::Three Sisterz Reunion Part One::

I can hardly look at these pictures 

without my eyes filling with tears.

Being with my sisters and their families is my favorite thing in the whole entire world.

My heart is filled and I feel the most content when 

my nieces and nephews are under my roof.

There's crying and laughing,

squabbles and cocktails,

a lot of cooking,

a lot of desserts,

early mornings with babies

and late nights for grown ups,

snuggling with all the kids,

kids' crafts and mommy projects,

daily grocery runs,

mid-day naps,

and

trips to the park and the pool.

It's action packed from start to finish.

It's exhausting.

It's fun.

It's priceless.

And at the end, there are tears and sadness 

that we must say goodbye again.

Flannery and her family,

Molly and her family hit the road to head back home

and I begin to tackle the laundry.

Three Sisterz Friday Night Clink!

Coleman

Ginger B

  

Best cousins and best friends born within 6 weeks of each other.

The morning after Friday Night Clink!

Flannery with nephew Eammon.  

Sparklers!

Nap time

Molly and Colleen

Call me maybe!

Masquerade ball

Cousins

Eammon asleep at the pool

*more pictures to come*

Hot Fun in the Summer Time part 2

Flannery took the big girls to check out the Navy Pier, but seeing as it's 90+ degrees outside, I stayed home with the littles. I sent them outside to play and they quickly figured out what they wanted to do. Plastic bowls, wooden spoons, grass and leaves plus the hose made for a fun morning.

stirring, stirring

ginger b.

investigating Aunt Courtenay and camera

excuse me, i have to go back to stirring

maeve and ML concocting together

love the hot summer days that

are lazy and fun

This is how we roll....

.....when we are all together.

First.  We have a dance party.

We crank up Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Adele, and Pink.  

Then we just plain be thrilled we're dance party-ing with our most favorite people in the whole world.

And sometimes we act like we're a 14 year old singing/dancing phenom, not a little four year old.

And when we're tired of dancing, we go do fun stuff like take a trip to the zoo.

Where we *finally* see the polar bear swimming.  Doesn't he look so vicious cute?

And nothing beats showing our friends & fam the skyline.  So exciting, isn't it?

But even more exciting is torturing our little sister with a Justin Bieber "phone call" (a.k.a., the big girls down in the basement on another phone.)

Seriously.  It's that fun.

The Boys

Not many boys in our family. Flannery and I each have 3 girls but Molly had the first boy and he's the cutest thing ever. Seriously. He came to visit this weekend and I couldn't stop cuddling him, staring at him and being with him. I love every minute with the little guy and I miss him like crazy.

Here's a cute pic of the little guy, Coleman... with our Dad, also Coleman. Hi Dad!

He loves his Pops!

And here's a picture of me with my Pops 9 years ago. That's my Dad on the left, me with baby Colleen and our grandfather, Edward Joseph Shaughnessy. He passed away last Friday at the age of 95 and my heart hurts. He was truly one of the greatest and we were so blessed to have him as our Pops. He always remembered birthdays and sent a card, took us for walks, cheered us on at games and told the greatest stories. Pops was true Irishman who raised 8 kids with his wife Mary Agnes Flannery. He will be sorely missed. Love you Pops!

Springtime and Such

You're never gonna believe it, but I've been courageous and included 3 pictures of myself in this post. SOoOooo outside my comfort zone, but there it is. I always like to see pics of bloggers when I follow a blog. Don't you?

Not much getting done in the studio currently. Flannery and her girls came to visit the day we got back from our spring break trip. They stayed for a week and then headed to their new home in Chicago. The next day, Molly arrived w/her family to celebrate Bridget's First Communion. I may not have gotten any sewing done, but spending time with my sisters and family is my favorite thing to do.

Molly and Me

Bridget's First Communion

My sweet nephew, Coleman, with his Daddy

Remember that tie?

Colleen, Bridget, Maeve and Coleman

Andy and I getting silly

pretty weeds in my yard

Broadway Bridgie hamming it up

Ginger baby on the swing

Bridget's turn with the camera

Maeve, AKA Jessie

We really can't stay serious when the camera is around