Day trip

There are so many reasons to love living in Richmond. One of them is that we are close enough to Washington, D.C., to take some fun day trips. With John's parents visiting this week, we headed to DC for the day yesterday and explored a little of our nation's capitol. We took in the views from the Old Post Office tower and explored the exhibits at the American History Museum and the Natural History Museum. We also learned a valuable lesson on this trip:  try not to plan a trip to DC shortly before school lets out because every middle/high school class in the surrounding area will also be visiting. We will keep that in mind for our next visit and plan accordingly!

 

 

An Early Morning Dialogue

4:10am. I have already been laying awake for a while, so I'm the first out of bed when I hear Brennan start making crying noises (fake crying when he wants attention). I head in to his room to figure out what's going on.

Me:  "What's up, bud?"
Brennan:  "There's something in here."
Me:  "What? What's in here?"
Brennan:  "There's something in here."
Me:  "What's in here?"
Brennan points to his floor lamp, which has been in his room from the very beginning:  "There's a lamp in here."
Me:  "What?!?! Go back to sleep."

Some kids dream up monsters in the closet. Brennan takes issue with a floor lamp. Things that make you go "hmmm".

The Real Deal

Owen is fascinated by the computer. So much so that we got him a toy laptop for Christmas. But...he prefers the real deal. His latest thing is now to climb in the chair, move the mouse around, and type on the keyboard. Sigh. It's hard to get irritated with him when he's this cute!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! I am definitely enjoying all that this day has brought so far (breakfast in bed!) and all that is still to come (grilling dinner and Sweet Frog frozen yogurt--yum!). Definitely treasuring the three precious gifts God has blessed me with:  Brennan and Owen here on earth, sweet baby Ella waiting in heaven but always in my heart. What a gift to be a mama to these!

 

 Wearing our matching shirts to support our team--thanks Grandma and Grandpa P. for the fun gift!

Alternative Uses

Sometimes, when I place a huge order for diapers from Amazon, they arrive in a gigantic box. The box then lends itself to all manner of creativity. For Owen, it became a place to chill out and look at new library books. For Brennan, it became an elevator and a house. For both of them, it was a wonderful object to push all around the house. Hmmm...maybe we could get rid of all their toys and just have a selection of boxes for them to play with!

Golden Afternoon

Spring in Virginia doesn't really get any better than what we've been having lately:  mid- to upper-70s, clear blue sky, gentle breezes. Perfect days for playing outside! Little boys get big spaces to get some big energy out. This mama gets to delight in all the laughter and squeals that ensue from all the activity.

 

 

Season Finale

When we committed to our church, Third at Pump Road, last October, one of the big draws for us was our Missional Fellowship. This small group (which was actually quite large!) was a tremendous blessing to us. We had two semesters worth of great curriculum and loved, loved, loved the fellowship that came with it. This was a group that we did life with. We are so very grateful for our Missional Fellowship! We had a cook-out yesterday to wrap up our time together before taking the summer off. With the size of our group what it is, we are going to be splitting into two separate groups next fall. We had one last hurrah with the entire group (minus two people) before the group becomes two. What a blessing this group has been to us over these last months!

Berries

It's that time of year again. Strawberry season! We love our annual tradition of picking strawberries, something we've been doing since Brennan was a year old. It's been great fun to establish some fun traditions as a family, and this is definitely one of our favorites!

 

Brennan loved helping pick, but Owen preferred to march up and down the rows.

Because sometimes it's just plain fun...

 ...to wear a strainer on your head! These photos are from a couple weeks ago, but to cute to resist posting any longer. Owen even tries at every chance to get the strainer out of the kitchen cupboard and walks around with it saying "hat, hat".