Blooms

I know spring has been here for a few weeks now, but I'm just getting around to taking photos of the gorgeous blooms in our yard. We have tons of purple blooms and green and red leaves there now and they've really brightened up the area. Here are a few photos I took today:

1. Our grape vine...look! Grapes! 

 

2. Red Smoke Bush

 3. Red Japanese Maple

 4. Orange Blossoms

5. Purple Salvia

6. Purple Daisies

Happy Birthday, Chad!

Today is your birthday. Hooray! Maggie and I love you and hope you have a super great day.

Party-o-Rama

It's funny how the term party changes when you have a child. Sunday we celebrated the birthdays of three of Maggie's friends. All boys and all sweet kids. Happy first birthday to Liam, fourth birthday to Ethan, and second birthday to Caden. We hope you enjoyed your special days. Thanks for letting us celebrate with you. Here is a photo from one of the parties. Without identifying where or who the babies are, at least you can see how cute and festive the group was!

And a big thank you to Katrina for sending me this photo.

Smile

To view more images of smiling people, click below-

Rodeo

Saturday we went to the rodeo with my parents. It was a warm sunny day but we got great seats at the top of the stadium. Fortunately for us we were able to feel a cool breeze the whole afternoon which helped a lot since we were sitting in the sun. The rodeo consisted of various events such as barrel racing, team roping (not a fan), saddle bronc, tie-down roping, and of course, mutton-busting. We all enjoyed the day and ended it with spaghetti for dinner. Yum!

Below is a photo of the boy who won the mutton-busting trophy. He held on to that sheep like his life depended on it. Cute!

Hacked!

One of my email accounts was hacked early this morning. I've changed my passwords so hopefully we're OK at our house, but for any of you who might have received a strange link from me today, just delete it. It looks like some Danish hoodlums somehow got into my email account. I've hired an expert investigator to look into the matter. 

Happy Birthday to Me

 

 Yesterday was my 33 birthday. Instead of celebrating for one day, I celebrated for the entire weekend! We went to my parents, did a little shopping, opened presents, made banana splits, hot tubbed, ate at some excellent restaurants (The Vintage Press, anyone?), saw a movie and all-around had a good time in the beautiful spring weather. A great birthday for sure.

 

Big Hats

There's an annual event in town called Big Hat Days. It's a weekend-long festival in April and this was the first year we've been free to attend. With all three of us wearing hats, we strolled along the festival route, stopping and peaking at the goods for sale. We didn't buy a thing. There's wasn't anything that interested us...but it was fun to look and people watch.

The weird thing about Big Hat Days? Despite a huge turnout, we saw maybe three big hats when we were there. Even stranger? Only about 25% of the crowd wore hats at all. Party poopers.

Busy Busy

Today was a busy day. While my mom stayed home and watched Maggie, Chad and I went with my dad to the first Radio Tradio swap meet, a little north of where we live. The event was super fun! Each of us parted with a little money, filling my dad's big truck with junk, collectibles and interesting finds. We'll be going again next year so if there's anyone who wants to meet up with us, let me know.

After a bit of shopping we went straight to watch the Mayor's Cup coed softball tournament. Of course the CBS47 team had our full support, ending their run with a third place win. Woohoo! Then, after a nice afternoon nap, Chad, Maggie and I had dinner with  friends before finishing the day with the most recent episode of Life on the Discovery Channel. I have a feeling we'll sleep good tonight.

Happy (Belated) Easter

Despite the celebratory occasion, Easter Sunday was cold, windy and dreary here at our house. Maggie didn't wear her Easter dress and didn't even open her Easter baskets until later in the evening. Fortunately she didn't know any different and didn't complain. This year is the only one I imagine we'll be able to get away with doing so little for a biggie holiday and that's fine with me.

Maggie is nine months old (today!) and to honor that milestone, and to honor Easter and Spring, Chad, my mom and I had Maggie's photos taken at fancy JC Penney. They turned out cute and we should receive the final photos late next week. After the photo shoot we came home and took a few of our own. Maggie wasn't cooperative, but hey, she was good all day so we can't complain. The green basket is homemade from my grandma (aka GG) and it's her most special basket yet. Thanks again for Maggie's gifts, Grandma!

Get Ready Neighbors

Here's the garden we planted last weekend. I picked out three types of small heirloom tomatoes, a sweet pepper, zucchini, burp-less cucumbers and a crookneck squash. Not surprisingly the plants have already grown a noticeable amount. The bad news is that there's a storm due tomorrow night and we're experiencing lots of wind today. Let's hope these little guys are tough and make it through the next few days.

We are expecting lots of veggies so we can unload them on our neighbors. Hope you guys are ready!