I have many fond childhood memories of working on crafts with my Mema. She’d come to visit and bring her puffy paints and we’d make tee shirts and sweat shirts. Once she even attempted to teach me to crochet… but after a few hours and only a few loops, I opted to let her continue making me anything I wanted crocheted. Now I am grown, with kids of my own, and I must confess, my craft skills don’t look a whole lot different than when I was a kid.
A year ago today my SIL was due to have her first born, my sweet nephew Eli, who the circus children affectionately call “baby Ewi”. I can’t believe he turns one next week!! He’s in town this week eagerly awaiting the arrival of his daddy from Iraq for his R&R.
I am so thankful that I have a SIL who is willing to travel, b/c even though they live in El Paso, we’ve gotten to see them 4 times this past year!
Last week my mom came and spent the week with us. My parents live 5 hrs away from us and even though they do an awesome job of coming to visit for weekends, it always seems like the visit is over before it starts and I am often left wishing I had some more time to spend with them. Having mom here for a week was such a blessing. Not only did she do my laundry for me all week as well as cook our dinners and even do the dishes, but she also shared my days with me.
Each year the Blue Angels perform a show at the Naval Academy in celebration of commissioning week. Taking the kids to watch the show has become one of my favorite Annapolis traditions.
They fly so close you see the pilot!
Scott says I have to point the crazy small distance between the wings of the first plane and the cockpit of the next – They do corkscrew loops in that formation!
For the past 3 years the kids and I have gone to a local strawberry farm to pick our own berries. It is a tradition I cherish.
We are suburbanites. We don’t even really garden. But, I love for my children to get some real life farm experiences. I love for them to walk down the rows upon rows of plants.
This year my son really went to town.
Today I’d like to give a shout out to my maternal grandmother, whom I have lovingly called, “Mema” for as long as I can remember. I have this vivid picture in my mind of me in high school showing her and my Pap how to work our computer. I recall her being completely baffled by it and saying something to the effect of, “You’ll never catch me on that thing!” I remembered there being a picture of the event and when my parents were visiting last week I asked my mom if she knew where it was.
10 years ago we came…spread a blanket out on the sandy shore to watch the sunset. Today we came, with sandwiches and Doritos. This time there was a picnic table where we had spread our blanket. And we watched the sunset mirrored in the faces of our three children.
10 years ago it was quiet… we held hands and sat close on the blanket.
Tonight there was sand in our shoes and children squirming….
This weekend was full of family fun and excitement! Saturday morning the kids went to the neighborhood egg hunt with both sets of grandparents, while Scott and I went to a wedding reception.
The kids had a blast finding eggs and getting their faces painted.
(some enjoyed the face paint more than others)
That evening (after my son and I got back from a trip to the the after hours clinic where he was diagnosed with pneumonia), we gathered the grands again to dye Easter eggs with us!
On Friday night we took advantage of the aquarium’s last discount priced Friday night of the season and enjoyed some family fun.
We took 293 pictures during our 3 hours at the aquarium. From those we narrowed down 42 keepers.
And from those, I have the difficult task of dwindling down some for the blog.
The kids favorite part of the evening was the dolphin show.
The other day my son told me he wanted to make all of us breakfast the next morning. The only problem with this very sweet gesture was that it was the end of the month and we were at the “creative” stage of the month/meal plan.
Bread? No
Milk? No
Cereal? No
Not much available for a 5 yr old to fix, so I convinced him to wait till after I went grocery shopping on Monday.