Flowers, Fish, Fun!

I always love visiting Grapevine's Botanical Gardens. It's just the right size for Evie to explore, and there is a play ground next to it! Judd stayed home and removed all of the poison ivy behind our house. He thought he was resistant to it, but a few days later we learned that he was wrong!

Judd and Dad went fishing. The next day they caught a catfish.

Evie has had just plain fun...

Painting with food coloring added to condensed milk. It dries shiny and sticky.

Dressing up...

Swimming with friends...

Eating good food...

Dancing to the fairy movie, "Meet the Fairies"

Summer Garden

We are finally starting to see a decent harvest from our garden! After a hail storm and a fungus, I wasn't sure how it was going to make it. My friend told me to pour worm wine all over everything, and it worked! Any time my plants look sick, I will pour the magic worm concoction all over them! Right now we have LOTS of eggplants, two peppers, and cherry tomatoes. Plenty of herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and parsley) are growing strong. I just put in okra seeds that have sprouted into seedlings. The carrots and onions are growing, but are not looking like they will produce much. The radish leaves are huge, but they did not end up developing a radish bulb under the soil.

Evie has a lot of fun checking the plants with me and watching the flowers bloom. She helps pick the cherry tomatoes and loves counting how many purple eggplants we have. She's quite a helper. 

Fairy Tale Eggplant

 It's ready to harvest. Full size is about 4 to 5 inches.

 She loves them because they are purple.

I wish she loved eating them!

So far we have made parmesan breaded eggplant. Yum!

 cherry tomatoes- She likes counting these too. Not eating them though.

I had to take a pretty shot before chopping these up for dinner!

eggplant, basil, and oregano!

What We've Been Up to Lately

I have not blogged in a while, so here is a post of all things from the past six weeks or so!

 We had tennis ball size hail during a terrible thunder storm. My neighbor collected these from the yard. I was at school during the storm. It was the first time in my six years of teaching in Texas that I actually ducked and covered with my students during a tornado drill! Nothing every really hit our school except for rain. Evie was at daycare. They had all the children in the cafeteria! When I arrived home about 1 1/2 hours after the storm, our yard was littered with marble size hail that was melting. Our backyard patio table's glass shattered all over the place! For the next month after, our neighborhood was swarmed by roofers knocking on doors every evening. We should be getting our new roof soon!

 We supported our friend dear friend, Brandon, in his fight against a brain tumor.We walked in the second annual "Head for the Cure" 5K in Plano. Brandon's team had about 100 participants! Brandon ran the 5K! AWESOME. One of my students was there too, supporting her mom's fiance.

School ended! We held our annual Talent Show. Teachers always show off their talent at the finale. This year, we were synchronized swimmers performing a routine to "California Girls."

 Evie drew a Mother's Day picture for me. She said it was a picture of worms and ants.

My parents, Grammy and Papa, sold their house of almost 30 years and moved to Texas!

We said good bye to Clare as she and her husband were loading their moving van getting ready to leave for Ohio. Clare was a such a huge help to me when Evie was an infant. We will be forever thankful for all Clare did for us! She will be missed!

They Made It!

For several years since Evie was born I have missed my parents more than I could have ever imagined! Something about having your own child makes you wake up realize how much your parents sacrificed for you. It makes you realize, wow, parenting is really fun but also very challenging, especially without grandparents nearby. In time my parents started to really miss us (Evie) and dream about moving to Texas. None of us knew how this dream would happen. We just prayed about it, A LOT, and waited patiently. My dad had an idea, that if his company ever laid him off, that would be the perfect opportunity to make the move. Well, in January, that happened. In February the house went up for sale, and in May they handed over their keys to a young couple just starting off. It was bittersweet thinking about them leaving their home of 28 years, where they started off with a 1 year old and 3 year old. Yet, it is so exciting to see them start a new chapter in Texas with a 3 year old grand daughter.

As my dad walked out of closing, he received a call to schedule an interview for a job in Dallas. Um, this is a God thing. How could all of this just "fall into place?" Also, my parents have just arrived here after Judd and I experienced a very stressful couple of weeks. Not a coincidence.

With all that being said, my parents are settled into our guest bedroom temporarily. The garage has been rearranged and now holds TWO cars. We have boxes here and there in the house. It's great! I know my parents don't exactly know what is ahead of them, but they have really modeled the saying of, "Let your faith be bigger than your fear." They have really taken a giant leap of faith! I'm thankful for their courage!

Muffins with Mom

What a great way to start my morning! How I love being a mom! Evie has taught me so much about love, compassion, and selflessness!

Love her to pieces!!!!!!!

Easter Sunday

Grammy and Papa drove all the way from Florida to come visit us for a week. We really enjoyed our time together going from one egg hunt to another. Sunday, we went to church and ate Easter dinner later that evening.

The Easter Bunny left a trail of eggs going up the stairs that led to the game room, where Evie's Easter basket waited for her!

chapstick from her Easter basket

a Bible just for girls

Grammy and Evie

Cinderella, Evie, and a peanut butter egg

When I went Easter dress shopping with Evie, she picked out this dress.

I couldn't get enough pictures!

Evie and Cinderella

this dress is fun!



Egg Hunts

Grammy, Papa, and I took Evie to the egg hunt at her school. It was so cute watching the kids line up and then make a mad dash for the ggs. Each time she picked up an egg she yelled, "There's candy in it!" Once she figured that out, she was Speedy Gonzales!

ready to go outside

waiting patiently for their teacher to say "Go!"

I got one!

checking out their loot

On Saturday we took Evie to the church's egg hunt.