Father's Day 2014

"Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad." -Anne Geddes

Father's Day this year was extra-awesome due to the fact that David's parents came to visit for Father's Day weekend!  I always dreamed of a Father's Day or Mother's Day where we could get both sides of the family together for a celebration, and this year, I got my wish!

Joseph spent a lot of the weekend having his Poppy read to him.  He found his narration to be hilarious!!!

He also spent some time just relaxing.  Hey Jojo, it's Father's Day!  The relaxation is for the dads!

We got to watch all the dads open their presents.  Here is David, opening his gifts and reading his cards...

 That Saturday evening, we all went to my grandmother's house for a cookout.  What a special memory for Joseph - to be able to celebrate his Daddy and both grandfathers and have everyone together.  So fun!  The cookout was David/Joseph/myself, David's parents, my parents, and my grandmother.  We grilled hot dogs and I made a blackberry cobbler at the request of the 3 dads.  We had a great time, and everyone got to take turns swinging Joseph in his swing that hangs in my grandmother's carport.

Happy boy on his swing

Mama, Jojo, and Papaw

Poppy, Jojo, and Dada

Sadly, David's parents have to leave to go back home early that Sunday afternoon, but we are grateful for such a good visit!  We cannot wait to go see them later this summer.  That Sunday evening, we took Joseph back over to my grandmother's house for some water play on her patio and some coconut milk ice cream (hey, dairy-intolerant doesn't equal miserable!).  He had a ball!

So thankful for the example that Joseph has in these three men.  They are all wonderful, caring, devoted fathers and husbands.  So grateful for them!

Spring Happenings

"Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'" -Robin Williams

I am so overdue on blogging and we have done so much this spring that I won't go into great detail on anything.  My plan for this post is more to give you a series of photos of our spring happenings, starting with Easter.  Enjoy, and hopefully my blog writings will be a little more substantive next time! :-)  So, this spring...

We celebrated Easter by dying Easter eggs...

Watching Joseph discover his Easter basket...

 And having lunch and an egg hunt at my grandmother's house after church on Easter Sunday...

I turned 33 (Y-I-K-E-S) and my sweet husband had this beautiful cookie cake made for me!

We went to Chapel Hill for a random visit...

Joseph peruses Polk Place...

While Daddy hangs out on the steps of South Building

Not in the best mood for our Old Well picture but...

Quite happy and calm for a pic at the Old East cornerstone with Daddy

And then rode out to Fearrington Village so Joseph could see the belted cows and goats...

Hard to tell, but these far-away animals are belted goats

And under the tree are belted cows

Silo shot!

Joseph and I went out to Colfax one Thursday morning for play group at our friend Marsha's house...fun in the country!

Joseph helps mow the driveway

So thankful for this group of fellow stay at home mommies

Joseph and his Daddy got some good fishing time in at the lake in our neighborhood (Lake Hamilton)...

Supervising.

I took Joseph to the Farmer's Market to get some fresh produce, but it was hot and he was not impressed...

He did, however, help me coordinate our neighborhood food drive by inspecting the collection containers...

He wore his best construction shirt for our friend Jaxon's construction-themed birthday party...

And we had a play group trip on another Thursday morning to the Natural Science Center...

Checking things out

Teething + stroller + "I don't wanna explore today" =  bad.  LOL

Just chillin' while watching the fish in the Sciquarium

My super-smart MBA student husband was inducted into Sigma Beta Delta, a business honor society.  Joseph and I are soooooooooooo proud of him for keeping a 4.0 average so far!!!

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went to pick strawberries at an organic strawberry farm in Browns Summit (not too far from David's old house in Gibsonville!)

A little concerned about how to take this harvest

A better vantage point from which to plan

We saw our sweet friend Audrey there!

Organic farms = safer produce but more overgrown fields :-)

Joseph ended up, due to his separation anxiety, joining us in the middle of church service some Sundays when we got paged by the nursery...

A little snack and drink in the church lobby with us made things all better.  Sometimes a kid just has to be with their mommy and daddy!

And basically, my kid just continued being the cutest kid ever :-)

So there you have that, a run down of our spring!  Looking forward to what summer will bring!