toddler Olympics

In May our moms group hosted an annual open house and this year we organized it with toddler Olympics. A non-competitive, fun obstacle course was set up at a local park and the kids each got little gold medals for participating. We had snacks for everyone, along with face painting, crafts and a bounce house. Perfect weather to spend the day with friends at the park.

Competition

Earlier in the month I submitted three photos to the monthly competition in my camera club. These were my first competition shots and it was an interesting process. Being anonymously critiqued in front of a group of (mostly) strangers by a judge I didn't know is a strange experience, but also a really great way to learn. I did OK. Not outstanding by any means, but not a complete failure either. As Chad said, it was a decent first attempt. My scores are listed on each photo and the number I earned is out of 10, in case you care to know how I did.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was pleasant and relaxing this year. We went out to eat, took a nap and spent a nice day together as a family. Maggie and Chad bought me a new camera lens that I've been dying for (but never thought I'd get!). I know I'm going to have a ball playing around with it. (FYI - I didn't use the lens here, but you'll see it in future noted posts.)

celebrating with friends

Maggie's little bud turned three in April and we got to help him celebrate. As usual his mom decorated like a pro and the kids all seemed to have a great time. Click here to see a photo of these same 2009 kids from two years ago.

Summer garden

In late spring we finally got around to planting our summer garden. I wasn't sure if it was going to be too late, but it turns out we were fine. Maggie helped Chad and they planted four varieties of tomato, Japanese cucumber, zucchini, basil, radishes (from a mom's group day) and watermelon (seedlings from our friends--thank you!).

sugar snap peas

This winter we grew sugar snap peas and man, they were prolific. We had more peas than we knew what to do with, but fortunately all three of us loved munching on them straight from the garden. Even Mags would go back there to see what she could reach and snack on. Definitely something we're going to plant again next winter.

Father's Day

For the next month or so my posts are going to be out of order. Because I was so far behind in getting organized I'm going to have some posts that are somewhat timely and others that aren't.

We had a great father's day this year with Chad. It started out by me making eggs for breakfast. I know. I miracle. After breakfast we changed into our swimsuits and took off for Wild Water Adventures, one of our local water parks. We spent a few warm hours there playing in the water and eating lunch before coming home for a nap. Well, Chad got a nap. He played hard with Maggie in the water and sun so it was totally deserved. That evening we had dinner at one of our favorite steakhouses (way too hot to BBQ at home) and settled in for the night.

I hope Chad had as good of a Father's Day as Maggie and I did. She has a super great dad and we had lots of fun with him celebrating.

And a belated happy Father's Day to my dad, who I didn't get to see on Father's Day. Fortunately we got to spend the previous weekend with him and will be with him next weekend too! 

Happy birthday, Chad (a bit late...)

We spent the morning of Chad's birthday at one of Maggie's friend's third birthday party. While not the first thing that came to mind as a fun way for Chad to spend his big day, he had a great attitude and we all enjoyed the morning. That evening for dinner we went out to celebrate and Mags and I helped him eat his birthday dessert.

Elmo

In late April Chad got tickets to take Maggie to see Elmo's music/dancing show at the Save Mart Center. She loved it and screamed when she saw each of the characters. Her favorites were Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Abby & Elmo, but really, she loves them all. We didn't buy her one of these $10 balloons, but we did take her picture with them. Ha!

Weekend Visitors

Today I finally started to get overwhelmed by how behind I am on blogging. The pressure finally gave in and I'm back.  So we left off in April...

We had our friends from the D.C. area out for my birthday weekend. We ate lots of food, snacked on yummy home-delivered ice cream, took a drive in the foothills, watched some MMA fight at our neighbors' house, visited the Forestiere Underground Gardens (go if you're a local and haven't been) and hung out. It's always nice to see them and we really appreciate the effort they make to come out here to see us.