Sunday Snapshot

I'm linking up (a little late) with Ni Hao Yall's Sunday Snapshot today.
I decided to choose my favorite recent photo (which surprisingly doesn't include Noah!). It's of the tulips in our garden. They make me happy. :) I actually asked my husband which one I should enter in, and this was the first one that came to his mind too. So there ya have it.

Details:
Nikon D3000
50mm 1.8 lens
f/2
ISO 400
(and I don't remember what the shutter speed was set at)

The Weekend

You're going to have to be patient with me in this post.
My brain is kind of a pile of mush at the moment, so all them big learnin' words are escapin' me.
Instead, I think I'll just narrate in pictures.

Friday.
Our girls' Bible study group celebrated my little sister's birthday. The girls actually got there way before I did (I was still waiting on the husband to get home from work). My mom got Madison out of the house, while the girls sneaked in and decorated the rec room upstairs. Once they heard my mom pull in the driveway, they all hid. As they walked in the house, my mom asked my sister if she had shut the rec room door. She answered no. Then my mom asked, "Who shut the blinds up here?? Madison, will you go open them?" My sister refused to go up. She could hear rustling up there and thought someone had broken in. She made my parents go up first. Ha! Needless to say, she was pretty shocked (and relieved) that her friends went to all that trouble to throw her a surprise party. :)
We held off on doing a lesson that night and just had a good time. Cupcakes, pizza, Cheetos... enough to make me feel queasy thinking about it. But it was a lot of fun. The party continues after I left, but I did hear they decided to at least stop and pray for people before the night ended.

Playing balloon volleyball...

(those are streamers they turned into headbands)

St Patty's Day.

We didn't do any parades. But we did make some green cupcakes!

Thanks to my friend Meagan for the idea. :)

Everything in between.

We kept things pretty simple this weekend. Brad cut the grass, I weeded our veggie garden (less than a month before it's officially safe to plant!), and Noah did a whole lot of this...

 

 

 (we're serious about our sandbox work around here...)

 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

 

Sunday Snapshot: Nature Walk

Yesterday, Noah and I kind of had our own little mommy-son date.
The weather was just too nice to stay indoors. And with a sky like this? Who could blame us.

What? They said no texting while driving.

Nobody said anything about taking pictures while driving.

Our day started with checking out a consignment store for some fall clothes for Noah (found a brand new gray knit sweater with the tags still on it for $6. score!). Afterwards, we headed for one of his favorite parks.

It has a great little nature trail (check another box off of my Fall bucket list!).

It's nestled right on the lake, with a perfect (non-crowded) playground.

The weather was nice and chilly, perfect for running around and getting some good Fall-like pictures.

Oh. I should probably mention that I originally intended to do a couple of collages, just to save space (and scrolling). But none of the collages did the pictures any justice. So yeah. Sorry. Scroll away.

Noah still loves dirt.

Obviously.

Lately, though, he's been leaning towards rocks stuck in between cracks in the pavement.

Totally cracks me up how the sun turns my kid into a redhead.

(I purposely included the discarded sippy cup. it makes me happy)

They have several piers to walk down, and Noah looooved it.

Some crazy guy was out jet skiing (in 65 degree weather) and Noah thought that was pretty cool.

Fyi... the sun was super bright. It makes me want to grab my sunglasses looking at these.

Oh well. You work with what ya got, right?

Then we hit the playground.

Just in the last couple of weeks, Noah has decided he really loves to swing.

Even though he's not smiling in this one, I love it.

I can still see a hint of baby left in him.

Why does it have to go by so fast?

Hope you're enjoying your Sunday!

***



Reunion

I love reunions.
Even if I wasn't really involved in a particular group, reunions are still always fun for me. Maybe I'm just weird, but I really enjoy them. I like hearing the conversations; people picking up right where they left off... 10 years ago.

Brad had several friends come into town around the same time this past week. People he hung out with in high school. A few of them had mentioned the idea of a reunion of sorts, but they weren't sure where to have it. So we offered up our home. It's not too hard to find, and it seemed to be within a reasonable driving distance for most (sorry, Maureen...).

(disclaimer: the lighting in our house at night is horrific for quality picture taking. I did my best. thinking it's time to invest in better bulbs/lamps)

(the only pic of me from the entire night... this is what happens when people use a flash on me. And no, my shirt was not that revealing. I had on a white tank underneath. time to splurge on some self-tanner, ya think?...)

It was incredibly entertaining for me. Several of his friends I've grown somewhat close to over the years. I seem to have my own (very different) memories with these people, even though I wasn't really a part of "the group". Guy friends that we hung out with or met up with at prom. A couple of ex-girlfriends who I'm now friends with. I played a minor role when it comes to the stories with these people, but I still have memories, which is nice. It's like saying you were there when they tore down the Berlin Wall; you just weren't the one with a sledge hammer. We've all grown some, but not too much. Just older versions of ourselves, complete with marriages, kids, and a few bald spots. hehe. We got to meet spouses. And might I just say... we all did well. Everyone's husband/wife was perfect for that particular person.

A couple of our buds brought their babies, which was great. It gave Noah someone to play with. One of Brad's friends brought a guitar, and Noah was totally enthralled. Gotta remember that for later. He was also enthralled with the chocolate chip cookies. He had easy access to them on the table, and since he never gets to eat like that, he was having a full-on binge. I swear everytime I looked at him, he had a cookie in each hand. I finally had to step in (ie. ease the mom guilt) and made him eat an apple.

(those two look like they're up to no good, don't they? lol hmm... probably looking for more cookies.)

It really was a fun time. Everyone seemed genuinely happy. Stories were swapped. People reminisced. I got to put some faces with names. We kept it simple with some pizza, chips, and cookies. It was nice giving the ex's hugs goodbye and actually meaning it, instead of secretly wishing they'd trip on the way out. Just kidding. I never thought that before. Promise. ;)
Seriously, it was great. We all had a good time, and hopefully it'll happen again soon (with even more peeps!).

***

I'm still here

I literally have had ZERO time to blog this week.
You can always tell when Brad finally has a few days off, because I suddenly get really quiet. Actually, we've been busy playing outside in the heat (oh my goooooosh, it so HOT). A couple of play dates to the pool (woohoo for cool friends with pools).

So yeah. Lots of this type of stuff...

Aunt Madison spent the night with us last week, so she got to come with us too.



So yeah. We've done other fun stuff too. More to come.

Hope everyone's had a fabulous weekend... er, week... geez, what kind of person am I to be spending more time on my real life than my internet life? For shame.

 

bake sale

It was a HUGE hit.
My little sister's school was putting on a production of the Wizard of Oz, and we were the intermission food. The school colors are blue and orange, in case you were wondering why it's so darn bright. Frankly, the contrast of the bright orange and blue against the pasty white walls kind of made my eyes hurt.
But at least we had school spirit. 

So yeah, it was definitely a success.

Nevermind that I spent like $60 in baking supplies, too much time in the kitchen, and not to mention the gas to get there. Brad actually asked me why didn't we just donate the money we spent on this stuff? Sure, that probably would've been easier. But that's not really the point.

Let's face it, our society isn't quite going above and beyond when it comes to raising our kids to be selfless and giving. I can't tell you how many teenagers I've heard asking their parents for fancy shoes or an iPad or some other ridiculously expensive thing. And while I believe these kids really are good hearted deep down, it's important that they experience

 Serving. Selflessness. Generosity.

These kids need to spend a Friday night (when they could be at the movies with friends) working to raise money, not for themselves, but for others who literally have nothing left. 

Sure, it would've been easier to ask mom for $10 to give to a charity.

But it means so much more when a kid works for something... for someone else.

And not because they feel like they have to. I promise, not I nor anyone else coaxed these girls into this.

This was their idea; what they wanted to do.

And when you've got kids who want to help and love others?

Priceless.

I don't know if what we made will make a massive difference, but I do know that these girls will be blessed for their energy and enthusiasm and desire to help give to people whom they've never even met.

And let me tell ya... they worked.

Not only did they bring baked goods (the majority of them making everything themselves), they were there early to set up. They stayed late to clean up. And poor little Skyler (my neice) who was all excited to tell us how she'd gotten a 4 in math on her EOG's...

she got nominated to handle the money.

Thankfully, she was a good sport and did a fantastic job.

I'm so proud of these girls.

And in case you were curious, we ended up making over $200.

We charged no more than $1 (most of it being $.50) for each item, and there were about 100-150 people in attendance. So I'd say we were pretty successful.

It definitely got the girls excited.

They want to do another fundraiser, and we're already coming up with ideas.

Also, if you're interested, I'm going to be featuring some of my favorite bake sale recipes this week on my foodie blog, including these easy-peasy treats...

 

And these Crispy Rice Cupcakes are already on there...

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

***