why, hello...

summer is that you?  Do I hear kids already filling the neighborhood with squeals from their pool?  Sprinklers watering lawns?  The ice cream man coming by the house every evening?  I think it is!

Today C and I got to spend some time with one of her besties.  It was a lovely, warm sunny day so we decided to start this Memorial Day weekend with some fun.  Last night I dug through some of her bags of clothes that have been given to us by friends and I found SEVEN bathing suits that she can wear this summer-SEVEN!  We really have been blessed with so many of our friends that have given us so many girls clothes.  Now, all I think she needs is a super cute cover up for all her adventures this summer.

Today we got to try out some of those cute little bathing suites.  One worn by Miss Charlotte and the other by Miss Penelope-

-melissa

2012 strawberry street festival

This afternoon we met up with some friends at the strawberry street festival. It's a short little street in the city that has a great cafe you should check out if you ever get the chance. There is also an elementary school nearby that holds an annual festival as a fundraiser. We've never been before so we decided to invite some friends and check it out. Here are a few shots from the afternoon. Hope you got out there and enjoyed the weekend like we did! Melissa took this one right when we got there while we were waiting for our friends to meet us.

The school had one of the best playgrounds I've seen at a school. It was neat to see this Stella scooter repurposed as a piece of play equipment. The red bokeh-licious items in the background are drums. One portion of the playground has different types of percussion instruments from xylophones to drums that all had mallets or sticks that were attached so kids could come up and play on them. I bet recess at the school is pretty musical. Made me wish I had something like that at my school when I was a kid.

Like any good festival they had blow ups and bouncy houses. Melissa saw this below and automatically decided that Charlotte should ride the shark slide...with Melissa of course. So we purchased our tickets and up they went.

I managed to grab this shot as they got to the bottom. Charlotte was not amused. Not upset, but not amused. Maybe when she gets a little older.

I love this shot of Scott and Connor. Charlotte and Connor were born about 24 hours apart from each other, so they make great buddies. Connor has been able to throw a ball for a while now so this game was perfect for him. Connor got so excited and I think Scott was having fun too.

Charlotte tried to play a little duckie game, but didn't really know what to do. She loves the water in the bath at home, but I think the germ-a-phobe in her came out and she really didn't want to put her hand in the water.

Street shot of the festival and Charlotte's new favorite way to be carried around. See next two pictures.

Charlotte refused to take her second nap today so by the time we went to the festival, grabbed a bite to eat and started to head home, she was looking a little tired.

What a better way to end an afternoon at a strawberry festival than with some nice raspberries on Charlotte's belly. I love Charlotte and can't wait to celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday. I thought I was lucky when Melissa said "I do" over 7 years ago and now God has given me another girl in my life to love. Tell the people in your life that you love them and enjoy life together.

-jay

Beth's Birthday Quilt

Remember several months back it was my very dear friends birthday, you know back in January! Well for her birthday this year I promised to make her a quilt.  But first I had Jay's quilt to finish and then a baby blanket or two and a first birthday party to plan, well guess what... I finally finished it!  It was only three months late, good thing she is so patient with me!

This quilt was really tough for me.  It was not the quilts fault at all, she really picked out a very simple pattern.  It stated on the pattern that it was classified as a weekend quilt and I believed it!  I told Beth when we went to buy the fabrics that I thought I should have it finished in roughly a week.  That totally did not happen, not even close.

It turns out life really got in the way of my quilting, don't you hate when that happens.  Jay was really busy the past month and it seemed that every time he went out of town C managed to get sick somehow with either teething or a double ear infection that just would not go away.  So every time I went to quilt I had baby fever brain and kept making stupid mistakes.

I had a couple of down times, but kept on persisting because it was for Beth.  I like to think about the person I am making the quilt for when I am sewing.  It helps me to keep going if I know I am making it for a loved one or a loved ones wee baby.  This one really took a lot of love to finish.  If it was for anyone else (yes, even you Jay) it would not have been completed.  But it was for Beth and I do love her so!  So it eventually was finished .  Way later than promised.  But finished with love.

I hope she enjoys snuggling with it in this lovely 90 degree spring we are having in Va!  Love you Beth, Happy Belated Birthday!

spring break

We had a great spring break and if you still get a spring break we hope yours went well too! We took a few day-trips and got to see some of our favorite people in some of our favorite places. First off...the zoo with the Pakizers.

Charlotte wanted to match some of the animals so we set her up with a giraffe print onesie and she fit right in.

Here she is taking a look at some monkeys. We often make comments about how Charlotte resembles a monkey, so once again she fit right in.

Obligatory family shot.

Great silhouette of Charlotte peeking at some bengal tigers.

Besties enjoying the beautiful weather we had for our zoo trip.

Next stop, down to the outer banks for a few days with 3/4's of the Smith family. The kids as usual, having a great time together.

Kaleb and Kathryn's aunt Amy picked up some of those colored bubbles and fun ensued.

It appears that Charlotte is bleeding, but nope, just some purple colored bubbles!

The next door neighbors had a great little dog named Ally, that Charlotte absolutely adored. I like this action shot because it looks like both of them are running

The three of us went for a long walk on the beach (which Charlotte can now add to her eHarmony profile of things she enjoys).

Because the Smiths are midwesterners like us, we decided to make some Cincinnati style chili and Charlotte was not shy around it whatsoever.

If you're still with us, we rounded out our spring break week with a trip to Northern Virginia and Washington DC to visit Akim, Meg and Baylor. The kids are only 6 months apart, so they loved every minute spent playing together even though Baylor is much older and more mature than Charlotte :)

Great shot of Meg and Baylor playing in the tot lot in their neighborhood.

The kids romping around the equipment.

And finally, we stopped by the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade. It was the centennial celebration complete with all of the parade elements you would expect.

The kids didn't take morning naps, so by the time we got to our spot on Constitution Avenue they were zoned out. After about 45 minutes they got interested and started to check things out.

Charlotte deep in thought...

Like mother like daughter. We wonder where she gets her hairstyle from?

President and First Lady 2055.

After the parade a quick diaper change that ended up being a few minutes of pant-less fun.

And thats our spring break. It went by quickly, but we had a great time. Big thanks to both families for letting us crash with them and spend a few days together.