the first weekend of summer

It was decided on Friday night that we were going to pull out our good camera and finally take some real, not-iphone pictures over the weekend. So, as soon as we woke up on Saturday morning and the three of us made our way down into the living room for our usual Saturday morning coffee/playtime/music listening/should we have cereal or eggs or pancakes for breakfast routine, pull out our good camera I did. Just in time for me to capture Ralph practicing his runny-nosed "help me, I'm a poor boy" face. And those flowers up there? They're from my sister-in-law's baby shower three weeks ago. Bravo, cheap grocery store flowers, you're still looking as fresh as ever!

Once we had our breakfast (pancakes, we decided,) we went outside to tidy things up a bit. Our front yard was looking slightly overgrown, so Ryan worked on the lawn while I switched between sweeping up a billion of those whirligig helicopter whatever-you-call-ems that fell off our maple trees and onto the driveway, and helping Ralph practice walking. We got really into it, and ended up spending the majority of the day sweeping and raking and pulling weeds and getting blisters. And when we were done, we rewarded ourselves with a family drive to Target to pick up a little table and chairs to keep outside, and a crappy frozen pizza to eat while using it. After a long, happy day working outside, I'll be darned if that crappy pizza didn't taste glorious.

On Sunday we invited our friends Emily and Adam and their sweet baby Abe over to break in that table and those chairs. We grilled burgers and sweet corn, and served watermelon and potato chips and pickles on the side, and ended up having so much fun that I didn't think to take any pictures until after our friends had gone and there were only three lonely cupcakes and some stray ants from those flowers left.

The rest of Sunday was spent doing lazy things like playing in the grass and eating more watermelon. Turns out Ralph is a big fan of summer food, and I couldn't be more pleased. The kid won't touch pureed peas, but had the time of his life chewing on a corn cob and gnawing on a sour pickle. And that night, when we put him to bed all pink and fresh from a bath, his little hands still had a faint scent of pickle on them. Oh man, it's going to be a fun summer.

PS: These photos are my favorite from the whole weekend. Ralphie knows what he wants. And when he wants it, he wants it NOW. That's my boy!

PPS: I made yarn-wrapped twinkle lights for this month's crafty craft on You Are My Fave. Check 'em out HERE.