New bike & baby pool

Some of the plants we planted last year are still surprising us with new beautiful blooms!

Last weekend, we got Drew his first real bike! Chad and Drew used some teamwork (and Cars 2 shirts) to put it together. It doesn't fit him perfectly yet, but I think he'll figure it out and grow into it. He was pretty excited!

The pedals are still a little awkward for him, but he was doing good!

Emma had a high fever last weekend, and then had a pretty bad cold and slight fever all this week...which can make for a really long week stuck at home for me and the kids! She has four molars coming in on top of being sick, so she hasn't been the happiest! Although, today she was feeling better, so we played outside some.

"You've got to be kidding! You call that swimming??"

SLASH TIME!!


Cannonball!!

Emma's babydoll takes baths with the kids and came swimming with us!

They are buddies...most of the time!

Lazy 5 Ranch

The Lake Norman Mommies forum has been such a wonderful thing for me and our family! We have met so many friends, learned so much about our community and things going on, and it has helped Huntersville feel like our true home. Because of that, I have taken on a position with the group as the K13 Planner. K13 stands for "kids going into kindergarten in 2013). My job (completely volunteer "job", by the way) is to plan several outings or events for the K13 members of the group each month. What's really awesome, is that a lot of these 3 year olds have 1 year old siblings - so even Emma meets friends! This morning we met at the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville. People can drive their cars through the ranch to see the animals, or you can take a wagon pulled by horses. We took the wagon, and I think that's got to be the best choice. It was AWESOME to see all these animals so up close and personal! Drew is afraid of most dogs, so I was really proud of how he worked through his fears and was feeding the animals by the end of the ride! Emma just kept barking and meowing the whole ride! haha The animals know that we have tons of food for them on the wagon, so they come right up and beg for it! And if your bucket is too close to the edge, they steal it (we lost one bucket b/c of this!). Emma wasn't too sure about it at first!

Here's all the animals behind us, picking up all the food we'd dropped and chasing us for more!

Drew's looking ahead to see what animals are next.


Feeding the animals. I wish I could remember what everything is. The guide told us about all the animals, and we'd stop and feed them and look at them.

And here's when Drew got more daring and started feeding this scary-looking beast! They told us to be careful not to get it in his nose, b/c he'd spew it back in your face! yuck!

And some of the animals were a little more aggressive - this one has his front hoofs on the wagon and is running on his back legs! They told us not to set the food near the back of the wagon b/c the animals would jump up there with us!

We didn't stop next to these animals!! HUGE horns!

Feeding the giraffe was pretty cool!

We are up in the wagon, standing on the bench to reach him! There was a baby giraffe with them that was born May1st, and it was already huge!

This was totally on their own...I had my camera out taking pictures of animals, and I'm so glad I caught this sweet moment!

Emma got more comfortable with these huge creatures being so close to us. I asked the guy about his fur - and he's shedding! Looks painful!

Here's a zebra walking by our horse-drawn wagon. We weren't allowed to feed them b/c of the angle of their teeth - they'd bite us.

Here's a llama following our wagon!

When our wagon ride was over and we were climbing out, Drew was one of the first ones climbing down with his bucket of feed, and several ostriches came over and started going nuts eating right out of the bucket! He didn't panic or anything, just kinda stood there - but I was thinking, "aren't ostriches MEAN??" I was trying to get to him, and then some of the workers came over and shewed them away real quick! Whew! Scared me to death!! Then we got to walk around another area with some other animals. Here's the kangaroos, who stared at us and then went hopping aound real fast, like they were performing.

Here's most of the crew!

Emma liked the rocks...This was too cute when the kids all grabbed each other's hands as we were leaving! Emma and Betsey (the two one-year-olds) and another 3 year old aren't in the picture. We had a group of 13, so it was a pretty successful trip! Such a unique thing - we'd never done anything like that before!

This is totally random, but Emma has been making bubbles with her slobber! She's been doing it for several weeks. At first, I thought she was just making a weird, annoying sound, but then I looked closer and saw her spit bubbles!! What a crazy little girl!! haha

Carowinds!

On Saturday of last weekend, Drew had his last soccer practice - and he got another trophy! He did really well with the 5 week session. You could see him improve and learn more each week - which is pretty cool at 3 years old! Then on Sunday, Father's Day, we took the kids to Carowinds with Chad's parents. Drew absolutely LOVED it! His favorite book to look at is Chad's rollercoaster book. And he makes everyone stop and watch anytime a Carowinds commercial comes on tv. I was very surprised that he had no fear or anxiety over the rides. We walked right up to the biggest coaster he could ride and he hopped on no problem - as our first ride of the day!! As soon as it stopped, he said, "let's go again!" Here's Drew and I on the other coaster (there were two little ones in the kids' area).

Emma was a little cranky when we first got there b/c she needed a nap! She wanted OFF this ride...until it started up, then she loved it! But then it stopped after we were done...and she wanted OFF again! haha

Here's Chad's parents watching Chad and Drew on the ride. Chad is wearing a red t-shirt - so you can kind of see them on the far left. They actually "won" as the ones that got their little plane the highest. So, they got to stay on and go for a second ride! This is when I was pushing Emma around in the stroller so she'd take a quick nap - then she was good to go for the rest of the day!

Here's the proud winners as they waited for the ride to start back up!

Drew liked ringing the loud bell on the boats - but it was hard to steer and ring the bell at the same time! Emma drove Daddy around with the old antique cars.



Drew thinks he's ready for the big rides!!

We ran into a couple of my friends while we were there, so the kids got to ride this one together.

We took a family shot as we were on our way out...worn out!

Summer FUN!

A couple weekends ago we had a cookout with our neighbors. Here's Emma and Anna playing in the pool.

And here's Leif and Drew - who kept running and doing cannonballs into the pool!

Last week, I took the kids to the Birkdale Fountains - and they loved it!



It took Emma awhile to actually touch the water. She kept running around it, and checking out everyone's snacks. But she got daring and got wet after awhile!

Here she is trying to figure out how to get the water in her bucket.

Pure excitement!

Last weekend Drew had soccer on Saturday morning. Chad volunteered to be one of the parent "tigers" where the kids chase them and try to get the red "tails." Here's Drew chasing him.

And here's Drew working on his dribbling.

This was by far his best practice - he was paying attention and doing really well the whole time - and he was breaking a sweat!

They have drink breaks several times - and he loves to use his Cars 2 waterbottle Aunt Judy sent him!

And they always finish up practice with every kid making a goal!

Then after soccer, we headed to Raleigh to celebrate Olivia's birthday! The kids (and Chad) had a blast climbing and jumping around at the party.

Here's Drew and Gracie (Olivia's BFF) jumping together. =)

This past week, Drew has been going to Vacation Bible School in the evenings. It is at the church that he will be going to preschool at next fall. He LOVED it! Tonight was the final performance, and the preschoolers did a few songs with singing and dancing! Drew (of course) was very serious, but he did really good following along. (he's in the front with the striped shirt.)

The video won't upload right now...I'll post it later! It's very cute! Drew's FIRST performance!

One night while Drew was at VBS and Chad was out of town working, Emma was being so silly, I had to pull out the camera! She used to use sign language to say "more" and "all done." But all of a sudden she started nodding her head! It was really cute, and of course she wouldn't do it as dramatically as she was before I got the camera out!




Her favorite song is "Old McDonald had a farm." If you sing the song with her, she'll say the "EIEIO" at the appropriate time!! haha

She knows A LOT of words and phrases...just can't say them yet! If I tell her to do something ("go get your milk." "Get your shoes and sit down so I can put them on.") - she totally understands and does it! She might be a little smarty pants like her brother, but just hasn't been as vocal as he was. But here she is being silly...and her dress was REALLY messy...so that's why she's half dressed!

Summer is here!

...here's pictures from a couple weeks ago...

When you live in the ONLY neighborhood in the area that doesn't have a pool...you have to make do! We've had so many days in the 90s already - so we pulled out the blow up pool for the kids! Here's Chad and the kids. I love Emma's face! And look at Chad and Drew's eyes/eyebrows...identical!

Me and the kids...before the pool had warmed up!


The Ladybug bikini!

Popsicle break!! Both kids LOVE popsicles!

They are so silly! Chad calls Emma's little dresses and rompers her "Cindy Brady dresses."

She left these glasses on the whole time we were hanging out! Hopefully she'll wear them when we go to the beach.

Emma loves the chair that Drew got for Christmas. She figured out quickly how to climb in and sit in it. Well, just recently, she also learned how to stand up and jump in it! yes, I usually tell her "no" and end up folding it up and hiding it...but I had to get a picture of the naughty little thing. She's always looking at me, smiling, while she does it!

The other day I was doing some work on the computer, and it seemed really quiet, so I peaked around the corner and this is what I saw! So sweet! They had all the books pulled out and were reading together!

It has been one year today since my grandma passed away. Here are the daisies from her house growing strong in our yard!

I absolutely LOVE how Emma is attached to the blanket my grandma made just for her. She sleeps with it every night and at naptime, and will drag it around if we let it escape her crib. "Emma" is the girl's name that my grandma told me she liked, and I loved the name. I like to think that Emma has a special connection to my grandma, and I know she's watching over her. Love you, Grandma!