Living the Outdoor Life!

Too pooped! Leo climbed on to the couch and collapsed after our morning in the yard!

Now that the weather is warm and sunny we spend a lot of our day outside or in the pool! The pool is the favorite, but I have to be honest, the post pool wrap-up is a lot for me to do and sometimes I just don't have the energy! I don't like the kids to go without a bath after the pool b/c of sunscreen and chlorine, and with Leo's skin being so sensitive his eczema would only get worse...so sometimes I try and encourage other activities but so far we've been there almost every day since it opened!

Anyway, as far as playing outside, Sophia continues to prefer the swing. She recently did get a hula hoop though and with lots of practice she's slowly getting better. She does love to ride her bike too, although Leo gets jealous and always tries to climb on it himself! Leo still prefers to play ball, basketball being his favorite. He will throw just about any ball through the hoop, but is actually trying to dribble the basketball and he's doing it, well sort of, but it's way cute! He has also started to shoot the ball from a few feet away, and he makes it. It's kind of amazing actually. He will still try and shoot for the big hoop and doesn't come anywhere close, but in his hoop, he's right on track! I wish I could get video but after my latest dropping of the camera, that feature no longer works. :-/

Who's That Girl?!

A few weeks ago, during all those tornadoes, I decided that I had best go down into our basement and actually clear a place out so that we could take cover if needed. Well, in a not all that surprising turn of events, I got sidetracked. I found an old photo album that I must have taken from mom's house while looking for pics for Dad's funeral. Anyway, I sat down and started looking through it. When I got to the page that had this picture I literally gasped! All I could do was stare at it and see my child staring right back! Seriously freaky.


I did include some pics (that I illegally downloaded from a website) of Sophia wearing that same dress. In those pictures she doesn't look quite so much like me, but this picture of me is just startling.


I'd like to include that right now as we speak my mother has arrived at my home. I showed her the picture I was putting on the blog and her exact quote was 'oh she's so cute!'. Um, hello, mother...THAT IS ME! Sheesh.

It is fun to have pictures of us both in the same dress! Too cute!

Pools Open!

We've been waiting and waiting for the pools to open and then, whammo...it's cold and rainy! Well, I wouldn't say cold exactly, but with freezing cold water and slight breeze, cold we were! We managed to get there Monday afternoon but we sure didn't stay long!

Donut Day!!

finger licking good!

Today is National Donut Day! Woop Woop!! We hit Krispy Kreme solely because of its locale to ours, but I would have preferred Lamar's or Dunkin', but I generally don't pass up free donuts! I've had better ideas than to give Leo a sticky, chocolate glazed, sprinkle covered donut in the car, but you can tell he loved it! By the time I had a red light (yes I did take these with my phone!) Soph had already gotten rid of the evidence and was cleaning herself up! ;) If you haven't yet, hit your local donut shop for some treats today!

Yard Work

Leo enjoying the soft grass and warm weather

time to till!

my garden helper

my other helper

hard at work digging a tomato plant hole

double the rakes to do double the duty

Our finished garden (although I guess I cut a bit off!)

So after much prodding by my husband we finally got the garden planted. I figured Memorial Day weekend was probably the last possible date to get some stuff in the ground so we made it happen! After last year's maiden garden voyage we decided to skip seeds and go straight for the starter plants. We also planted fewer plants. This year's line up includes tomatoes, zucchini (let's hope we actually get one this year), jalapenos, and two wild cards: artichokes and cucumbers. Also, I know the pictures don't show a lot of the lawn, but hopefully you can appreciate it greeny lushness! Charlie has been working really hard on actually growing some grass back there as it has mostly consisted of dirt in the past! It looks great! We had to cut some of the trees back and of course we seeded and fertilized last fall and this spring. I'm hoping that we can keep it up all summer, despite the heat that I'm sure is coming. It's nice to be able to have a yard!

Farm Fresh

Had to include the kids modeling their coordinating outfits from Aunt Steph...adorable!

Sophia and Isabelle making a wish in the wishing well

the ladies putting on a dance performance for their adoring crowd

2 cute flowers

My handsome butterfly

my beautiful butterfly

Mom was able to join us at the Farmstead last week. Somehow it was her first visit?? Anyway, she had a good time and the kids enjoyed showing her all their favorite spots. We even had Isabelle join us and as always Sophia was happy to have her along! Those two girls are certainly two peas in a pod!

8K Athlete!

Before

Notice how fresh and eager we are

After

all the freshness has disappeared!


holding each other up

Patriots!!!

I busted out the flag wristbands just for Memorial Day

The last three were taken with a phone, so I guess that's why they're so small. :( Anyway, Charlie, Julie and I did run an 8K (5mi) yesterday and we lived to tell about it...barely. I've been running for the last three weeks since the Mother's Day run and although I have done better, I really didn't notice that big of a leap. I don't enjoy running so much so I think I find ways to be a slacker and I need to stop sabotaging myself! Anyway, I did shave 1 minute off my 5K time from Mother's Day so I was pretty happy with that. I ran almost all of the 5 miles, walking probably a half mile or less. There were a lot of hills and it just killed me. In the end, I came in at 58 minutes 30 seconds and Charlie came in at 1 hr 5 min 28 sec. We are trying to line up some more short runs (5 or 8K) for this summer to keep us motivated so I'll keep you posted!