weekend adventures

We started the weekend off early with a birthday dinner for Nana on Thursday night at P.F. Chang's.  YUM!

 

 

Jason took the kids groundhog hunting on Friday evening. 

 

 

Once it got dark, they went back out for some frog giggin'.

 

 

Everyone was involved, except me!

 

 

I was at home enjoying my homemade chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream sundae!

 

Bryce has had a great baseball season.  He has one more game, but Jason and the other coach won't be there so we went ahead and handed out trophies and celebrated a great season Saturday after the game.

 

 

Then the kids went to the pool to cool off and Emmy showed off her tricks and bravery she picked up from swimming lessons!

 

 

 

There was still more fun to be had today.  We took some guns to Jason's parents' house and did some target shooting. 

 

Bryce was on fire!

 

 

Emmy tried to be interested!

 

These two!  Melt!

 

 

Jason loves having Bryce as his hunting and target shooting buddy!

 

I even got in on the action and hit a few balloons too!

 

Happy Sunday!

10 days, letter q

Q is for quiet.

 

Bryce's class got to bring a towel and books to school today and they had quiet reading time outside!

 

my new addiction

I don't like coffee.  I want to like coffee.  I'm trying to like coffee.

 

In my ongoing attempt to acquire a taste for coffee, I stumbled onto the Starbucks S'mores Frappuccino!

 

It is delicious.  It is addicting.  It is expensive.  It is NOT healthy!

 

 

Hopefully when this seasonal drink is gone, I will have acquired more of a taste for cheaper and healthier coffee.  But in the meantime, I will be accepting Starbucks gift cards for my birthday so I can continue to indulge in this sweet treat without breaking the bank, just the scale!

11 days, letter p

P is for pajama day!

 

 

I used to get so tickled at the pajamas parents would send their kids into school wearing when I was teaching.  I always felt like the boys who wore long john type pajamas looked so goofy.  They're cute at home, but not at school.  We put a lot of effort into picking out the perfect summer pajamas last night before bed.  Bryce had two pair (the pair in the picture that he wore to bed because he wasn't originally going to wear them today and one other pair). 

 

I was really pleased with the pair he was going to wear because they looked like typical basketball shorts he would wear and a sleeveless shirt.  Well somewhere along the way, Jason once told Bryce that you can't wear sleeveless shirts to school.  I told him last night that it would be alright, but come time to get dressed today, he was worried he'd get in trouble.  So he paired another shirt with it that actually matched.  I had convinced him not to wear his normal tall socks because they wouldn't look "pajamy".  Well, then he was upset that his shorts looked so similar to basketball shorts and he wasn't wearing tall socks.  So, he totally switched gears and decided to wear pants.  I reminded him how hot it was going to be and that he begs to wear shorts at 70 degrees so he passed on the pants too.  To make a long story short, he's like a girl when it comes to clothing!

 

So, after sleeping in his pajamas all night, he wore the same ones to school today!  And after seeing him in those shorter shorts and short socks, I didn't even recognize those legs that are usually covered in tall socks and longer shorts! 



12 days, letter o

O is for opposite day.

 

 

Bryce wore different socks!  That's the best we could do!

13 days, letter n

N is for NO more homework!

 

 

This might be the best day yet!

memorial day weekend

Jason had a four day weekend and we had very little planned which made for a great weekend.  We started off the fun on Friday with Bryce's field trip (which you've seen).  Saturday morning we went out to breakfast with Jason's parents, went to a 1st fiesta birthday party, and then we had a cookout with our neighbors.

 

 

Emmy enjoyed playing a little pin the tail on the piñata.

 

The piñata took a long time to break, but Bryce finally busted it open for everyone!

 

 

We dropped the kids off with Jason's parents for a sleepover after the birthday party.  Then it was onto a fun cookout with our neighbors. 

 

I even remembered to send patriotic outfits for the kids to wear to church on Sunday!

 

After Emmy's nap on Sunday, we went fishing.  Bryce caught 2 blue gill and was excited to hold each one!

 

Emmy even caught two fish (a blue gill and a bass).

 

Emmy didn't want to hold her fish for pictures!

 

I didn't want to hold my fish I caught either.  Bryce took care of it for me!

 

We stayed around the house most of the day today and relaxed until going to Jason's parents' house for a cookout!

mow and low date night

We headed out for a fun night out with our neighbors last night.

 

 

We were back out last night to support our current Commonwealth's Attorney and his run for re-election. 

 

MOW (men of Windsor)

 

 

LOW - ladies of Windsor

 

 

I have always dreamed of having neighbors to do life with and we've been blessed by our friendship with the Jacksons and Belcastros.

 

I sure do love life with this guy.  It gets better and better everyday!

14 days, letter m

M is for Maymont

 

Maymont is a local park/animal farm in our area and Bryce's class field tripped here today!

 

 

Jason and I chaperoned this cute little group.

 

Emmy got to tag along too and had her own personal chaperone!

 

Mrs. Naff sent me a picture from inside the classroom during their activity because there wasn't enough space for parents!

 

 

You never can get a group this age to all look at the camera at the same time.  Oh well!

15 days, letter l

L is for lollipop.

 

 

Mrs. Naff brought in tootsie roll pops for the kids to enjoy during their writing center time.

 

Bryce estimated it would take 83 licks to get to the center.  It actually took 650.  When his teacher sent me this picture, she said he was seriously counting every single lick! 

life is good

We've had some HOT days and some beautiful days!  Today is a beautiful day!  I'm sitting at the kitchen table with the windows open and the breeze blowing in as I type this.  I would take this weather every.single.day if I could.

 

 

Jason was busy one night last week so I told the kids we were going to have a backwards dinner night (meaning we would eat dessert first and then dinner).  They couldn't really comprehend this so I told them we'd just have dessert for dinner!  Then we had to run to Target and they talked me into a soft pretzel, so I guess that counted as dinner!

 

Bryce's class has been studying the life cycle of animals for the past few weeks.  His teacher had gotten caterpillars, but wanted tadpoles too.  We found her some tadpoles and the class enjoyed watching them turn into frogs.  We let the frogs go this past weekend at MeMa's house. 

 

I've been using our current vacuum for the last 12 years (it was a wedding gift from my parents).  It has recently started to make a funny noise and smells a bit odd so it was time for a new one.  We checked the consumer reports and it turned out that our current vacuum (just newer) was ranked #2.  It was such a good deal that I bought 2 (one for upstairs and one for downstairs).  And actually, my Nanny bought them for us!!  Thanks for taking such good care of us, Nanny!

 

I took the picture on the right last night when I was reading on the porch.  The picture on the left came up on my time hop for this day last year.  Can you tell, I kinda love reading on my porch swing after the kids go to bed?!

 

 

Jason and the kids gave me new tennis shoes for Mother's Day.  I had been wearing the same running shoes I got back in 2007 when I ran a 10K.  Sad, I know.  However, they provided much motivation to get me outside for morning walks with Emmy!

 

Happy hump day!  Hope everyone is having a great week!  I sure am!!

16 days, letter K

K is for kindness.

 

 

We sent in a Diet Coke (Mrs. Naff's favorite) as an act of kindness to get her day started right!  I don't think Bryce will have any trouble being kind to his teacher and classmates today.  I'm a bit biased, but he's a pretty kind kid!

strawberry pickin'

I really enjoy picking strawberries each year.  I kept seeing families post their strawberry picking pictures to Facebook so I knew it was time to go!  We decided to go today after school which turned out to be super HOT.  Luckily, there was some cloud cover at times and a few rain drops to cool us off!

 

 

I may have staged this picture, but really, how cute are they?!?

 

It's not berry picking if you don't taste a few in the field!

 

He found the perfect berry!

 

Aren't they cute.  The kids, not the berries.  Well they're pretty cute too!

 

We went to a new farm this year and liked it much better than where we normally go.

 

Our neighbors tagged along with us for a fun afternoon!

 

The mamas!

 

YUM!!

 

These beauties will find their way into a few strawberry pies in the next few days!