Impromptu Trip to MD

May 2, 2012
Upon finding out we were expecting our 3rd, I decided I needed a quick trip to MD to share the news with a few and see my Gram :)
So the kids and I made it a long weekend and hit the road.  A good friend of mine from GA recently moved to VA and it happens that her house is located at a great midway point for us.  Since the kids and I were leaving directly from picking Madeline up from Preschool one day, I decided this would be a great opportunity to take Christine up on her offer to stop by her home on the way to MD.  We arrived at her house (after dinner with them at Moe's) with enough time to run off a bunch of built-up energy before baths and bed.  We had a great but very short visit!  So thankful for great friends!!

 The next morning we hit the road right away and arrived at my parents' house by lunch.  This craps me up every time, but one of the first things the kids did when we got there was to have an Easter egg hunt in the basement!

 Later that day we went next door to my Gram's house where a bunch of family was getting together for a little "Tea with Gram."  Here are our two kids playing with their cousin, Taylor, and my two cousin, Mary and Jesse:

 Madeline and Gram:

 Then back to Marmie and Pop's for some more fun and silliness:

 One of the things Ethan treasures the most during our visits is his little walks with Pop:

 The girls playing catch:

 My parents picked up this Ninjago spinning disk for Ethan and it was a huge hit the rest of our visit:

 One morning, Madeline and I went to see Gram again so Madeline could read her a little story:

 GRAM LOVED IT!

 Marmie got in on the Ninjago competitions too!

 One afternoon, we went over to Ryan (Doug's older bro) and Rhonda's to visit (Mommom, Poppy and Mary came down so we could see them too!).  The cousins:

 Mary teaching Madeline some hoop skills:

 Who's the mature one?

 These two, Madeline and Lily, have so much fun together.  Every time they get together they act like they see each other all the time and pick right up with each other:

 Too funny:

 Our last day, we sent a chunk of the day at my sister, Amy's house in Annapolis:

 Madeline just LOVES her little cousin, Jack:

 The boys worked hard on this:

 Ethan was so happy he got to hold Jack:

 I'm still not sure that my sister had seen this picture, so if you see her....don't mention it!!  heehee :)

 My mom and her 4 Grandbabies:

 Then I attempted a photo shoot of cousins, Ethan and Taylor (both 3):

 attempting a pound:

 Ethan blowing it up:

 attempting a hug:

 still trying a to get a good hug:

 and we settled for this:

 That night, while I loaded the car, Ethan laid out all his figures and wanted to surprise Pop with this scene:

Great visit!  Loved how much we got done and how many people we saw in such a short time!

Mother's Day Tea at Preschool

May 11, 2012
The Mother's Day Tea at Madeline's preschool fell on one of the few days my brother was in town to visit.  Joe snapped this picture of Madeline and I (all wrinkled, yes) before we went in to the tea, while Joe hung out with Ethan for a bit.

 Here is some of the art work they displayed:

 Self-portrait (I guessed hers on the first try!):

 Drawing of her Mommy (I guessed this one too, but it wasn't too hard to narrow it down to the "black haired" Moms:

 Weaving, one of Madeline's favorite things she did while attending:

 My place mat (with Madeline's less than half completed Alphabet book since she only attended the last 5 months of school):

 There's my picture again...

 Class photo :)

 They used the lilies Madeline picked from our garden for Teacher Appreciation Week to help decorate this table:

 Singing some songs to us (doesn't take long to spot our "little" girl!):

 This really gave me a good laugh:

 Me and my baby girl!!!

 Madeline and Madeline:

 Mommy and Mommy (taken by Madeline):

The tea was a really special event to attend!  It was hard not to get choked up over many parts of it!  I look forward to many more special Mother's Day celebrations with my babies!

First Greenjackets' Gamee

May 12, 2010
It so happened that for the 3 days my brother was in town to visit, our Church was attending an Augusta Greenjackets' game one evening.  We were excited to make our first visit (amazing, I know!  since we've lived here 4+ years and it's only 20 minutes away!) to see the team owned by Cal Ripken, Jr.

 PLAY BALL!

 There's my brother, Joe with Madeline and Ethan (Doug went to get me food since I never stop eating!) checking out the view from our section high above home plate:

 We all recieved the orange hats for coming with the Church group and the kids each recieved a pink one for being one of the first 500 to show up:

 Loving it:

 Doug took the kids down to get an autograph from the mascot:

 Had to splurge on some cotton candy!!  All part of the experience :)

 Madeline has become good friends with Maggie from our Church.  I'm really excited about this for many reasons, but the 3 main ones are: 1. they are very close in age (only a week apart); 2. they go to our church; and 3. her family home schools :)

Good times!!  We want to get season tickets eventually but we'll wait until the kids mature a little more and understand the game :)