Where did the month go?

I cannot believe May is over. Where does time go? :) Hold on for one very long post ;)

The Month in Review...

My sweet boy Tristan turned 9! I am so proud of him. I love his caring heart and his desire to do his best. I hope he never loses his desire to help others or to look out for the "underdog". My proudest moments as a mom are when he reveals his loving character.

For his birthday, he chose to celebrate at the lake. Everyone had a good time swimming, taking rides in the canoe, and just playing:





He chose "How to train your dragon" as his party "theme". I wasn't sure how to make a cake in the theme as I never had a chance to see the movie with them. I checked online and found a few pictures and came up with a volcanic mountain, water, and a lot of rocks in the picture. In the movie the boy and dragon take turns drawing with a stick so I "drew" Tristan's name on the cake:

We spent the next day at the zoo. We could not have asked for better weather. The kids really enjoyed seeing the animals:


The twins' favorite (and Mom's :)) was the polar bear:


The boys even managed to wake up the lioness and annoy her so badly that she sought refuge next to the lion. I believe she was telling him to go gnaw on the obnoxious children :)

The month ended with Annette's son's graduation party. Here are photos of the cake and cupcakes:




While hers was graduating from high school, mine was graduating from preschool and I think he thought that ranked right up there with Samuel's graduation :) Isn't Collin a little cutie in his graduation cap?


They sang a song about the days of the week, he loves this song and sings it a lot at home:


Jim decided to surprise the boys and take them to a Durham Bulls game over Memorial Day. They loved it. Can you tell?

Do you like my wig?

Nope, I was not trying to eat the entire bag of cotton candy, not me






The boys really enjoyed the fireworks after the game too:




And finally, I made this cake and cupcakes for a wedding shower for a couple at our church:




We've been blessed with some new family memories this month. I'm looking forward to making many more over the next couple of summer months...

Spring means strawberries

On Saturday I took the twins strawberry picking. They were very cute. It took a while to explain how we only pick the red berries and not the white ones. I actually had to tell them to taste one as they were busy picking. Here are my little cuties in action:


Yesterday I went to Tristan's school for field day. On field days the kids get to play different games outside and they have a blast. I spent the morning watching them play. It was nice to have time with Tristan. It made me realize how much he has grown in the past year. For third grade, they look so big! Here is Tristan doing a crab crawl in one of the activities:

I thought I'd end this quick post with some more photos of our cruise. This is a photo of Atlantis as we were approaching the property. It is a large resort on Nassau Bahamas. I'll write more about our adventures there later, but for now, I'll include a couple photos that show a little of the place:

This is one of the lagoon areas outside that holds a bunch of rays. You can see a number of them swimming in this picture:

They also had a number of aquariums and this particular one had some beautiful fish. The cool thing is that Jim and I saw fish like this when we snorkeled the next day in Coco Cay:

This is inside one of the buildings. The property is gorgeous:

And finally I'll end with a photo of a watermelon which was ornately carved for the midnight buffet on our ship. Don't you wish you could carve a watermelon like this?

Life after the Caribbean

Jim and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary by taking a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas. It was our first trip we have had without children since our honeymoon! I have never been apart from the kids for more than 1 night so it was a big adjustment for me. We did have a fantastic time. Who could not with water this color:



And swimming with beautiful fish:




And being on a private island...



And eating incredibly beautiful and tasty food:



And being on this georgeous ship




I will try to post more pictures over the coming weeks. It will help me hold onto those great memories when life gets stressful!

We have returned to our "normal" life. Back to baseball and fun with the kids:







We had family fun day at the ballpark and the kids had a blast:






The twins spent some time with Daddy at another local event and had their faces painted, aren't they cute:




On Saturday I ran a couple of errands and took Nathan with me. We stopped at the lake for an unplanned adventure. We found some geese and fed them the only thing we had, some chips!




I appreciate our "normal" life. The simple everyday adventures with the family are priceless. I am so thankful for all the memories we have made over the past couple of weeks. I owe a big Thank you to my sister. She graciously watched all of the children (her 4 and my 4) all by herself while we were away. We owe ya big time for that one Sis!

This post is for you, Sue G.

This post is for my friend Sue G in NY. She needs some reasons to smile right now and I need to stop wallowing in my own self pity when I have nothing to really be pitiful about. I'm just exhausted and in dire need of an upcoming vacation. So, I will stop whining to myself about being overwhelmed and instead focus on what is worth smiling about in life. Sue, I hope this makes you smile at least a little. These little faces can exasperate me like no one else can, but they can also make me smile equally as much...











I have to take just a moment to brag on my son because that is what mothers do. This is the 2nd year that his artwork was chosen to be on display at school. Where this child gets his artistic talent is beyond me, everyone knows Jim nor I can draw a stick figure. I am proud of any skill he possesses because like all moms, I'd love for the world to hold endless possibilities for my children...




And I know it is still winter in the frozen tundra, so I thought you'd like a reminder of what NC spring looks like again :)



And our beautiful sunsets

Sorry, you know I can be stubborn as this sometimes ;)