Airlie Summer Concert Series

I may have found my new favorite weekend activity.  Airle Gardens has a summer concert series every other Friday evening.  People were serious about their picnic spreads at this thing.  People had folding chairs, folding tables, elaborate trays of fruits and cheeses, and lots of wine.  I was inspired to bring classier food next time.  I was laughing as I was uploading these pictures because I don't have any pictures of us in the concert area at all or any pictures of adults.  I promise I heard some of the music.  Such is the life of mamas on the go with their kids.  

 Charlotte climbing a giant Airlie Oak with Yaya (Steph)

 These are from the bottle house.  All the kiddos loved the big butterfly.  

 Seriously, how precious is June?  I didn't get any shots of the other kids, but Caroline was there and Levi and Olivia too.  

Sweet Hadley.  

Seriously, we had a great time.  I know where I'll be in 2 weeks.

Swimming Lessons

We are headed to Tate tomorrow (expect a slew of pictures when we return) so our swimming lessons are over.  I'm going to miss Memaw.  I foresee myself calling her again next summer.  The conclusion for our week is that Kate is about to be swimming alone and Charlotte is excited to not wear a floatie but has declared that her face is never going under the water again.  Hmm.

 Hadley enjoying the baby pool when she wasn't making a crawling bee line for the actual pool.

 Memaw about to send Kate off to swim alone.

Charlotte's group.  Ford is on the far left and Samuel is on the far right.  The other two were new friends.  

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from our Memorial Day weekend mountains trip.  This is our second year to head up to Grace's family's house in Cullowhee, NC.  There were four families and 10 kids - did you catch that, 10 KIDS.  It was wild.  We had a great time and, believe it or not, there was even some down time for the men and women to get away separately and lots of  wine drinking and game playing in the evenings.  The weather was  exceptional.  

We spent lots of time at the house just being together, eating and talking and playing.  We also walked to a neighbor's garden that is easily the size of a house lot.  There was a fire pit and rocks to throw (for the boys) and flowers to pick look at (for the girls). 

Near the house there is a rock slide.  The water is freezing!  If there was a more intense word for freezing, this would be the time to use it.  It is so cold it burns.  Parks obviously went down the slide and this year even Shelley did (impressive, Shelley!).  The kids played in the water and we ate lunch on the sand.

Samuel, braving the cold water.  He was the only kid who went down the slide.  Always up for adventure!

June Bug

Sherry and Matthew

We spent one morning at a great park they have in town and attempted a kids group picture.  Please take notice of Lily Kate.  I have maybe 9 of these shots and she is just sitting, ready for the picture in each one of them.  Hadley and Ben are crying, Charlie is slumped down, Charlotte is absolutely refusing to be a part of a picture, Samuel is wandering off, and the other 4 are totally distracted.   The picture is kind of how the weekend felt :)  Love those kids.

Our always favorite part of the weekend is our pontoon boat ride.  So fun!  

Charlie and Grace

The Thomas Family

Miss Hadley

Another one of Hadley, this time with me.

Charlotte, enjoying the "beach" we stopped at on our boat ride.

The men

The ladies

Another attempt at the capturing the kids.  No babies this time, just the big ones. Poor Samuel was on his way into the shot and we missed him, but a close attempt.  

We had a great time!

Here are some porch time shots.  I love Lily Kate so much.  She is truly hilarious without meaning to be funny at all.  That's the beauty of her.  Doesn't she look so old in this picture?  And I'll call the one of Charlotte and me "Green Team".  That's what she says every time the two of us end up together because we're the only two in the family with green eyes.  We were reading books on the porch swing. She almost sat still enough for me to take a picture of us.  

And, in other news, Swimming Lessons are going very well.  Charlotte is not exactly swimming, but she is loving her lessons and she is super proud of herself.  No more tears shed either!

Jitters

 Today was our first day of swimming lessons (round 2 for Lily Kate, who took them last year also).  We spent most of the time checking of the kids' skill levels and putting them into groups for class.  Kate was surprisingly excited.  Yesterday she announced to us that she was ready to swim now and not interested in a float any more.  Now, Charlotte on the other hand was not so thrilled.  I love the look on her face here, she was trying not to smile so we have a partial scowl, and healing scab on her nose from last week, and her precious little big girl one shoulder, ruffle bathing suit.  She did end day one of lessons kicking in the water and smiling without tears (oh, there were tears when we started).  Maybe year 2 of lessons is the charm.  We'll see.

Celebrating Trista and baby Eleanor

 I always have great intentions of taking lots of pictures and usually I remember this when I get back home, unpack my stuff, and find the camera at the bottom of the bag.  This time I got 3 shots, so it's a step in the right direction.  We had a lovely shower for Trista and her daughter on the way, Eleanor.  Above: the hostesses and the glowing mama.  *As a side note, I feel like in this picture I also look like I have a baby on the way.  In case you were curious and way too polite to ask  the answer is no. 

 Dorothy made this for Elle's room.

Stephanie, Sherry, Grace, and Emily, some of my sweet friends.

Trouble

Hadley is 10 months old and we have entered into the age of "getting into trouble", emptying trash cans for fun, pulling all the art supplies out of the baskets to chew on them, and dumping out the diaper bag to scavenge for Cheerios.  Good thing she's so cute :)

Happy Friday

 We went to the Splash Pad this morning with friends.  I'm thinking it may need to be a regular Friday morning occurrence.  The kids loved it.  I didn't put Hadley out in the water until about 30 minutes before we left and I wish I had done it sooner.  She thought it was great.  

 On our way home the girls asked if they could have a tea party.  We made some strawberry lemon bars (with berries we picked from Lewis Farm!) yesterday and I suspect this was a fancy way to eat dessert in the middle of the day - but, hey, great idea.  I went to the kitchen to put the lemon bars on plates and get the juice out and they headed straight for the dress up box.  This kind of thing is daily activity for our house full of girls but I rarely have my camera handy so I was glad to capture sweet memories. 

June 1st, 10 months old!

Here's our Sweet Pea.  On June 1st she will be 10 months old.  Still as precious as ever.  She is recognizing words more and more.  She knows what I mean when I sign and say "all done" and "more".  A couple times she has given me her own attempt to do the signs back.  She gives a gentle high five.  She eats a ton of "big girl" food and is starting to prefer it to baby food (often rejecting baby food because she is wanting finger foods that she can eat by herself).  She loves to crawl around and pull up on things, but no cruising yet.  Just for fun, here are pics of Lily Kate and Charlotte each at 10 months.

One more momento shot of Lily Kate with her preschool teacher, Mrs Sutton.  We have LOVED her.  I'm thrilled that the other two girls could have her in the next few years!