Water Time

From the moment Carter's toes first touched the water we have been splashing non stop.



He loves splashing the water and sprinkling himself...



...as well as Poppa.



He spent lots of time is this turtle float. We borrowed this from Aunt Susan and I was glad it had a nice shell to provide some shade. But the shade ended up being a fun toy to play peek-a-boo with.



Once Carter is a little bit older he will get to play on big boy toys like this fun tube. Robert called Adam last week to ask if he would ride the tube with him. Talk about some anticipation.



And then when he gets even older he will get to play with some of Daddy's favorite toys - like this wakeboard.



But for now Carter only got to take a ride on the boat. And to do that he had to wear a terribly uncomfortable life jacket. Despite the contraption Carter enjoyed looking around and watching the wake of the boat.



For those long time ATL Post readers, you might recall Adam's first wake board experience last August. We declared the lake the victor of that match up. But this year Adam showed the lake a thing or two and made some incredible jumps.



I even came out of my two year water sport retirement and tried a bit of knee boarding and skiing. Somehow Adam convinced me to try the wakeboard. It is the most awkward feeling contraption to try to hold still under water. I managed to get up 3 times (all less than 2 seconds - but hey - I got up) and quit after a full lake sinus clearing.

It has been fun - and here is just a little more proof:



To me a deck full of drying bathing suits and towels means it was a good day.

Poppa's House

I first came to Poppa's house (at the time, Mr. Lovelady's house) back in college. Just an hour or so away, Adam and I would visit on weekends and during exam time to "study." When Poppa bought his lake house it was a small cabin with a couple of bedrooms and an incredible view of the water. Over the years he has added a bedroom here a potting shed there to create quite the relaxing yet fun home. I spent some time taking a few pictures of some of my favorite spots and thought you might like to see them too.

We'll start at the garden area. Adam helped his dad one morning pick some produce and some weeds as well as till a patch for some new beans, squash, and tomatoes.



A few years ago Poppa decided he needed a place to hold all of his gardening tools near the garden so he constructed this adorable potting shed.



I am sure he didn't have the word "adorable" in mind when he came up with the plans - but there is so much detail and charm involved that it turned out perfect.



It has a sink, lots of tools, and it holds the most important tool at the lake - a Robert-sized wheelbarrow. Robert loves to pick up pine cones around the lake and wheel them away or do whatever other fun tasks Adam or Poppa ask him to help with.

Check out these peppers - they made our pepper steak dinner the other night very tasty.



As Poppa's oldest grandson (Robert) started walking and exploring, Poppa added a super fast slide and climbing wall to the side of the deck.



Carter had his first and twentieth slide ride all in the same day. Loved it. He also enjoyed climbing on the rock wall. We have been working on his climbing skills at Romp n Roll, and he is doing great. He can reach for the next ledge and pull himself up - with close support of course.

Here is a close up of the pirate ship I mentioned yesterday.



Just off of the screen porch is this beautiful waterfall. I am not sure if it was this project or perhaps the rock walls around the hydrangea plants that made Poppa say "I am never moving rocks again!" It is pretty soothing to sit in the screen porch and just listen to the water pouring over the rocks.

Speaking of hydrangea plants...


We are a few weeks late to see them in full bloom but look at these bushes and imagine them in the fullest bluest blooms you can. I found one bloom still hanging on...



So those are just a few of my favorite spots...hope you enjoyed the tour.

Yo Ho Yo Ho

A Pirate's Life for Me.

We are at the lake visiting Poppa and Nana and had some special visitors arrive yesterday afternoon. There wasn't much time left in the day yesterday for adventures, but this shot was taken this morning just before 7:00 am - wasting no time. Poppa attached a pirate ship steering wheel and a lookout telescope to the deck railing. Plus there is a treasure map tacked to the back wall. These pirates were throwing cannonballs as me as I tried to take their picture so I had to act fast.

I think we are in for a fun filled day. Lots more to come later. Argh!

Photo Booth Fun

Carter and I ran a couple of errands at the mall yesterday and I couldn't resist when I saw a photo booth in the food court.

I imagined Carter just sitting on my lap smiling, maybe giving me a hug, or maybe laughing at the silly noises I was going to make.

Instead he wanted to explore this small cube like contraption I just brought him into. He would reach for the screen, turn around to look at the back, and in the second picture you can see that he was trying to escape by looking outside the curtain.

Still, it was a lot of fun and I am glad to have these pictures with my little guy. It printed two sets so I gave one to Adam for his office.

If I ever do this again in the future I will spend some time just sitting in the booth letting Carter explore before I put my money in and the pictures start snapping.

Things are growing...

I realized the other night when I picked our first big red tomato that I had not taken pictures or written about our garden progress in some time - so last night I took a few pictures while Adam was doing a little bit of weeding.

Here are the cucumbers and tomatoes. Our poor cucumbers started growing up the tomato plants before we gave them some stakes to grow on.

But they seem to be doing well despite our initial neglect. There are many flowers and a few baby cucumbers.

Our tomato plants are doing well so far too. We have enjoyed several cherry tomatoes and each plant has several green tomatoes in progress. We got a little impatient and fried a green tomato recently too with some squash. Yummy.

Here is a shot of the full garden. You can see the soaker hoses snaking in and out of the boxes. Adam did a fantastic job of laying the soaker hose throughout the boxes. All I have to do is turn on the spicket and it waters just where we need it to.

Adam was busy chopping down some weeds just behind the fence that were climbing through the fence posts and latching on to our veggies. Can you find him in the picture?

The middle box is all flowers - it is taking a bit longer than I expected. But check out this zinnia bud that is so close to opening.

Unfortunately our squash plants did not make it. They were attacked by squash borers which start within the stem and destroy the root system and main vines. Our plants were huge and just started to flower when the borers got the best of them. Second year in a row. Will have to figure out a solution next year because we love squash! But in the meantime we will be enjoying mater sandwiches, BLTs, bruschetta and other tomato goodies for the next few weeks to come!

Together Again

We had a great visit from Carter's cousins and their parents a couple of weekends ago. I was a little nervous about how our house would handle four guests - two of them under five - but the entire weekend was nothing but fun. This post is long overdue but I am going to try to make up for its tardiness with lots of pictures - and BIG pictures at that. I have been playing with some HTML trying to figure out how to make our pictures show up bigger and I think I figured it out - so please let me know if anything looks funny on your end.

OK - back to the fun. They arrived on Friday afternoon and had just a teeny tiny bit of energy stored up from their ten hour drive to get here. I love this picture because it reminds me of how much laughter and excitement there was as soon as they arrived.

From Cousins - June 2009

After a yummy (but warm) dinner outside by the grill - it was bath time for all three boys. Jack won the mohawk competition hands down.

From Cousins - June 2009

Robert was especially busy Saturday morning...
He made Adam wheel him around on the tricycle...

From Cousins - June 2009

He climbed a tree...

From Cousins - June 2009

And then made Adam climb it with him...

From Cousins - June 2009

Then he decided to help Adam water our garden so he carried the rain barrel watering cans to the plants on the tricycle. Pretty clever, huh?

From Cousins - June 2009

On Saturday afternoon we celebrated Carter's first birthday with a small party. Have I mentioned before how much Carter LOVES balloons? Whenever we go to the grocery store they have big red SALE balloons on every aisle and every display. As soon as we walk through the doors he starts reaching for them and his face lights up. There was really no decision to make when it came to the party theme. I even found a larger than kid size Elmo balloon which was a big hit for several days.

From Carter's 1st Birthday

I also bought a small disposable helium tank that filled 25 or so balloons. Many thanks to Warren for filling them all with air - he wins the brother-in-law of the year award - even though he swallowed some of the helium. :) Warren and Adam also took a stab and making animal balloons. They made some pretty cute dogs, crowns, and even swords. Thanks guys! I think the kids enjoyed it but we also got some pretty good laughs during the learning process too.

On Sunday we visited our botanical garden for a picnic and for sprinkler time. I think Robert might have been looking forward to this just a little bit...

From Cousins - June 2009

Once we got there it didn't take Robert long to jump right in.

From Cousins - June 2009

Jack on the other hand wasn't too sure about all the water and needed a little encouragement from his brother.

From Cousins - June 2009

Adam walked through the sprinklers with Carter and they both ended up soaked but with big smiles.

From Cousins - June 2009

In the end Jack came around and enjoyed the water too.

We enjoyed a picnic in the shade after all of that splashing and running.

And then we snapped just a few pictures of the cousins before we all headed home for afternoon naps.

Jack got an early start on naptime on the way home...

It was a great weekend and we loved having Carter's cousins here for a visit. We are very excited that we get to see them again next week for some more water activity at the lake and then at the beach.

The Story of Our Weekend

This may be my biggest understatment of the year - Carter likes books.
This weekend he spent almost every waking hour flipping the pages of his ever growing collection of books. Sweet Gram read the same ones with Carter over...

and over...

and over again.

I don't think she minded too much because that is just about the only way to get this little guy to sit still for more than 2 seconds. We had a nice relaxing weekend with a little bit of shopping and a little bit of embroidering. I have added some new pictures to the Embroidery album on the left and here are a few other new designs I will be adding to the album and to my etsy store soon.

Bye Bye Curls

Over the first few months of Carter's life I got a lot of "she's so pretty" comments when we were out running errands. Despite a blue onesie, blue pants, and a blue blanket we still got "pretty" comments which was ok with me up to a certain month. But last week I got another one at Wal-Mart and I decided it was time for Carter's first haircut. Here are some of the pictures during the process...

Carter: "What do you think you are doing?"Carter: "Mmmm - mommy is giving me goldfish - she can do whatever she wants"

Carter: "Mmmmm - goldfish are very yummy!"

He did great - really great. No fussing. Occasional squirming but only to find out where the goldfish went. I have to ration them one at a time - if I don't he would be able to compete with the best at the Chubby Bunny contest of goldfish.

The cut looks nice and clean and very boyish. Still a cutie.

UPDATE: Carter and I had lunch at Chick-fil-A day (which by the way was CRAZY - it is National Cow Appreciation Day and it was packed). Anyhow - while Carter and I were eating an employee came up and asked if he could get a placemat for 'her'! Can you believe it? Less than 24 hours after cute boyish haircut another girly comment. Just for the record he was in a very boyish animal bib, a tractor onesie and plaid shorts. Oh well. I guess he can be a pretty baby for a little bit longer.

Babysitter Extraordinaire

I know I have written LOTS lately about our home improvement projects. We have made some pretty significant changes to our back yard, living room, and dining room over the past few months and are finally slowing down to enjoy it all. But, we never would have been done in time for the cousin visit and birthday party had it not been for a Mimi visit in June. She took care of Carter while we painted, and then again when we painted some more. Then on Monday once Adam had gone to work she watched Carter while I ran errands - I probably made seven or more stops - which would have taken me an entire week with Carter. The in and out of a car seat takes time and energy and it is a treat to run errands solo every once in awhile. So thanks Mimi for coming to visit and playing with our little one.

(Guess what? Gram is coming to visit this weekend - so I am thinking I might have another eager babysitter for the weekend!)