The 'Ei's Have It: You've Got a Friend in Me

One of the best parts of summer is the luxury of playdates with good friends. Our girl is (and we are) very fortunate to have such quality buddies. Here are a few shots from the friend-festivities over the past week.

Of course, before friends can come over, we must prepare. This involves princess dresses, aprons, and dancing on kitchen chairs...clearly.

Sugar-cookie-jam session.

OK, enough dancing. There's business to take care of.

Pointing out the glass slipper for her buddy Riley. And, of course, a girl can never have too many purple 'purse-ons.'

The clock struck twelve and it was back to chores for Cinderella.

Allie's buddy, Riley, helped us usher in the Independence Day celebrations by bringing her parents over for our neighborhood festivities. These two little ladies are 10 days apart, Riley's parents share the same anniversary as we do. They met at Allie's first day-care setting, and despite Allie changing her daycare almost a year ago, Riley still gets a 'Thank you God' shout out regularly during Allie's (somewhat looong) bedtime routine. Don't let the size-difference fool you, these girls are cut from the same cloth when it comes to spunk and personality.

Reunited and it feels so good!

Insert screeches of joy here.

That's a whole lot of cute for one little wagon...

...and even more crazy.

So, what do you do at a big party with your good buddy?

Well, if you're our daughter, you crash attempts at family pictures.
(Sorry, Heather and Andy - thanks for scooping her up!)

You spike the hug quota.

Check out the flight-path of planes and ask multiple times 'Where are they going?'

You share your snacks..as in take it, share it, and then give it back.

And then you come home and snuggle up with your best bud, Monster's Inc, and a glass of cold milk. Success.

Continuing our friendly fun, we got a special visit from our favorite 'Swedes.' Jess and Brendan came in for a visit with us and Christina's brood (Olivia and Madeline) and the kids wasted no time getting reacquainted. I'd like to say that Allie's approach to this was gentle, but then I would need to go into time-out for not telling the truth. The truth is, that she loved getting to play with her buddies, even if she needed a reminder (or two, or three) to do it without inflicting injury. Peaceful, calm Brendan was a trooper even though he was stacked up against two high-spirited (and high-volumed) females.

Hey, you going to eat that?

See, Mom? Look how gentle I can be!

With three moms in education, there was no way these kids were leaving without a little crafting.

And a brief attempt at some Mommy-time while the kids watched the first 15 minutes of Tangled. It was short-lived, but Al made sure that she snuck in a little lovin' for Brendan.

And, we capped it all off with some American style fun for the 4th with another family of favorites, the Gonzales clan. We met up for the Leesburg 4th of July parade and then headed back to their place for burgers, hot-dogs, watermelon, and some water-fun.

Miss Independence herself.
Thanks to Riley for the awesome necklace! (And thanks to Grandpop for fixing said necklace after one not-so-gentle tug from our girl after 3 minutes of wear!).

'Thank You, Daddy!' for taking two trips back to the car for the flags! Shoes are off. There's nothing between my toes and this parade...

Except for maybe the nice policeman telling us to get to the curb. Allie got to put her bossy-pants to good use gathering her buddy up for the show.

Brady's got racing in his bones. You may see an American Flag, but don't be fooled, if you look closely, it's a checkered flag and you're Lightening Mcqueen.