Bloom Where You're Planted

The geraniums that I planted on Mothers Day weekend have started to bloom! They serve as a great welcoming committee as you walk up our front steps :)

Again, if you knew my track record with plants and keeping them alive, you would know that this is no small feat!

Our magnolia trees have started blooming, too.

I was distracted from my flowers by this striking early morning sky.

Our petunias are thriving in their new home.

As are the begonias. Quite miraculous.

So far the only gardening casualty has been my rose bush. I got this beautiful bright pink knock-out rose bush for Mothers Day last year. This year it was bigger and better. There were pretty pink roses all over it. Then one day my wonderful kiddos thought that they would surprise me by pulling each rose from the bush petal by petal and spreading the petals all over the deck. They really thought I would love it. I did not, but their intentions were good, and it was just a bush. Poor flowerless rose bush!
The weather here today was absolutely gorgeous! We did a lot of this.
and fired up this.
I recently freshened up the deck seating with some fun and crazy fabrics.

It was a great night for dinner on the deck.
After dinner we had an impromptu dance party. We were listening to a late 80's satellite radio station. C said "Take a picture of me getting funky!"Love those summer nights!

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

Saturday our little running group headed north to the Portland Strawberry Stride 5K. The weather was perfect, the scenery was beautiful, and the strawberries at the finish line were scrumptious! That makes 5 races in 5 months for our little group!
Then Saturday afternoon I snapped some pics at C's game. His team is doing great this year! He really has some sweet boys on his team.

Here they are warming up before the game.

Team huddle...

Go Sounds!

Hey batter batter...

C may not be the best, but he sure looks cute doing it ;)

Daddy, Keep Your Eyes Closed

"Daddy, keep your eyes closed", AP yelled from her room as we added mommy's pearls and finishing touches.

She was ready for her first daddy/daughter dance.


She wanted to be completely ready before her daddy saw her.
"I know what he'll say when he sees me", she said.
"He'll say I'm the most beautiful girl he's ever seen."

And he did. And she is.

i really shouldn't think it is cute....

but for some reason,

seeing a puppycarry something bigger than he is

makes me smile ;)

Craftin' and Cleanin' on a Rainy Saturday

Our baseball game was rained out today, so we found ourselves with time to tackle a few things on our to do lists.

I spent a good 4 hours deep cleaning in C's room. It was actually more toy purging than anything else.
We finally got his game ball display case hung. This is every game ball since his first season.

Now he could actually get to his bookshelf and read one if he felt so inclined ;)

C saw this little wall hanging when we were at HobLob the other day. He said he really liked it and wanted to hang it on his door :) I couldn't resist.

By the end of the day this was our Goodwill pile. We also had 2 piles of stuff to pass on to two friends and 3 big trash bags full of trash!
I also found time to embroider a few gifts. I made these burp cloths for a sweet teacher that works with me.
And these towel sets are for twin daughters of a coworker who are graduating from high school this week and heading to UT. Go Vols! :)

Now if I could just mark end-of-the-year teacher gifts off my list I would feel like I was almost caught up!

Pure Sweetness

Mothers Day Weekend

It has been a great Mother's Day Weekend! The only thing that would have made it a little better would be my own mom not being 2 states away!

AP and I decided to go get mother/daughter pedicures Saturday after C's game (which was an awesome game by the way, but I didn't have my camera!). The ladies working in the nail salon could not understand why I was allowing AP to get a pedicure. They insisted several times that I wanted her to have "polish only". But, we had a gift card and both wanted the full treatment. One lady working there told me that AP was too young. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were discussing us in another language, but that's ok ;) AP finally got to get up in the big seat next to me, soak her little feet, and pamper her toes! I wish I had had my camera. I did snap a pic of the cute pink piggies when we got home.

That afternoon AP and I got all dressed up and went to a Mother/Daughter tea party at church.We sat with baby E, which AP loved! But it obviously wasn't entertaining enough because after we had refreshments AP fell asleep in my lap and stayed that way for the rest of the party!

After the tea party and AP's power nap we went to a friend's house for a cookout and campfire. The weather ended up being perfect after having a few rain showers earlier in the day.C was taking marshmallow roasting lessons from his friend :)

Then this morning I woke up to these two blessings who made me a momma!

I also got the scarlet begonias that I wanted on the back deck.

Happy Mother's Day!