Poppa's House

We took so many pictures at the lake that I am going to break it into 2 posts. I am stealing all of the action shots and I am going to let Adam take you on a tour of the garden, etc. in the next post.

We arrived at Poppa's house late Sunday night after Carter's choo choo birthday party. Thankfully Carter slept the entire trip and barely woke up as we transferred him from the car to the pack n play. We all slept until 8 the next morning I think - which is extremely late for us. I think we were still recovering a bit from our all nighter Friday.

We didn't waste any time putting on our bathing suits and getting wet. Nana bought this incredible new sprinkler and Carter loved it. (Nana - we sure did miss you! Carter kept saying your name!) You put a ball in at the top and after it spins all around it shoots out the top. Look closely in the picture and you can see the blue ball at the top of the water.



We also spent a lot of time just splashing around in the lake. Carter and I took a Mom n Me swim class before this trip. It was a great class and we both learned lots. It was a 6 day class and by the end of the first class Carter went under water. His eyes and mouth were open but he learned how to keep water out when he was submerged. He also learned to spit out any remaining water as soon as he came back up. By the end of the 6 days he was holding his breath under water for 3 seconds and we almost mastered the task of relaxing while mommy helped him float on his back. Almost.

Here are a few fun water shots.



I forgot to mention how much Carter likes to kick in the water. Our swim classes were just as tiring for me as they were for Carter. The boy had his legs moving the entire time we were in the pool. This continued at the lake.



A sweet Carter and Daddy shot. When Adam gets a bit scruffly, it really tickles Carter.



We were excited to have some extra visitors too. Gramma drove down to spend a couple of relaxing days with us. Carter's cousins also came down on Monday and all 3 boys had fun in the water.



Each of the boys got to ride the tube with Adam too! Don't worry, Carter's tube ride was very, very slow. In fact, by the end of his ride he was practically asleep.



Carter's other fun water activity was an idle speed ride on the Sea Doo (aka the Scooby Doo).



Even though we did spend a lot of time in the water, we also did some exploring...



And some fish feeding...



And some mommy feeding...



And some relaxing on the boat...



Thanks Poppa for several fun days at the lake!

Choo Choo - Carter's Turning 2!!!

We had a small birthday party for Carter Sunday afternoon at Homewood Park. Since all of Carter's grandparents live over 9 hours away we thought we would take the birthday party to them so they could all celebrate with Carter. I know Carter enjoyed it - and I am pretty sure the grandparent's did too. We were sad Mimi couldn't join us because she was battling bronchitus and that Nana was out of town for work.

I am going to share the party mainly by pictures, but looking back at them, I realized I didn't get a family shot of Adam, Carter and I or of Carter with each of his grandparents. I guess we were just having too much fun. Enjoy the pictures!

It was a very warm and muggy afternoon at Homewood Park, but thankfully the rain held off and there was a nice breeze so no one seemed to mind the heat too much. Our pavilion was very close to the playground so we let the kids have some playtime. A few of them wore their conductor hats to play.

Cousin Jack...


Sweet Caroline...


JT on the Elephant...


and Quinn who started smiling as soon as he saw me with the camera...


After the kiddos (and supervising parents) were thoroughly exhausted, it was snack time. I found this cute idea for serving the snacks in a choo choo train online.



The containers are from a toy organizer we have had in Carter's playroom. I got it at Target a while back. We spray painted wooden circles from Michael's black and connected them with pipe cleaners. The smoke stack is an old Puff snack container that has been filled with jelly beans and used as a shaker in Carter musical instrument collection. I covered the jar with black electrical tape and Adam constructed the smoke with aluminum foil covered in cotton balls. We covered several of Carter's toy building blocks with aluminum foil for the front of the train. If you know me, you know I always enjoy a good craft.



After snack time, it was time for the kiddos to do a quick craft. I just coulnd't help myself. Carter is really into letters and the alphabet these days, so Adam had this great idea of having the kids make a train with their name spelled out on individual cars. Here is a shot of Carter's finished product.



Finally it was cupcake time!

I ordered these cute cupcake toppers from a store on Etsy. She was absolutely wonderful to work with and has all kinds of themes to choose from. Click here to check out her store.





I am pretty sure Carter enjoyed his cupcake. What do you think?



Jack sure did enjoy watching Carter enjoy his cupcake.



Carter wasn't the only one to end up with a little bit of icing on his face.



All the kiddos went home with a conductor hat (thank you Oriental Trading) and some play doh with a train cookie cutter. The gift tags were from the same Etsy store - Ten Candles.



After the party, we headed back to Carter's cousins' house for dinner and to open a few presents.



It was a really fun afternoon. I am not sure I would want to throw a birthday party more than once a year (ok, maybe twice a year - one for Carter and one for baby brother), but I think Carter had a blast which is the best present of all to me.

That night, we loaded up the car and headed to Poppa's house. Carter crashed in his carseat in record time and woke up to all sorts of fun the next morning.

Summer Vacation - Part 1

We are back home after a wonderful trip south to visit family and celebrate Carter's 2nd birthday. There are MANY pictures to share and MANY stories to tell that I don't want to forget so I am going to try to take each day at a time and share the highlights.

We decided to head out Friday evening after Adam got done with work. He had probably his busiest work week leading up to vacation with several very late nights and several very early mornings. On Thursday he came home early, but only to work on a long list of things to do around the house before we headed out of town. What a trooper - he deserved every minute of his vacation!

As usual, I was behind on my packing, but somehow we managed to leave by 6:30. We stopped for dinner 30 minutes or so down the road. Then Carter got to watch one short video on our portable dvd player (don't think we could make our long drives without this little machine!) before it was time for night night. He dozed off shortly after the sun set and we were on our way to Greensboro for the night.

We got to our hotel a little after 11:00 and Carter was still sleeping soundly. I got him out of the carseat and was on my way inside when a pizza delivery man got out of his car and said VERY VERY loudly - "Where y'all gettin' in from?" The sleeping toddler on my shoulder was no longer asleep. We spent the next 3 hours doing everything we could to try to get him back to sleep with no luck. So we loaded up the car again at 3:00 am and got back on the road. No need to go into any details about all that - it was just pretty miserable.

Adam got a large cup of coffee while Carter and I dozed for a bit. We made it to Atlanta by 7:30 am, got breakfast at Chick-fil-A and then hit the road again. Adam has never been one to sleep in cars, but I think he was out within 5 minutes of me pulling onto the interstate in Atlanta. We got to Birmingham by late morning - a good 12 hours ahead of schedule.

Needless to say, we all crashed for a long afternoon nap.

Our Two Year Old

As of today, Carter is 2!!! Happy Birthday little man.

Garden Update

We are starting to enjoy a few items from our garden boxes, so I thought I would share a few pictures of how things are growing. Adam gets all the credit for this year's crop. Bending over or squatting to dig or weed has not been the most comfortable activity for me lately and Adam has been tending to the garden at night after he puts Carter to bed or early in the morning before he goes to work. Let me show you his hard work.

In Box #1 we have sage, basil, chives, tarragon, peppers, and a few tomatoes in the back. Check out the tomato stakes. They are old rebar from our neighbors remodel that Adam spray painted lots of different colors.



Box #2 is my cutting garden. We have sunflowers in the back, daylilies in the middle, as well as gladiolas (I think), and zinnias.



We have been enjoying some of our daylilies indoors lately.



Poor box #3 has had a slow start due to lack of sun. A tree next door has done a good bit of growing since last year and this box does not get as much sunlight as it did last year. Nonetheless, we have pumpkin, squash, zucchini, and cucumbers taking their time this year.



And along the back wall we have lots of tomatoes, peppers, okra, and corn.







And now, my favorite, our hydrangeas are blooming! This pretty vase that Adam surprised me with one morning all came from starters from Lake Martin. They are growing along our tool shed right now, but I think we will be ready to transplant them soon to a more prominent location. They are just beautiful and one of my favorites!



Hope you enjoyed the tour!

We Like This Place

We only made it to the water sprinklers at our botanical gardens once last summer. By the end of May this year we have played 3 times!

Here is a little video from our latest trip.

Plans vs. Reality

Sometimes I take pride in having a happy baby. I like to think that I anticipate his needs and do my best to meet them. I try to keep him well fed, rested, and full of fun activities. We have had several successful plane rides as well as long car trips. He does really well when we go out to eat (most of the time). And for the past few months we have had a good sleep/nap schedule. (I sure do hope this post isn't going to jinx everything!)

Yesterday I was hopeful that my planning would turn into a fun-filled day. It was supposed to go like this...

Swim class in the morning.
Lunch at Chick-fil-A - a little later than normal to tire him out.
Afternoon nap - down a bit late with hopes of sleeping a bit late.
Picnic at botanical garden before concert.
Concert at botanical garden to hear Patty Griffin.
Carter falls asleep at concert.

Here is what actually happened...

Started off the day by ruining several white maternity items in the wash (lots of pink spots)
Learned we can't take a picnic to the concert.
Swim class a success...lots of underwater swimming...hoping for tired baby.
Lunch at Chick-fil-A a success.
Naptime complete failure. No shut eye for the little man. Tried from 1:30 until 3:45 and then gave up. Dreaded the idea of taking a napless toddler to the concert.
About 5:15 the skies start to turn dark and a big - nothing but red on the radar - storm decided to move through and somewhat stall out in the metro area.
We take an overtired toddler to Chipotle for dinner in the rain.
Still raining when we leave Chipotle, but on the way to the show, we see this:



Clear skies and a happy toddler make for a very enjoyable show. Carter danced to the music. Clapped after every song. Ran around non stop. And then crashed in my arms around 8:45. We made it home by 9:30 just before the next storm moved through.

Here are a couple of other phone pictures from the show.





So, these plans didn't quite turn into reality, but it was still a great night with great music and my wonderful boys.