!!!!

Smiling for vaccinations ... really?

The OC Fair

This past Saturday, headed back to the Orange County Fair. I was excited because though I had always heard about the OC Fair but I had never been before. In fact, I had never been to any type of fair except for small school fairs when I was young ... so going to the OC Fair was going to be a real treat. I was looking forward to the animals, the rides and games and of course ... the FOOD! Fried this, fried that ... strange this ... weird that ... eat, eat, eat. After all, the theme of the fair this year is, "Let's Eat"... so, let's eat!!!

Of course, you can't go to a fair alone so we asked Christine and Kylie (Sophie's best friend who had just moved to Orange County) to meet us there. And then, coincidentally, my very good friend Gretchen said she was going with her family - her hubby, Tom, and kiddos KaraLin and J.J and some friends so it was going to be an incredibly fun day with some of our favorite people!

Kylie and Sophie sharing the feed for the animals

Sophie was so cute.
She was so scared of the goats but she tried so hard to be brave.
This is about as close as she would get to the goats before scurrying
back to give me the feed before the goats could even touch it.
But seriously, what was she thinking???
That I wasn't scared myself? I'll admit it :)

Our favorite ride ... the trains

I think we went round and round and round
at least three times ... wheeeeeeee ....

With friends Kim and Elijah Kim, us (Charlotte and Sophie)
and Christine and Kylie Kim

We hit up the tent with the magic show
Sophie LOVED it ...

Blake ... well, he didn't like the magic show so much.
Every single time there was a loud noise, his lip would go into down.
Poor little guy ...

Let's go EAT!
Fried Kool Aid anyone?

Fried Twinkie
Yes please!

Chocolate Covered Pickle????
No thank you ...

This is my friend Gretchen ...
she is one of my most FAVORITE people in the world.
You just have to meet her and you will know why.

The Hoovers
Tom, Gretchen, KaraLin and J.J.
The kiddos had so much fun they just passed out!

And Sophie had so much fun, she fell asleep just like this.
Which is exactly how one should sleep at a fair!

Two parents + Two sleeping kids =
a VERY good day at the OC Fair!

And while the babies slept, Andrew tried his hand at the duck game.

And after we left the fair, post nap, we headed over to Christine and Kylie's house to go for a swim and then out to dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant. I was too busy stuffing my face so no photos at the restaurant. It was delish!

My little Blake-man tanning

The two besties (and daddy) in floaties

My two favorite guys!

Ruffles!