Momma

Lately Sydney is rather attached to a little monkey stuffed animal. She has been wearing her baby sling and carrying the monkey everywhere (even while riding her scooter). I thought you might enjoy seeing how much she has changed in 2.5 years since we bought her the sling. She is 3 in these last two pictures! The sling still fits great. It is from Kangaroo Korner ( I was going to link the website but I could not find the sling)

Grasshopper Game

Every year Bill's office has a summer get together and a Christmas party. They vary the location of the summer gathering and this year it was at a Grasshopper's game in Greensboro.   This was the kids first time at a game and in a stadium (Bill and I went once before with my office).  We parked downtown and enjoyed a short walk to the stadium.

The game is fun because they have all kinds of kid entertainment.  There are two dogs that share the job of picking up the bat and bringing it back to the dugout when a player gets a hit.  They have games that you can participate in and music playing. 

Our meal was catered but the kids got to order off a menu and Bill picked corn dogs for them, he did not realize they were foot long corn dogs!

We were given all sorts of goodies: baseball cards, balls, tee shirts!

It was a fun outing even if we left early and spent half the time on the playground!

Another Zoo Trip

Mother's Day weekend we headed to the zoo, for the third time this year!

The Dinosaurs have arrived!

Me acting silly

Griffin was rather scared, I had to explain several times that they are robots, so they can make noise, move and yes spit water!

digging for fossils

the elephants were particularly close this visit and I could not help but notice C'sar has been at the NC zoo since the year before I was born! 

cool plants

precious moment "see in there Griffin"

 

this was our first Carousel ride of the season!

pure joy!

who knows how many times we will go to the zoo this year but we do know that each time will be fun and enjoyable

Play date

We had friends over last weekend and we had a great time.  Sydney and Wesley are the same age and will both be attending the same school this fall.  Anna Griffin "Griffy" and Griffin are the same age and then they have a baby (not in any of the pics)

holding hands (not staged)

lunch in the sun room

talking to Squeaky

slide time

the kids had and great time and so did the mommas so we will do it again I am sure

our friends live just down the road!

Summer list

I was inspired by Lisa to make a summer list.   I love how her canvas turned out but I wanted to be able to transfer our list to my scrapbook once summer is over so I just used a 12x12 card stock. 

We are ready for a fun summer!

Do you have a summer to do list?

Mother's Day

Mother's Day- church, then brunch at the club- yummy

We had Jeff- a friend and staff at the club take a few pictures

The flowers were beautiful and the kids are adorable!

one of the greatest joys in my life is motherhood

I feel so blessed to be called momma and to be trusted with my two children

Girl Night

Every now and then I get to spend an evening with a friend and a few weeks ago I went out with Ellie.  We walked around a few shops including the Circa Gallery downtown.

Button bracelets-very fun and the buttons were unique

cool paintings by local artists

Ellie and I made this our motto!  Love it

We ended up at the Flying Pig for dinner/drinks and boy was it delicious (and the company was perfect).

Prayer Request

Friends of our family (childhood friend of my sister Amanda) have suffered a tragedy, their son Truman (13 months old) drowned on Wednesday and was revived by EMS.  He is at the University of Michigan on a ventilator and is critical.  Please pray for this family and for baby Truman.  Pray for healing for his lungs, pH balance in his body, protection against infection, comfort for the family, wisdom for the doctors and nurses that are caring for him.  Feel free to add him to your church prayer list and please have faith that God can heal Truman. 

Strawberry Picking!

Remember last year when Sydney and I went to pick strawberries?  This year we took Griffin along.  He was not much of a help picking because he ate everything he put in his basket!  We picked about 10 lbs this year and boy were they delicious.

We went with my friend and her family and she was kind enough to get a picture of me and the kids.
Griffin thought this onion was rather fun.  See the juice on his chin? 

Yummy!

Energy and Giggles

Both kids love running up and down the fairway and in the bunkers when there are no golfers.  On this particular day Griffin was so funny I had to record a video.  I think he was excited to see his shadow.  He is full of energy and he had us full of giggles.

New Favorite -Baked Oatmeal

We have a new favorite for breakfast, Baked Oatmeal.  It is so yummy and easy. 
This is the recipe we have been enjoying- I add cinnamon.
Here is another one that looks yummy and has some flax seed, plus makes a larger amount but is individually portioned.  If you try one of these recipes or have one of your own- let me know.

More Yard Projects

We have been working so hard in the yard, truthfully Bill has done most of the labor because I am usually supervising the kids.  Bill trimmed all the bushes and the Japanese Maple in this bed and also tore out a ton of vines.  The vines are on the fence and they were taking over extending all the way past the line from the large center tree! 
I am not sure if we have ever had it cleared out so much and whether we knew there were rocks all the way around the bed.  Now when I am back at the raised beds I do not have to worry about what may be lurking in the vines and I can walk on both side of the bed to pick produce.

I added a few new plants, a Nikko blue Hydrangea (5 dollars at lowes) and a Maruc Deep Purple Salvia (4.48 at lowes) .  I also planted two ballon plants (? I think this is what they are called) that I bought froma fundraiser and they are coming up towards the back of the bed.  I have 1 top hat blueberry in the pot and one in the ground in this bed. 

We added all new pineneedles to the yard and dark fine mulch to all the raised beds- I am hoping to keep everything moist this year during the hot season.

Kids drawing on blanket while Bill and I worked on clearing vines and spreading mulch

Bill trimmed all these bushes and scrubbed (oh yes he is OCD) the gas tank and heat/air pumps

Everything around front was trimmed also and new needles put down, plus Bill washed the front and side of the house where there was a thin green mildew growing on siding

It all looks great and we are thankful to be about done with yard projects, of course there is always more stuff to do.