Welcome!

To the first {annual, weekly, daily!??!}


What started as a phonics lesson...

Became a car wash...


Then a face-painting extravaganza!!!


Who knew staying home with the sniffles could be this fun?

Why I can't WAIT to have my own backyard again...

This momma in VA (not too far from me!) has made the most of the wonderful outdoors and a play kitchen with this MudPie kitchen, and ohhh, how I can imagine playing along with my kids in it. Mixing playing in the dirt with pretend and cooking? How can you go wrong?

5 Years Ago...

We had a little baby girl. She was adorable, we loved looking at her cute little face, so squishy from birth. But time has passed. Too fast.

Now here, we are five years later...
Our sweet princess is having her 5th birthday. She's so excited to get older, that her birthday wish while blowing out the candles on her cake was that her next birthday would be her 10th instead of 6th. Slow down, baby girl!


She wanted her cake frosted with frosting that had real blueberries in it, not just purple food coloring, so I obliged. Of course, it became a little runny, so we stuck with a flat cake, rather than sculpting anything huge. She loved it. That's what matters.


Especially the sparkly hearts. I liked them, too.I love piping frosting. It's so therapeutic. And in the end, brings HUGE smiles.

Happy Birthday, Chayce! We love you!!

No! No nap, Momma!

Little Payge is 2 1/2, and sometimes she tries to talk her way out of her naps. She knows I LOVE it when she completes puzzles, so yesterday she came up to me at nap time and said, "No, no nap, momma! Puzzle. Me." As she rubbed her tired eyes, I acquiesced, rather than fight her... and my patience paid off:

Touring UNC--Chapel Hill

Last night, we decided to take advantage of the 80 degree (as opposed to 100+) weather to tour UNC's campus. Of course, it didn't hurt that there are no students there yet, so it was quiet enough to take photos. Here's a highlight of my favorites:

The Forest Theatre! This theatre is an outdoor, stone amphitheater built into the hillside on campus. It's beautiful, and if you come visit me, it's one of the first places I'll take you, because I'm a theatre geek. I was in heaven!! Look at that stonework! Oh, and guess what...if you're not Mormon, and planning on a temple wedding, you can reserve it to get married in! Beautiful.

We let the kids go onto the stage and yell to listen to the amplification of their voices, then we talked a little about the plays that might take place...definitely planning on going back.


Now, the Coker Arboretum and Botanical Garden. Again, I was speechless, in a state of bliss... The stonework and plantings were amazing. Check out this cast iron gate:

This was a tunnel of vines, built up over a wooden structure, but you have to be there to really get the effect.

Some got creative in how they laid stone. I love how it looks like the leaves on the vine it was next to.
Big leaning tree. Stephen tried to fix it, but... No, kidding. I just thought it's branches were beautiful.
A little man-made creek, lined with stone. Very pretty, the water was trickling down it.

The sundial at the planetarium is HUGE! Zach is standing next to some detail work on the metal hand of the dial. We are studying Earth/Space science for homeschool this year, so we'll be visiting this planetarium quite a bit, I feel...



Here we are at the well. It's the symbol of UNC. For many years, this well was the sole water source for the 2 dorms surrounding it. It's at the heart of campus. The photo is kind of blurry--but I had to include it. Zac took it for us. :)



Just admiring the detail in the stonework...

Here Stephen stands at the place where a protester drove a car into a group of students the weekend he was interviewing here. They weren't protesting him...I'll have to ask him if he remembers what the protest was about.

Caught in the Rain

It finally cooled down enough to go to the park. We, of course, walked. Then, the thunder started, so we headed back...and then the rains came down and the floods (in the gutters) came up. Wow, the drops were huge and fast! We had fun though. By the time we reached the apartment, we all looked like this:




Zac wasn't too happy about it, which is funny considering HE was the one that told me that if it rained, his super cool nature shirt would protect him and we didn't have to hurry home.

The other funny part is that the kids seem to have acclimated quickly. It's 78 degrees, and Chayge just went and grabbed a fleece jacket. Payge is shivering.

Happy July 24th!

T'was a warm day here in North Carolina, with a high of 100 and a low of 78. The guys on the radio said the "feels like" index was 113, but I'm not sure how they measure that. Is there a scientific way or is it someone's opinion? Personally, I figure once you pass 95 degrees it's OK to just say that it's hot and we need to find something to do in the shade and/or water. We're not even to August yet, which I hear is the hottest month. YAY for pools!! We've been to the pool three days out of seven, and I suspect will go even more this week. Wha-hoo!! I won't have pictures because I'm in the water the whole time, and I just don't trust that pool+camera would =good results.

Anyhow, back to the events of the 24th. We had a stake pioneer activity, with all sorts of old fashioned games. The kids made corn husk dolls first, had a watermelon seed spitting contest, and played some games. First off was the three-legged race (see video below), and the stick-pull (see below) and then the cow-pie toss. The cow pies were made of Great Stuff spray foam and brown spray paint, just like I made the hidden wonderland.