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For our last summer playgroup, we met up with friends at the (new to us) Jeffers Hill community playground. How have we not know about this playground before?! The kids had a blast on this teeter-totter.

Things could get pretty rockin' when Simon was bouncing the teeter-totter.

The playground has a lot of great things to play on, but not much shade. So, the picnic lunch was in the shade of a very small tree.

This was the last playgroup before the big kids start Kindergarten on Monday. Molly will miss seeing all these silly friends every week.

In honor of National Peach Month, I also took the girls to pick peaches at Larriland Farm this week. Molly loved climbing the peach tree in search of the perfect peach.

Leah had to get in on the tree climbing too. I eventually had to stop the great peach pickers since the box was full. We came home with 20 lbs. of peaches. Mmmm, that's a lot of peach goodness. I've already got peach custard ice cream, peach salsa, and peach & brie quesadillas on the menu this week!

Picking peaches with friends makes it even more fun.

Molly and Leah went to a pool party on Saturday. I have been encouraging Leah to swim on her own ever since she did it with G'Mom. We're not sure what motivated her, but she finally did it! She was such a happy little swimmer.

She was so excited to show Daddy!

Leah and Matilda had a great time swimming together.

Leah is still working on kicking her legs to get her moving. Several times she got stuck because her little legs just weren't moving fast enough to combat the waves from other swimmers.

Even Keira, who's not a big swimmer, couldn't resist the fun of playing with Molly in the pool.

When it was time for cake, Molly was quick to take the seat next to one of the birthday girls. She did not hesitate to dig in to the cake either!

Nice smile, Leah, but your teeth look like you don't brush them.

Leah took the seat next to the other birthday girl. I guess our two girls think alike.

Appropriate for a pool party, I made the birthday girls swim cover-ups.

After the party, we actually joined the birthday girls for dinner as well, followed by the opening of presents. Rachel had to put her cover-up on right away, despite not having on her swimsuit anymore. I think she liked it!

Did you know that July was National Blueberry month? In honor of that, the girls, some friends and I headed up to Larriland Farm to pick blueberries on Thursday. The hot weather didn't stop the kids from having a great time!

Leah was great at picking the blueberries, though not one actually made it into her bag.

The next stop was the red and purple raspberries. Clearly, Leah preferred the blueberries since there are actually raspberries left in her box! (Or it could have been that she had to share this box with Mommy!)

Looking for the perfect one!

I could have stayed all day picking fruit, but the kids had had enough. We now have blueberry ice cream to show for our efforts!

Molly attended an Easter Egg Hunt with many of her playgroup friends. Here they all are posing with Mr. Bunny. (Leah was not there due to potty training, but had she actually been there, she would have been clinging to my leg! Big costumed people = not Leah's friend!)

Molly hunted eggs with all the 5-8 year olds and had a fun time running around looking for the eggs.

There were even eggs growing on trees. Molly like to call these "special" eggs because they were decorated too.

Molly, Keira, and Riley had just as much fun opening all their eggs and taking inventory of all the treats!

On Monday, I hosted my second Drop In & Decorate party. The idea is simple: decorate sugar cookies, then donate them to a local non-profit agency.

My sous-chefs helped me prep our sugar cookies. I had 5 other moms baking for me and in total we had 18 dozen cookies to decorate!

The moms and kids were invited to drop in during the day and decorate for as long as they liked.

Molly enjoyed using a rainbow of colors on all her cookies.

Leah and I worked together to decorate.

Adding sprinkles was a must. And even now that I have swept the floors three times, those sprinkles keep showing up!

It was fun to watch and see what each of the kids created.

Even the moms got into the decorating spirit.

Lots of giggles and laughter came from this table!

The kids were allowed to eat one cookie after they finished decorating. Apparently, the full plate of sprinkles were part of the deal too.

Here's a sample of the decorated cookies.

In the end, thirty moms and kids decorated approximately 200 cookies to donate to Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center.

Thank you to all of my cookie volunteers for making our party such a huge success!

I hosted our annual Mardi Gras party again this year, though it was a low-key celebration with just our playgroup. Leah clearly thought the icing was the best part of the King Cake.

The girls and I dressed for the occasion, sporting our Mardi Gras beads and necklaces.

We have a lover of all things pink in our house, so when National Pink Day came around on June 23rd, I knew we had to celebrate! I hosted a Pinkalicious Party in honor of the day.

I decided to make our reading of Pinkalicious a bit more fun. I had the girls stand-up or sit-down every time I said the word pink or cupcake. Do you know how many times those are said in this book?! Oh.my.goodness. A lot! They eventually gave up and just sat and listened.

We had some pinktastic treats: strawberry cupcakes and strawberry pink lemonade. I used these free printables for the cupcake toppers.

And of course there was a pinkerific craft! The girls painted with glue to create Pinkalicious magnets.

The girls came dressed for the occasion and had a fun time celebrating all things pink!

And Leah enjoyed getting in on the cupcake action too.

Last week, I took the girls to pick the last of the strawberries at Larriland Farm. Leah had the perfect outfit for the occasion! (I won the overalls in a giveaway from Overall Baby!)

Molly had her own box to fill. Here she is counting her pickings.

Eventually, she moved on and decided to help Jake and Mrs. Josie add to their box.

Matilda was a big help to her mom too!

Leah just couldn't resist the sweet, juicy strawberries. She might have had just a few - stem, leaves and all!

The kids had a great time (as did the mommies!). It was a beautiful day to be in the field, and had it not been for my friends leaving, I might have stayed out there all morning!

The girls and I headed to Port Discovery Children's Museum with our playgroup this week. Leah loved playing in the Wonders of Water room.

Molly and Simon had fun filling this cylinder causing it to spin due to the power of water.

A couple of our playgroup dad's came along for the fun too. Zach is doing a great job overseeing the boat building.

The museum has three floors of exhibits for the kids to discover. Any kind of "shopping" area was a hit!

While the big kids played in the three story tree house, the toddlers checked out the new Tot Trails exhibit. Leah liked making these pegs light up.

And she thought it was fun to sit in these seats that looked a lot like turtle shells.

What happened to waiting until 16 before she got behind the wheel?

The Music Studio was great. They loved playing with the Boomwhackers and the big drum.

Queen for a day...or may be just a moment!

Before we left, the kids requested to play in the Wonders of Water room again. Standing inside the big bubble was a must-do since you've already seen that Molly loves bubbles!

For the third year, I hosted a Mardi Gras celebration with my MOMS Club. I enjoy sharing this New Orleans tradition with my Maryland friends!

The party favors were made...

And someone was very excited about eating king cake with her friends! I made a cream cheese filled, with cream cheese icing. Mmmm...

Molly welcomed everyone at the door saying, "Happy Mardi Gras Day!" The kids decorated their own king's crowns...

then donned their hats and enjoyed a piece of cake.

Each child left with Mardi Gras beads and a bag of cookies. I hope I lived up the the hype, as according to one friend, "It's the best event of the year!" I had to laugh when another friend said she'd been waiting years to come and was "starting to feel like [she] should camp out for tickets!"