Heading to the Beach

Thanks to this guy, I'm leaving in a couple of hours for a girls beach weekend. I've heard big talk of guy plans: watching star wars, playing at the pool, and of course -- wrestling. The boys will certainly enjoy their daddy-time with Mike. What are the chances they'll bust out the camera to document the fun? :)

Captain Underpants

Just checked on Miles. He's snoozing in full Captain Underpants gear. Impressive.

Four-Leaf Clover

The hunt is always on.

Thursday morning

Noah, Griff and I went to Miles' school today to read to the class. As we were walking out, we bumped into some friends. Andrea and I talked while the kids ran around - until all of a sudden they were doing this:


Who knows what they were "investigating", but I love that they were all in kahoots about it. Even Griff....just acting like a big guy.


Little bit of swing time. Love Noah's expression.


Gotta love a girl that climbs trees.


Seriously, if lovies got awards, Griff's dog would get one. He is dragged EVERYWHERE and as of late, Griffin likes to throw/retrieve him (read: he gets filthy). Thankfully we have two, so we can rotate one in the wash while he drags the other around (kind of like his own personal full house/olsen twins).

Silhouettes

This week the I ♥Faces theme was “silhouettes.” My friends Anne and Trish submitted cool pictures and I wanted to join in the fun. Ah....my attempt was comical (I did not submit this week).

It was raining, so Miles was under an umbrella as was I.


He was sporting his cute rain boots.


His smile was ready.


I even broke out my wide angle lens. But alas, I couldn't pull it off.


None-the-less, we had fun trying!

Happy Memorial Day

Trains

He Waits

Last week Mike decided that he's ready to conquer a sprint triathlon now -- so he signed up for a race in New Bern, NC on June 6th. He went out this morning for a 18-mile bike ride and Bodie stayed in this position the entire time Mike was gone. It paid off. When Mike got back, he dropped off his bike and picked up Bodie for a run in the neighborhood. All the while, I was enjoying my coffee, playing trains with the boys and snapping a few pictures. Perfect spot for me. :)

Dad Rocked Diego

Griffin still LOVES Diego, so Mike was determined to make him a Deigo cake for this 2nd birthday. It looked good. It tasted good. He rocked it.






We dove into the cake as soon as Mike finished icing it, then we hit the neighborhood pool for a Memorial Day celebration. I'll post the pictures of Griffin and his birthday presents just as soon as he opens them. :)

Mini Celebration

On Saturday morning we had a mini birthday celebration for Griffin at a local park. We met some neighbors and amped up the fun by throwing in some birthday donut holes and a few capri sun drinks. There is a fun 'splash park' there and most of the kids were excited to check it out. (Oh...be sure to check out Miles' rockin' swim team trunks. I know...how can you miss them?)



Hmmm.....looks wild in there....and cold.


Noah seems to love it.


Miles definitely loves it.


Ok, the crazy water stopped. Maybe I'll venture in now.


I knew it! I knew I'd hate it!


Dude, Noah, did you notice you're using Sydney's Minnie Mouse towel? hehe


Wonder if there's anymore of those birthday donuts?

Just Like That

Really? I'm 2? My baby days are over?

Peach Tree

Our peach tree is baring much fruit. I got really excited when I noticed it and grabbed a basket and yelled out to the boys to drum up some excitement.

Me: Boys! Come see! We're farmers!
Miles: Huh?
Me: Look! Our peach tree has tons of peaches on it. Once you pick one, you're a farmer!
Miles (looking skeptical): Mom, who planted this tree?
Me: Dad & Pop did.
Miles: Well, then they are the only farmers here.

Any guess who the rule-follower in the house is? With that said, Miles started asking a million questions about the garden we'll be planting. We tried to do some internet research on what veggies we should plant but came up short. We just purchased a gardening book from Lowe's, so we're closer to our dream. Stay tuned!

Dinner Club

I love my dinner club. I crave time with them in fact. Time to laugh. Time to be silly. Time to be serious. Time to support each other. Time to just hang out. Would you believe that I have had dinner with these girls every month for over 10 years?! That's over 120 consecutive monthly dinners together. Amazing.


Elaine, Peggy, Cara, me, Amy, Tracy

Our founder Ashleigh (who now lives in DC and goes by Paige) started our club of eight with a number of rules: members must be single (I didn't mention that I had quietly just started dating my coworker/ now husband), members must not have any food requirements (vegetarians not allowed, so I kept my mouth shut about hardly ever eating meat and then smiled and nodded as I bit into lamb...maybe even mutton... at our very first meal together). The goal was to try new recipes (easy for me, I never cook so they're all new) and meet new people (when we started, I was good friends with Ashleigh, work acquaintances with Peggy and Tracy and had never met Amy and Elaine).

We each take turns hosting and we dine out every December. Over the years, we've also celebrated a number of weddings, many babies (Cara is due with her 3rd in July!), many birthdays, etc... And, because we're all living real lives, we've also supported each other through difficult times. These women challenge and inspire me (Cara finished a sprint triathlon last summer and encouraged me to sign up for the same one this August). Bottom line, these women are rocks in my life. If Mike is ever transferred, his relocation package must include funding for me to fly back-and-forth to continue this monthly tradition.

I hosted last night and made this amazing salad (served grilled sesame chicken on top of it). Seriously, if you live for veggies, you've got to make it. This was one of my appetizers (insanely easy) and I served this for dessert with vanilla ice cream (very easy, extra-crazy sweet and good). I definitely consider myself the novice of the group. We have some master chefs among us. But, to quote Tracy, its about so much more than food.

Griffin's School Party

We got back from vacation just in time to attend Griffin's school's year-end celebration. The entire school was invited to play at a local park. I've been really happy with Griffin's school this year. He's been going to preschool a couple of days a week at our church. Its a VERY small program...much different than the preschool where Noah attends/Miles went (maybe a 10th of the size). The schools are different in many ways -- but similar in that the both schools' teachers love the Lord and they all shower the boys with love. Bundle that in with a few academic lessons and we can't ask for much more. Griffin had some really sweet little friends in his class. We'll miss them next year (most are transferring to other schools).

Seriously, as soon as I laid the blanket out, Griffin assumed the position. How cute is that?!


This park has some really cool HUGE tires. Noah climbed them. Griffin stood in them. Just a matter of time and he'll be scrambling up too.




Old school jungle gym. Gotta love it.

Heading Home

The views were so beautiful as we drove home. I found myself wishing that I could take pictures by just blinking my eyes.

The rest areas were so inviting that we stopped at a few on the way home, too. It definitely made every stage of the vacation fun. It was a great family road trip!





Can you believe this is the rest area?!

(I organized our posts by actual date, so scroll down for the rest of our vacation updates.)

I ♥ Faces

This week's I ♥ Faces theme is 'my favorite face photo'. I have so many favorite pictures of the boys, and something about this one just resonates "Griffin" to me. He cheeks are oh-so-pink, his eyes are oh-so-blue and his hair is far from perfect (typical 3rd child, right?). Man, do we all love this little guy.

If I wasn't five minutes from the contest cut-off and hunkered down in a hotel room at the end of our family vacation (without my computer) I'd work on "fixing" the photo a little. But alas, I am. Ah well, he always looks perfect to me. :)

The winners’ photos will be added to the I ♥ faces blurb book. (I am entering in the amateur category...again, for fun). Should be an exciting week! Come join the fun and see other entries at:

I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.