Pictures of Lily

Because she lets me do it.

Grammy's Berry Pie

Whenever Zach goes to my parent's house,
he likes to go to this tree:

and pick these berries:

Zach will take those berries and ask my mom to make pies out of them.

I have no idea what kind of berries these are.

Or if they are even edible.

My mom is a good Grammy though.

She plays along and will make pies for him.....

even if they are not made out of the berries Zach picks.

Shh!! Don't tell Zach! =)

On Saturday, Zach saw that the tree was full of his special berries.

So he asked my mom to make him a pie.

On Monday, she brought these cute pies that she made over:

Zach was SO excited when he got home from School and saw them.

He inhaled his pie.

He might be catching on that they are not made from the berries he picks.

He asked why the pies tasted like cherries......

But for now, he is fine with thinking his Grammy makes pies from his special berries. =)

Thanks Grammy for helping make such fun memories.

Happy Mother's Day!

I have the most wonderful mom.

Really, I do.

She raised nine children.

Sometimes I struggle with three.

She always has time for us.....even when all nine of us were living at home.

She always put us first, and still does.

She taught me so many things about being a mom.

If I am half the mom she is, then I will count myself lucky.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

I Love You!

Not only do I have a great mom,
But I also get to be a mommy to these three.
I am one lucky person.


Happy Mother's Day to all of the mommies out there!

Tot Trot

Zach and Riley ran in the Tot Trot today.
They were really excited!!
Riley did a great job running!

He was so excited when he crossed the finish line!

Look at this winning smile!

We had met up with my sisters Dianna & Amy who had just run the River Run.

They did it in 21 minutes!

Good Job girls!!!

This is what Lily was doing during the races. =)
Aunt Amy was spoiling her.

This was the last year for Zach to run.

The age cut off is seven.

He has been running it since he was three.

He made his last race count though.

This is his face when he realized he had passed the boy in front of him...

and crossed the finish line.

He won his heat!!!

Look how proud he is!!!

Super job boys!

We walked around the Riverfest afterwards.

Unfortunately there wasn't a lot for all the kids to do together.

If Zach and Riley could go on something, Lily couldn't.

And if Lily could, the boys couldn't.

=(

But Lily & Riley did get their pictures taken with some characters from PBS.

Lily will get to run in the Tot Trot next year with Riley.

She is excited about finally getting to do it! =)

Cinco de Mayo

Both boys had Cinco de Mayo celebrations at school today.
Riley's class talked about Cinco de Mayo & played Mexican music.
Then they had a pinata!
Lily & I were able to come back to help break it open.

Here is the mob of children after the candy was on the ground. =)

Riley was making sure he got lots of candy.

Lily found a sucker, ripped the wrapper off, and stopped looking for candy.

Miss Eva (Riley's teacher) loves Lily.

She has known her since she was born.

And she lets Lily do pretty much whatever she wants.

So when Lily wanted to take the pinata home, Miss Eva let her.

Let's see how that works next year when she is in her class. =)


Later on in the afternoon, we went to watch Zach do his Cinco de Mayo dance.

The Kindergarten through fifth grades all performed songs and dances with the help of the Spanish teacher.

Zach was really excited!

He did a great job!!

They sang "The More We Get Together" in Spanish while they danced.

The whole class did a good job!

The other classes did a great job too. It was a really cute program.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! =)

The Many Looks of Lily

Lily loves sunglasses, hats, and tutus.
Here she is showing off her unique sense of style.

Our Garden

On Saturday, we planted a garden.
The boys have been asking to plant one for weeks now.
To quote Zach:
"Mom, I want to be able to grow our own food, so I can walk outside and pick fresh food off the vine."
There's only one problem with that.
Zach only likes a few select vegetables.
I would love to grow tomatoes, peppers, onions, etc.
But I would be the only one eating them.
So, we went to the store and picked out these seeds.

Green beans (Zach's favorite), carrots, and they talked me into watermelon.
(We'll see how that one works out....)
We also picked out giant sunflowers (my favorite) and Riley picked out some pretty purple flowers.

They do like other veggies, but I don't exactly have a green thumb, and I am not brave enough to try those. =)

We started out with Jeff building a wooden frame for where we wanted to plant the food seeds.

We also bought dirt to put in there to help the seeds grow.

Lily helped Jeff spread it out.

While Jeff was working on that, the kids & I planted the flower seeds.

The dug, planted, and covered up the seeds.

Then we moved over to the bigger garden and planted the green beans, carrots, and watermelon.

We are really excited to watch everything grow!

I will keep you updated on our progress. =)