We love summer!

Before the it slips away, (hard for me to even say) I am going to add a few photos of some summer fun. I keep making the mistake of looking at other blogs and then feeling out of my league for posts but I refuse to be intimidated. I am hoping it is just fun for some of you so see how our family is growing and changing. It has been a great summer.

Right after we tore up our driveway, it rained for 3 days! We made the best of it.

A snapshot with Elmo and Telly at Sea World in San Diego. The dolphins were cool too but Sesame Street celebrities stole the show!

Love that great Pacific Ocean!

Ice Cream at the cabin...... is there anything better?!

And going back to the beginning, this was our first corn on the cob for the summer! Grady LOVED it.

Hope you are enjoying summer too.

Our little guy

This photo captures our little guy. There is really nothing more to say. A shiner and an armload of balls. He cried for 15 min. when daddy didn't let him take all of these balls into the house.

too much time....

No. I refuse to let another year go by before another post. A friend recently mentioned her love/hate relationship with her blog in reference to how much time it takes. I have to be honest, this one simple comment made me feel a lot better. I thought I was the only one that thought a blog post took A LOT of time. I realize, of course, the more I post - the less time it would take to update. There would be quick individual posts documenting our Easter trip to California, horseback riding with our cousins in Wisconsin, Grady's first black eye etc. and I would not have to role them into one long roll that took me HOURS to figure out which pictures I should add. I am curious though: Does everyone that blogs spend hours looking at other blogs? It seems easy to do. It also seems that everyone that blogs is very creative. Is that equally as true? Any insight? For now here are a few cute photos from the last 6 weeks of our lives.

Hunting for eggs at our dear friends home in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Sat. morning Farmers Market at the park.

Grady, so happy with his egg full of craisins. Little does he know most kids

get way more sugar.

YUM! Strawberry shortcake with the works!

Taking stock after a successful egg hunt on Easter morning....

Lots of fun with water in Grandma Jonnie and Pop pop's backyard.

Saying goodbye at the airport!

Even though we were exhausted from our trip, we could not pass up this opportunity to go horseback riding with all the Peter's cousins the day after we returned to WI.

This was our attempt at a Happy Earth Week parade. Grady insisted on being in a dress like Zoey, Sophia (Z's good friend) and Natalie (our neighbor).

Have a happy day! Happy May.

LUNCH TIME FUN

Grady really likes to eat. Especially apple sauce.

and Zoey......well, she likes the idea of eating more than eating itself. I like this photo because it reminds me to slow down and appreciate my little rasberry. I get so involved in pushing my agenda (like getting food into stomachs so blood sugars can normalize and cells can do their job so my kids can grow etc, etc.) that I forget to stop and simply let them enjoy and experience putting rasberries on little fingers.

The art of eating.

Meet Bagel-man

Lunch can often be a tedious process but bagel-man seemed to make eating a little more enticing. Somedays I feel like patting myself on the back for the small victories like the invention of bagel-man. Somedays, I feel like I am bagel-man......I will let you make the inference.

In honor of March Madness

Dave and I recently (it was bound to happen sooner rather than later) crashed and burned on our NCAA March Madness Brackets. Thankfully we are not too upset and haven't lost any sleep over the disappointment. In honor of the underdogs, I thought I would share a few highlights from our own private March Madness weekend. (I know it looks cold to all you sissies on the west coast but 50 degrees feels pretty good to us.)

The good news despite our basketball blues is that we think our daughter might go pro in baseball.

Should I try again?

Trying again......

After a brief hiatus

I have recently been spending a few minutes here and there looking at several VERY inspiring blogs. I have been compelled to stop at a bakery on the way home from the YMCA (just because we can), take more thoughtful photographs, be more creative with my kids outside and in, to be JOYFUL about all that is around me and to be thankful for what I have. ..... and lastly, to try to restart my blog that stalled out when the summer hit last year. (I mean, it is easy to blog in the winter when it is dark at 5 p.m. but summer?) Well, I will give it another shot. Maybe, just maybe, I can, at the very least inspire someone to stay outside longer on a summer evening because I have gone inside to blog and post a lovely summer sunset.

a few new photos

Finally! I few new photos from the month of May. One of our current favorite activities is eating smores around an evening bonfire either at home in our backyard or up at the cabin. The days have been nice and we are enjoying being outside as much as possible.

Here is a great shot of grady. He now gets around pretty darn fast by doing the army crawl. He especially loves doors and playing hide and seek behind them.
Zoey with some epic bed head.
The other day I was busy putting stuff away in grady's room and Zoey walked in looking like this. She loves dress up and playing wedding. She told our neighbor Parker the other day that he could be the groom. He agreed to play along but only if they could play when "nobody was looking".
Zoey, her teacher, and two classmates on her last day of preschool.