Seven Happy Years

Jim and I are celebrating our seventh wedding anniversary today! Jim had last week off from work, so we actually celebrated early with a dinner out at Carrabba's on Friday night. We enjoyed our evening out - just the two of us!
Here we were 7 years ago - very happy and excited about our future together. Here we are more recently - still happy and looking forward to many more years together!

We are so thankful for all that God has done for us in our years together. We've been through job changes, the birth of a premature baby, and so many other challenges and joys, and God has been so faithful through it all. We are excited to see what God has for us in the future!

I made Jim a little anniversary treat today. He loves marshmallows, and he had seen this recipe a while ago and told me that he thought it looked good. I got a good deal on S'mores ingredients at Walgreens this morning, so I whipped up a batch of brownies. They were a hit!

I tried another new recipe this weekend that we loved! We had a Sunday School class cook-out on Saturday, and I made this cake. Oh, my! We loved it!

I hope you all have a great week!

Water Guns

Drew received a Toys-'R-Us gift card from his Uncle Mark and Aunt Katie for his birthday, and he didn't spent it all when we shopped the first time. I had an appointment earlier this week, so while I was gone, Jim and Drew went to use up the gift card. One of the things they bought was a two-pack of water guns. They tried them out for the first time in our backyard the other evening after dinner. They had so much fun!

Drew loved shooting Jim in the back while Jim refilled the water guns.

He chased Jim around the yard, laughing and laughing.

Then Jim would chase Drew!

Drew didn't quite understand how to pump the gun to move the water, but he still had a great time.

While we were out in the yard, we checked and watered the tomato plant my dad planted for me while he was here last month. It is a homemade version of a Topsy-Turvy, using a bucket hung from our clothesline post.

It is really growing, and we have spotted our first tiny little tomatoes! We can't wait to eat them later this summer!

We had a wonderful time in our yard!

Sprinkler Park

Jim is off work this week, and Drew and I have been enjoying spending lots of time with him. On Monday, we went to the library, and then we went to the sprinkler park right outside the library. Drew loves water, but he was a bit nervous around the sprinklers. He was fascinated by them!

Jim had to go with Drew to convince him to go near the sprinklers. They started by sticking their toes in the little sprinklers.

The little sprinkler suddenly shot up very high and soaked them!

Drew got a little scared and cried.

He spent the rest of the time playing with his little trucks.

I'm sure we'll be back to the sprinkler park again this summer. We had a great time!

Toledo Day

Last fall, Jim, Drew, and I spent a day in Toledo at the Toledo Zoo and a Toledo Mud Hens game. While my parents were here last month, we decided to do the same day of activities in Toledo with them. We started our day at the zoo. We love this zoo! It is set up so nicely - with lots of animals that are close enough to be seen easily.
A sloth bear Looking through the fence at an elephant.

Goats at the petting farm - Drew kept trying to feed them little pieces of hay.

Beautiful fish at the aquarium.

An octopus.

A chimpanzee - they were being fed while we were there. The workers had scattered the food all over, and the chimps had to gather it themselves.

This gorilla was a little "cross" (to use a word the Drew has learned from Thomas the Train). He slammed his fist into the glass right as we got there. It gave us all a little scare!

The mother and baby polar bears.

We loved seeing the little baby polar bear!

We ate dinner at Tony Packo's - right across the street from the stadium.

Drew loved meeting the mascot - Mudonna.

Waiting for the game to begin.

My mom was knitting during the game.

Our section won free ice cream!

Cheering for a home run.

We all had a great time watching the Mud Hens beat the Durham Bulls. We really enjoyed our day in Toledo!

Traditions

My parents come spend a week with us each summer, and we have developed some traditions during these visits. One of those traditions is a visit to Cook's Farm Dairy. They have fabulous ice cream, and they also allow visitors to walk around the farm and see the animals. It was quite cool the day we went - as you can see by my mom's hood! Drew was a little nervous around the cows.

Who can really blame him, though. They do unpredictable things, like this, and they are so big!

My dad tried to get Drew to pet a cow, but he didn't want to.

Drew was very interested in the farm machinery.

He and my dad climbed up on the tractor for a photo.

They also have pigs on this farm. They spent most of our visit sleeping and then scratching themselves.

Another look at the cows.

Another piece of machinery caught Drew's eye. This one was for sale!

Another fun tradition is the daily walks my dad and Drew take. They always walk somewhere fun - the park, the pet store, and most often to Tim Horton's for doughnuts! The best is when they bring back a little box for my mom and me.

We always enjoy having my parents visit, and we wish we weren't quite so far away so we could do it more often.

Blog Slacker

I have been such a blog slacker this past month - but I have some good excuses! The past four weeks have been so busy and such a different schedule for me, and I just didn't get around to blogging. The first week, I subbed a full week at Faith Christian School. I was back in first grade for the whole week, and it was a fun but very busy week for me. That weekend, my parents arrived to spend a week with us. We kept busy doing lots of fun things - a trip to Cook's Farm Dairy, thrift store shopping, and a day in Toledo at the zoo and a Mud Hens game. Drew and I traveled back to South Carolina with them and spent the past two weeks there spending time with family and friends and getting spoiled. Jim came to get us this past weekend (we met in Cincinnati), and we got home last night. See, I have been busy!
Today, I want to share a few crafts that I worked on while I was in South Carolina. The first is a wreath that my mom and I made for her office door at work. We found the instructions here and the inspiration here. We found that the best prices on seed packets was at Dollar Tree - four for a dollar. My sister, Nora, and I had a scrapbooking sleepover one night at her apartment. I made two layouts while I was there. I made this one about Drew's third birthday celebrations using a sketch from Let's Scrap.

I also made this layout about our visit to the Greenville Children's Museum. I will blog about our visit there later this week. I used a Page Maps sketch to do this layout.

We had a great three weeks with my parents, and I will blog more about our time together throughout this week. We are pretty much home now for the summer, so I should be able to be a more faithful blogger now!