On Labor Day, our good friends the La Pat's - who we haven't seen in ages - came over for a visit. Charlie, Holly, Donovan and Sierra, John, Melody and I all went over to the park for a evening picnic dinner. After the fried chicken, strawberries and chips were eaten, Melody and Sierra went to play in the sand box. The sun was at just the right angle and their blonde heads turned golden with the last rays of daylight. The fast friends played on the jungle gym, with Sierra (age 8) watching over Melody like a big sister. It was heartwarming to watch. Melody idolized Sierra and the girls had a wonderful time!

La Pat's, we miss you! We hope to see you again sooner than a year! Click the image to see more of the girls having a great time together.

Melody has been keeping herself busy, busy, busy! In between cooking in her kitchen and hiding in her mystery cave (aka living room tent), how could she possibly have time to even rest? Well, she manages, somehow. It's a rough life I know, but our little girl is an inspiration for us all. Right? Yep!

Some recent goings on have been a visit to the OC Fair, the La Habra Children's Museum, a nice long visit with Gramma and Papa, and taking Gramma Marie out for dinner for her birthday. I added some pictures to the gallery, because I know you are just dying to see her in all her cuteness! Here are a few highlight pictures.

Before the mad dash to the emergency room, we had a very lovely weekend. Saturday, Melody and Mom joined Auntie Kathy, Gramma Alice and Gramma Marie for a Mother's Day Tea at the Victorian Manor in Old Towne Orange. This is a lovely Victorian cottage that has been converted to a tea house. The teas range from decaffinated and regular to herbal and interesting. We started with wild berry, moved to Irish breakfast, then closed with rose petal. The meal was a delightful and light luncheon consisting of scones, salad, finger sandwiches, fruit and cookies. Melody had her own luncheon that closed with ice cream, but don't doubt that she enjoyed the cookies too.  

Outside in the gated yard, the flowers were blooming and picture spots abounded. We took advantage of the gazebo, an archway and bench for some photo mementos from the day. I hope you'll take a look, there are a couple of Melody that, if I must say so myself, are gorgeous photos.

Click the picture to see more like this one

Saturday evening we played at the park with Caelen, our neighbor. Hide and seek was the order of the day and Melody and Caelen had a wonderful time!  On the way home, they held hands. It was so cute!

Sunday, Auntie, Mom and Melody visited the new Civil War event in Costa Mesa. It had a small turnout due to the fact that it was Mother's Day, but it was a nice little event all the same. We have great hopes for the event in 2010.

Sunday night was spent with Uncle Steve, Aunt Kathleen, cousins Shawn and Jake (Melody's new best friend!), Gramma Marie and us for dinner. Uncle Steve spent the better part of the evening trying to convince us that Melody needs a brother, either the normal way or a cousin-brother. He showed off some fish pictures from a recent fishing trip and on Monday Melody announced that she wanted Uncle Steve to come fishing with her. We really had a nice weekend (until that last part) celebrating Mother's Day and family!

Last Friday I had to pick Melody up early from daycare, so i took advantage of the time together and we had a Mommy Daughter Date.  I took her down to the Huntington Pier since it was a sunny afternoon, though a bit windy.  I hoped the kites would be flying and that would be a great treat for her.  As you can see in this video, Melody had a terrific time.  She chased pigeons with some other children, tried to join a volleyball game (or at least play with the ball), we stopped for pictures on the pier in the wind, bought a kite, saw a California Brown Pelican, ate dinner at Ruby's where Mom put together the 2nd most difficult kids-menu-vehicle ever, avoided some creepy pan handlers on the way back to the car, and then Melody danced in her car seat to some funky Irish music I had on the iPod.  It was a very fun evening and I can't wait to do it again!

Our little family get together blossomed into a 20 guest shin dig!  We had soooo much fun!  There isn't much to say except that at first, Melody did not want to be in the bounce house by herself and would not bounce unless someone was holding both her hands.  By 5:30, she was bouncing by herself and we had to insist that the bounce house was tired and had to go to sleep in order to get her out of it, lol.  We had a ridiculous amount of fun with family, friends and neighbors.  Thank you one and all who came over to help Melody celebrate her birthday!

Click the picture to see more jumping goodness!

UPDATE: a few more pictures added to the gallery