I spent last week in Boston at a workshop, so Tommy had Kaya and Laney for the week (Maggie and Angelica came with me). Lucky for them (and him), Baba was around and eager to play host to the girls a few nights. Here’s a gem she sent along from one of those nights – they look like they missed me, right?

We have had the pleasure of hosting Piolina (our dog niece) and Cafe (Kaya’s preschool teacher’s pup) for the last couple weeks. They are both very sweet dogs, although Cafe is a bit skittish for our overwhelming brood. The girls claim they like Max and Piolina, but they REALLY like Cafe. Laney can even walk him without getting knocked over!

This year we headed to Duck a bit earlier and caught the 4th of July in OBX. It was a great week, although I was admittedly less active than prior years and feel like I sat around a lot of the week (maybe that’s a good thing – it was the beginning of the Rose plague). Kaya and Laney are old enough to finally fall in love with swimming in the ocean and jumping waves – they were downright insatiable. Maggie took a few good beach naps herself. Next year I am going to promise myself to actually get to ride a wave or two without holding up a kid. Many thanks to all the participants for making it such a great successful week!

The first weekend Angelica was here, we asked her what she wanted to do while she was in the United States. And she said, “See an elephant.” We were pretty psyched that we could actually make that happen. The girls were pretty excited to show off the elephants and zebras, and our trip was followed by a nice picnic lunch with a finicky vending machine.

(Note: We also saw a real elephant, but only sat on a fake one)

The plague hath befallen the Rose clan. So far only the patriarch and the eldest kin have emerged unscathed. My typically ironclad blog updating suffers from the great plague. So you know, please excuse all the somewhat out of date blog posts while I catch up.

(My thermometer reading 2 nights ago)

Please excuse the dearth of posts for the last few weeks – we have been quite busy adding ANOTHER (this time temporary) member of our family. Last week we welcomed Angelica, our new au pair from Colombia. She is settling in now at home and has spent lots of great quality time with Maggie and is getting to know the girls as well (they have been at school/camp). It’s going to be a great year!

On our last day in Chicago last week, we had a few hours to explore. We had a delicious lunch on Michigan Avenue (sorry forgot the name of the place) and then found the bean! It was much more interesting than expected. But unfortunately the girl that offered to take our picture for some reason held the camera at 45 degrees – Tommy and I were both so puzzled while she was taking the picture that neither of us spoke up. So here’s our crooked Bean picture!

Tommy flew home from Boston early yesterday and accompanied Kaya to the school’s daddy-daughter dance. Ain’t nothing sweeter!

We spent a lovely Memorial Day weekend in Tampa with Tommy’s grandmother (the kids’ great grandma GG). She got to meet Maggie, who instantly started smiling and cooing when placed in GG’s arms. The kids also got to play in the pool and go to the beach, and I got to eat some delicious breadsticks and bagels and lox. Plus we got to rent a brand new Chrysler Pacifica, which was pretty sweet and gives the Odyssey a run for its money. As always, lovely to see GG, plus we got a bonus visit with Uncle Ken and Gammy.