This past Saturday we spent almost the entire day just savoring every moment of an ideal day.  We headed out to rake the yard and moms, if you play your cards right, your children will beg to rake the leaves themselves.

Of course, anything that big brother does, little sister must supervise…

…and eventually take over.

While Elliott raked up a lovely pile, Alex snacked on some pecans he uncovered in his raking efforts.

Snack time was over when it was time to stomp the leaves.

Break time!  The kiddos kicked back and stared up at the many colors of leaves and tried to decide just which type of tree was their favorite.

I got down there with them and lost myself in the beautiful colors.

The guys headed inside for a bit while Elliott and I played some more outside.

We walked up and down our street no less than 17 times so Elliott could kick through the fallen leaves.

We ended our lovely fall afternoon with a little picnic and quiet time.

Tell me how you and your family are enjoying fall!  It’s my favorite season.  What’s yours?

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This is Alex just before take-off on his very first flight.  The anticipation was almost more than he could handle and he was very nervous.  The second the plane left the ground, though, he was all smiles.  “That wasn’t so bad!”

First we had to stop through Raleigh, NC for a night so Daddy could speak at WordCamp. Here is Alex waiting for the cab to take us to the college where WordCamp RDU was being held.

He waiting patiently in the auditorium…

As soon as Shayne was done, we caught our flight to NYC and crashed at the hotel.  The next morning, we grabbed breakfast by the hotel.  Alex didn’t quite approve of the un-Texan breakfast.

Then we were off to catch our ride on the NYC Ducks.  It’s an amphibious vehicle that boards in the middle of Times Square, drives through Manhattan…and then off into the Hudson river to relive Henry Hudson’s journey.

Alex with the NYC Duck.

The duck gave us all quackers.

Alex wasn’t sure what to think as we entered the river…

As a rule, I don’t care much for being aboard boats, but this was a really enjoyable (and very chilly!) ride.  Here’s Dad taking it all in…

We had a great view of the Intrepid and the Empire State Building.

Once we were back on land, we stopped by a few places in Times Square….one of them, the M&M store.

Empire State Building time!  Alex was just adamant about going up in the ESB because he loves the scene in James & the Giant Peach when the peach lands atop the building and James has finally made it to New York.

The line wasn’t terrible and the time passed rather quickly while we visited with the people waiting with us.

Daddy helped Alex look through the binoculars.

Considering how crowded it was on the observatory, I was surprised at the almost silent atmosphere.  It was incredibly peaceful up there and we really enjoyed ourselves.

A view looking up at the needle from the 86th floor:

Another shot of my boy enjoying the view and the peace way up above the busy, noisy city.

And…me & my boy.

So, there are some highlights from Day 1 (and the Raleigh part…).  We have something like 850 pictures, but I’ll spare ya most of them.

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Since I posted last, we’ve been staying busy with end-of-the-schoolyear activities and adjusting to our summertime schedule.  Alex finished first grade and is thoroughly enjoying being out of school.  He has a notebook for the summer that he writes a story in each day.  We’ll be working on handwriting, multiplication and division over the summer.

Elliott, well…she’s Elliott.  A fireball.  A handful.  A nutcase.  A sweetpea.  She is loving having big brother home and they keep each other entertained…and a bit stressed out at times.

Today is our wedding anniversary and we’ll be celebrating starting next Friday with a trip to NYC!  Can’t wait!

In the meantime, here are a few pics of my kiddos enjoying the incredible weather we have had!

Hope you all are enjoying your summers as much as these kiddos are!

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Dad and Alex started off the weekend shooting the airsoft guns that Alex got for his birthday.

He looked soooo cute in his safety glasses!  Just look at how the straps poke his ears out!

After a few hundred rounds of plastic pellets were shot, we had a little egg hunt at my in-laws’.

I thought I would try to get some shots of them in their Easter outfits since Easter Day was forecasted to be stormy and icky, but…I had little cooperation.  When I tried pictures of them together, this is what I got:

So I just snapped what I could get.

Then we rode in Grandma’s car out to her house and Elliott gave out.

Alex peeked at me through the headrest…

We settled in at Grandma’s for the night and enjoyed a much-needed thunderstorm that dropped almost 2 inches on our very thirsty world.  Luckily, by the time our next egg hunt rolled around, most of the water was soaked up and we could go on with our fun.

Note the waterproof shoes and rolled up pants.  That’s our way with coping with mud and preventing messy cuffs.  Always prepared, baby!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend!

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When he spotted this guy, he looked incredulous and said, “I didn’t know you knew how to make goombas!!!”

Neither did I, honey.  Neither did I.

We had a big hamburger cookout at the house for him and everyone had a really great time.

There were bubbles…

The wind was nuts!  Just check out Sister Crazy Hair over here…

And a big Silly String fight…

And Silly String in the face…

The the kids gathered around for gift time.  I’ve never seen such a bunch of deliriously happy, tired, sweet kiddos.

The last of the guests left around 10 that night and we left out for a birthday trip to Six Flags the next morning.  Needless to say, this kid had an amazing birthday weekend!

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Elliott and I headed out this morning because she’s never gotten to experience snow.  While this barely counts as snow, it’s something.

And….I wanted to grap a picture of this bluebonnet…

See…it’s the same one, I showed you the other day…

The one with the bee…

I think it’s sad because it misses its bee.  Doesn’t it look sad?

Everybody say, “Awwwwwwww!”

Our irises looked gorgeous with a few flakes on them!

And….I have no idea what these flowers are, but they’re out by our back gate and just looked gorgeous.  Who can tell me what they are?

Elliott (Miss I-Can’t-Tolerate-Messes) freaked out about snow getting on her beloved boots.  About every two steps, she had to stop, wimper and examine the damage.

When it came to getting snow on her mittens, though….she was very intrigued.

She discovered a ball in the backyard and brushed away a bit of snow…

…and was absolutely over the moon to discover Minnie Mouse peeking out at her!

Before we headed into the house, she insisted on taking off her mittens to experience snow with her little fingers.  I found the deepest accumulation I could (insert the laughter of people outside the state of Texas…) and let her touch.

I would have liked her first snow experience to involve snowballs, snow men and snow angels, but hey…we’ll take what we can get.

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Today, after our 70% chance of rain dropped to 0% and the sun came out, I grabbed the camera and took a few shots of the flowers that spring has brought to life.

Here’s our lovely state flower.  We’ve got tons of them in the back yard and we can’t/won’t mow until they’ve got to seed.  Please excuse the ugly brown grass in the background.  Our drought is pretty extreme at this point.

This guy is a big fan of bluebonnets!  I swear he posed for me while I took his picture.

I took the kids for some tulip pictures, but I’m not sure I got the tulips captured well.  Might go back for more tomorrow!  In the meantime, here are some pics of these 2 kids that I think are pretty darn cute.

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Everything started out okay.  She chose white paint and set to work.

Alex opted for a beautiful shade of green.

Everything was going smoothly until….bam!  White paint on her hand!

“MOMMY!!!!  WASH HANDS!!!!”

A wet washcloth did the trick and they went back to work.

I love alex’s “Hi, Bird!” painting!

He was so focused!  Check out that tongue!

Elliott gave up on the washcloth and managed her stress as well as possible as she continued to work on her project.  The prospect of baby birds (baby buhds!) living in it was enough to keep her motivated despite the mess all around.  She was covered in paint and so was her newspaper!

They put the finishing touches on…

Then it was all business….we had serious matters to deal with!  Just look!

I ran her a tub of water and I swear that kid had more fun working away that paint with a washcloth than she did painting the birdhouse!

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Whatever you call it, it’s good times for Elliott! It’s helping her overcome her shyness and come out of her sweet little shell.  She has really gotten into the songs they sing and the things they learn. She goes with her dear friend Welby (Shelby) and they are two big hams at Fwip Cass.

First, to warm up, they sing songs.

Then they do some stretches and exercises.

Then it’s time to wait their turn by the mat!

Soon it’s time to get busy!

And flip time!

And balance beam time!

All the while, Alex and Shelby’s big sis Ciera are on the sidelines getting in some DS time.  I think they enjoy fwip cass as much as the little ones do!

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