A Weekend with Nanny: Part 2- Fun in the Sun

I am finally getting around to blogging about the second part of our whirlwind trip to Nanny's last month!

After our morning at the Burgaw Spring Fest & adventures picking berries, we headed back to Nanny's for some fun in the sun! The boys got to swim for a bit while Nanny cooked my favorite meal- Lasagna! Yummers!

Isn't Jackson just a vision in this snorkel mask he insisted he needed??
And big news here: Eli can touch the bottom this year! Whoop! He felt like King of the Hill, for sure! (granted the water level was low & we needed to fill it up some, but we left it be to keep him happy! )
Someone else just hung out & tried NOT to get wet....

After dinner, I really wanted to head to the beach for a little while. The boys had gotten micro kites from the Easter bunny & they were eager to try them out. What better place than the beach!? So we headed down there for some more fun before the sun went down.

Jackson with his kite up in the air (to the left...it is tiny!)


smiles....

I hate that I didn't get both kites in this frame! Sigh... it would have been a great shot!
I did get them both in this one, though! :)

We took a little time to play in the water & sand too before heading back home.


While the boys played for a few minutes... Nanny managed to keep one of the kites flying for us! She is a pro at kit flying! Who knew!? (look closely to see the kite...it looks like a little dot because she had it so far up in the sky!)
It may have been a lot to cram into a day, but we had the best time with you Nanny! We hope we can do it again soon! Love & miss you!

(Typical Jackson silliness these days......)

A Weekend with Nanny: Part 1- Burgaw & Berries

This past weekend we had one of those marathon weekends where we went to visit Nanny & had so much we wanted to cram into less than 48 hours. We got in late on Friday night because there was a traffic jam on I40. So all that we were able to fit into that evening was dinner (at Jackson's Barbeque though- so SCORE!), a quick errand, & then a pit stop at Kohl's for a bathing suit for Jackson.

We also knew we were going to have to leave early on Sunday in time to be back home for Emma's piano recital. So we laid out all we wanted to do & found a way to put it all in on Saturday.

Here is our Marathon Day:
First stop of the morning: The Spring Fest in good 'ole Burgaw, NC!

We met up with Peto there first thing in the morning. This was so sweet how Jackson just took off & ran to give her a hug when he saw her.

We had two purposes for hitting the Spring Fest. 1) Uncle Jeff had a woodworking booth set up there.....

Nanny actually ended up winning the drawing for a pine chest! Go Nanny!

and the second reason for going to the Spring Fest was because Hannah & Abby were clogging out there. We always like to watch clogging. Fun!

After leaving Spring Fest, we headed back towards Nanny's to the strawberry patch. We hadn't had a chance to pick strawberries this season so we made sure to do it while we were with Nanny because she lives just a few miles from one. Eli especially had been eager to pick strawberries so he asked non stop until we arrived!

After picking strawberries, we had a decently long wait for someone to unlock my mom's truck. We accidentally locked her keys (& both our cell phones) inside just before picking berries. Fortunately, they also serve fresh ice cream at this Strawberry Farm, so we made the best of the time :)

Nanny kept good spirits despite the locked keys!!

After we got back home, the kids played in the pool for a bit while Nanny got dinner ready & baked (Lasagna- my favorite!!). Then off to the beach we went for some kite flying before dark! Since this is a marathon post, I will save those two adventures for another post! Up, Next! I promise!!

Hooah! Kid Style!

Uncle Todd went out of town for the Army for 3 weeks & when he happened to get home- we were over to Aunt Becca's house for dinner. He dropped his bags, ate dinner with us all & then after dinner began to tend to the bags. Well... We looked over & we saw this:

He looked really cute & was super excited that Uncle Todd let him play with his gear. Although like my mom said, "Yeah, it's all cute now, but wait til he turns 18 & it won't be so cute." True. Very True & I have to say it kind of turned my stomach at the thought. I sometimes wonder about our young newly enlisted military. I wonder what it is that makes them join. What calling they have in them to say they know at such a young age that they are willing to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of this country. I think often about their families they are leaving behind & how it must be so painful for those parents to watch their boys go off to war. I know it's a cop out- but I can't let myself think about it too much. Especially since I have boys. And I know most boys on some level are drawn to the idea of guns, tankers, convoy, & all that gear that they see... So instead I will get back to the "cute for now" pictures!

The rest of the kids wanted to join in the fun, so Todd took them all upstairs & fitted them all in different gear! They thought this was so funny!

There never was a cute head of curls coming out from behind Soyars' hat!
Who is that hiding behind that mask??
And I don't think soldiers are allowed to be so sweet...Everyone lined all up....
And i love how Jackson's bag is about 4 times as wide as him!
Another cute head of hair behind an army hat...Thanks Uncle Todd for letting the kids have a little fun with your gear! And thanks for all you to do for our country!

Quilt 2: A baseball Quilt for Jackson

After saying it would be a long while before I ventured into making another quilt, I have done it again! I bought the fabric for what I envisioned as a strip quilt- made up of rows & rows of alternating fabric. However, like the amateur that I am, I didn't get the amount of fabric that I needed initially, which meant that if I continued with the rows then I would have weird seam lines in the center where I was going to have to sew long strips together to fit across the width of the quilt. That looked terrible with solid fabric, so I nixed the idea all together.

I went through 3 other variations in my head & cutting the fabric yet again into smaller rectangles before just tossing the fabric aside in frustration. The fabric set there in neat little piles in my craft room for about a month (or more, really!). I came across this tutorial of sorts on a Monday night & decided that I could do this! I got my fabric together in a bag & headed over to my friend, Theresa's house. I knew she would be able to help me decide how to cut the fabric one LAST time so I could lay this thing out. It was amazing! In about half an hour, she had helped me decide how to cut the pieces I had, laid the thing out in her floor & then stacked the rows so it was ready for sewing when I got home! Whew! Isn't she amazing? I think sometimes I just need some moral support, but she helps on that end as well as just gets in there & helps me when I need it!

That night I peiced together the entire top! I spent the next night after that peicing the back & basting it all together. Then Thursday & Friday I quilted the top. I decided to only quilt across each row in the ditch rather than a bazillion times in rows across like the tutorial. I did this for many reasons, but one was that I couldn't see how to sew a straight line without the seams as my guide (with all that fabric up there, you can't tell what's up & what's down!) And also the time factor. It would have taken me about another week just to quilt the top with all those rows. I do think I would like the quilt better if I had done that, but it is very soft & more like a comforter & less like an official quilt this way. Since it was going on his bed & he liked how it felt, I figured it was fine!

Here is the finished project!

the back...

Mother's Day with Nanny (A week late!)

Well, Mother's Day was celebrated for 2 weekends around here! It was kind of nice, actually!

My mom, aka Nanny, was out of town over Mother's Day weekend so she came up for the weekend following. It was nice to just hang out & visit for a couple of days. I took some pictures while she was here of course & managed to get a few cute ones on Rebecca's front porch swing with the kids!

More Bubble Fun

Are you ever too old for bubbles? I don't think so! One afternoon, the boys went out back with the bubbles & I followed- camera in tow! Here are a few favorites from the fun....

Look closely... you might just see the photographer in there somewhere! (you can click on the photo to see larger size image!)
Jackson called this one his "snowman"... It took me a minute to see it, but it does look like a snowman floating sideways!
Another shot where I was playing around with my focus. I was trying to focus on the bubble, rather than Jackson & what ended up happening was getting him through a focused bubble! Fun!
And here is Eli making one of his favorite types of bubbles: He calls these "Mickey Mouse" of course!!
...Kinda makes me want to visit Mickey Mouse... just sayin'!