End of Summer Camping and Apples

Summer has come to an end. Yes, many vacations, many many hot days, sunny weather, and very little rain has been replaced with cool nights, and crisp warm days. We decided to take advantage of a long Labor Day weekend with a little camping trip to West Ossipee NH. Mom was not excited about two nights away in a tent, not for any other reason than she knows Charlotte and Maeve would not sleep well. She was right.

Despite the lack of sleep the girls had a blast playing with the other kids (Pam, Kurt & Sammy/ Paul Jena & Marin & Declan/ Jess Scott & Ava & Harrison).




Highlights of the trip, the heated swimming pool that was enjoyed by the kids, the 35 seat movie theatre with a showing of G-Force, and of course just the fun of sitting by a campfire on a chilly night. Oh an the visit from alien spacecraft at the campsite.


Lowlights of the camping trip, mom catching a molten marshmallow on her chest and the two leaches that dad found on his feet from the river. All in all a successful trip.

(watch out charlotte with that hot marshmallow on the end of the stick)


(mom takes a hot marshmallow in the chest)


(careful, there could be leaches in that water)




Since we only camped Friday to Sunday we had all day Monday to enjoy. With clear blue skies and weather in the low 70's it only made sense to enjoy the day apple picking.

Maeve, Maeve, Maeve

Miss Maeve is just a piece of work. She is potty trained...well, for the most part. She speaks in full sentences....lots and lots of full sentences. She sings her alphabet, and counts past 10. She knows all the words to the Vacation Bible School music and has her very own favorite songs. Her favorites include, Step By Step, Our God and This Little Light of Mine.

She can be a bit shy when talking to people she knows as well as strangers. She does not like men (which is a great thing;)) She gets very embarrassed if we catch her singing or dancing to music. Gosh, this kid loves music.

She has a temper....a quick and aggressive temper. She is rough with her older sister. Almost daily she will cause a fight...it isn't pretty. She HATES time-out...I mean HATES it.

She loves us all very much. Is always so excited to see us and always wants to know where her big sister is. She wants to go to school like her big sister, farm camp like her big sister, chew gum like her big sister and on and on.

She gives the best hugs, is super funny, and beautiful beyond words.

First Trip to the Beach this summer

We got from Puerto Rico and the next day we decided that we would take the girls to the beach. They had a blast but it was overload for mom and dad who had been away from kids for a week. Mom wanted to take the next flight back to Puerto Rico.

Ballet Recital

Charlotte had her second ballet recital of her career. It was a hot mess. But she loved it and and we loved watching her. Maeve was so proud of her sister and she loved sitting on Grampy's lap or dancing and clapping for her sister.








The day after the recital we left for Peurto Rico. Nanny and Grampy watched the girls for 5 days. The girls loved it so did nanny and grampy. Dad was ready to come back, mom loved relaxing and having alone time. She could have stayed a few more days. it was a great trip but very hot and humid.

Charlotte Graduates from Preschool (the second time)

Time Flies

Time, is not on our side. It is spiraling out of control and seems to be speeding up! This week Maeve became a kid. She has learned to use the potty and has been going every day over the past two days. Crazy! She is the proudest little pooper we have ever seen. Then again, any kid would be proud if you give them a healthy dose of chocolate after a bowel movement. We are proud of her and we are so looking forward to being done with diapers. Diapers and summer do not go well together. Diapers in water BAD. Diapers in sand BAD. Diapers in heat BAD. The light is at the end of the tunnel and we are getting closer to that land of diaper free kids!



Sorry we have to post these. We know one day they will resurface. Hopefully around the time she starts dating. Dad will pull these out and do his best to scare off any potential dates!


And to not leave our crazy little one Charlotte out we have included some of the latest pics of her. Yes, riding her bike around the street with a tutu and her rubber rainboots. Crazy kid. We love you!

Happy Birthday Maeve!

Yes you are now officially two years old! I say "officially" since you have acted like a two year old for months now. You love to talk. You love to sing. You love to tell us "I can't want..." to do things. You drive us crazy with your terrible temper and horrible stubborness. But your cuteness wins out in the end, no matter how mad you make us. You are so damn cute we just can not stay mad at you. You don't love to share. If Charlotte has something you want it. If we have something you want it. If we try to take that same thing back from you...watch out. Meltdown coming. However you are so sweet and caring that it is infectious. You love your big sister and do everything you can to be around her. You ask for her first thing in the morning and miss her so much when she is at school. You want her to play with you all the time and love to get her attention.

You love your babies and love to play with them. You love putting them to bed, holding them, feeding them, and squeezing them. You love hugs. Big giant super squeeze hugs. It is the best part of getting you out of your crib in the morning, your little arms wrapped around our necks, squeezing us with joy. We will never get tired of those hugs and only hope you offer them to us the rest of our lives.

You say "bless you" when we sneeze and you hate boogies. You are the only kid we know that could be 100% happy eating nothing but potatos. Baked potatos, french fries, mashed potatos....it doesn't matter. They are your favorite and you love them all equally. You ask every night for them if we dont feed them to you, which we are rarely doing since you will not eat anything else on your plate. You love chocolate and candy and your dad's smoothies. You love ice and make us break it up into little pieces for you to chomp on. And popsicles. Another Maeve favorite.

You hate having your hair brushed by mom, but love when dad does it. Dad doesn't do a very good job getting the knots out of your hair, which is why you probably enjoy his brushing more. Those knots are crazy and we are always trying to prevent them from turning in a giant dreadlock.

You dear Maeve, refer to yourself as Maevey Gravy which makes us laugh. That is what you think your name is, and we never correct you. We hope it sticks forever. You Maevey Gravy complete our family and we appreciate every second of every day we have with you. You have shown us how lucky we are and we love you so much. Thank you for an amazing 2 years of loving, laughing, crying, and most importantly smiling.

Love Mom and Dad (and Charlotte)

One week left

"I can't want to go to bed!" yells Maeve vertually every night. She is not shy in telling us what she does and doesn't want, even if she doesn't use proper grammar. In just over a week she will be 2 years old. Which makes us laugh when saying it, because in our minds, she is way older than two. She communicates more like a 3 or 4 year old and seems to have the old sole of an elderly woman. Intelligent yet caring and compassionate, she seems to blow us away ever week with something.

Her temper is ferocious. Luckily she is so cute we just cant stay made at her. It must be inherent that way as mad as you get, you just can't help but loving this little creature sreaming, crying, and spitting.

Today dad was able to enjoy the girls at Charmingfare Farm while mom was working. The weather called for rain, but the sun stayed out and the weather was warm. The Robinsons joined us (minus Rachael who was also working). First stop, a bag of feed for the animals and a stop at the llama pen. Charlotte wouldn't even THINK about feeding "shiny" (she named the llama shiny). Maeve on the other hand, no fear. Loved having the crazy lipped animal suck the pellets out of her hands. She laughed and only wanted to feed them more and more. This was the same for virtually every animal we ran across (with the exception of the giant turkey whose GOBBLE GOBBLE scared the kids). Hysterical to watch. Maeve who just wants to get dirty, and charlotte who likes to enjoy animals from a far.

We had a great day although mom was missed. Its exhausting with these two girls. Dad certiainly understands that the "stay at home" gig is a full time job, a full time thankless job (with dad being the one who doesnt say thank you enough).

We are somehow hoping that when Maeve turns two she will magically start sleeping through the night. Yes we are still dealing with one wake up per night. Dad begrudingly crawls out of bed, rubs her back and she goes back to sleep. Some nights by the time he makes it back into bed and starts to doze off, she wakes again. Luckily those are few and far between. However he is looking forward to a full 8 hours of sleep one of these days.

And then there will be bunk beds. Princess bunkbeds, with Charlotte on the top bunk because she is a princess. No not a princess. She doesnt want to be a princess. She now wants to be a fairy. Typical girls.

Winners again!

Saturday was the annual Easter Bonnet Contest in town. Over the past 4 years the competition has really stepped up. What started out as an innocuous little contest has turned into a full fledged competition. There were funny bonnets, big bonnets, creative bonnets, and of course our bonnets, which this year donned fresh flowers. Charlotte's bonnet included a hand made paper mache watering can sprinkling water on fresh gerber daisy's.



Maeve's had intertwined pussy willow complete with pink carnations and birds (and a fuzzy bunny on top).

Unfortunately Maeve did not win, however Charlotte did pull off a win for the 4th year. This despite breaking down in tears in front of the judges. Ahhh the trials and tribulations of being a returning champ. Yes Charlotte there is a lot of pressure to win. However, its what we do. We push through it and win some more (I really dont tell her that although I want to).

Maeve SHOULD have won. We think the judges picked the girl next to her by mistake when they meant to pick Maeve. Its ok. Next year dear.



Singing seems to be the new past time in the Ronan household. Maeve loves to sing Mary Had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and of course the ABC's. She is a singing fool and her and Charlotte love to belt out the tunes especially while riding in the car.

These girls are amazing. They really do love each other. Maeve of course wants anything Charlotte has. Anything Charlotte eats. Anything she plays with.