Spring Saturday

Spring is here to stay in central Texas and there was no way we could stay inside on such a gorgeous day!

Let's go already Mama!

We spent the morning going to our favorite garden store, Natural Gardener.  Even though my lemon tree is awash with blooms and my mint has grown back, we needed some more green to add to the patio.  Problem is we have a lot of shade, so we needed to chat with the folks at NG to find the right plants.  We got some really beautiful plants to pot and I am really excited to see how they grow.

While we were there at Natural Gardener, we spent some time visiting with the goats and chickens.  Billa loves visiting with the chickens and we got a cute video of her talking to the chickens with Daddy.

After we dropped Daddy off at work, Billa and I headed to Lowe's to get some additional planters and then to Target to grab a few other things.  Our Target recently expanded it's gorcery area, and there was a giant cow statue out in front of the store.  Billa was so excited, it's not even funny.  Here we are posing with the cow and mooing.

We capped off of our Saturday with a family dinner since Michael's dad was in town.  We went to Guero's and enjoyed enchiladas, tacos, and margaritas while visiting with Auntie Cait, Auntie 'Chele and Uncle Kevin, and Zeydi.  Before we knew it, it was time to go home.

Today we are cleaning house and finishing up our planting.  I'll be sure to post some pictures of the patio when it's done!

Cheers,
Kelly

Strawberry Picking

Grab yourselves a nice tall glass of something cold and delicious and sit back…this post will be a bit long, due to my laziness over the last week!

The Sunday before Mother’s Day we drove out to Sweet Berry Farm out in Marble Falls to go strawberry picking. Our friends the Marinos have been there before and for one reason or another, we were not able to join them for an excursion last year. Instead of having a big party for my birthday this year (which never happens anyway, so I was bound and determined to have SOMETHING happen) I asked my friends to go strawberry picking. It’s family friendly, it’s fun, and it would get us all out of the house for a bit.   Plus, I had a hankering to make stuff with strawberries!

Sweet sweet berries!

Getting ready to go pick berries.  I honestly don't know what she's doing here or why.  But it's cute.

Prairie doggin' in the strawberry patch

Helping Mama pick "bay-oh's" as Billa called them

Wait for me, Daddy!

We were only out there for about an hour, which some might say isn’t worth the almost hour and a half drive out there, but I disagree. The weather was perfect, the kids had a blast, and I don’t think I can ever buy strawberries from the store again! The berries were so sweet and yummy. In fact, Sybilla can agree with me on that:

I dunno about this, Mama...are you sure it's good?

Hey, this ain't so bad!

Billa and what was probably her 200th berry...she could give a Japanese hot dog eater a run for their money any day!

Yargh! It’s Red Chinned Billa the pirate!

I had to laugh; she wasn’t the only child running around with stained chins and lips. We were laughing about the "Children of the Strawberries" (as opposed to Children of the Corn, FYI) and more than once the word “vampire” was thrown around. The kids really did look like they had been feasting on blood thanks to the super ripe and delicious berries.

Resting in the shade for a bit.  Yes, her chin really was that red!

Feeding goats...we didn't buy any goat food so the kids were picking up pieces of grass and leaves to give to the goats.

There were also goats at the farm and we spent about fifteen minutes trying to feed them and pet them. Billa was in heaven and she passed out the moment we got on the highway to head back home. We stopped at P. Terry’s for lunch before heading home and Billa had her first milkshake. I don’t know which was her favorite: strawberries or milkshake!

All told, it was a great day and I am so glad that we made the trip. The blackberries will be ripening soon and I am looking forward to going out there to go pick those next!

Cheers,
Kelly

Playdate at the Park

Today was another gorgeous day and time change be damned...even if we only had 23 hours today, we were gonna make the best of them!

We had made a date earlier in the week to meet up with Sybilla's godfather and his family to play at the park.  We've been talking about doing this for some time but for some reason or another, it never really worked out.  Until today!  And today couldn't have been better.  Summer time in Central Texas may look lovely, but in truth, it gets too hot to be outside for any extended period of time (read: more than five minutes).  So spring time is when we all go out in droves and hang out in the park for hours.

We met up with the Chris, Ericha, their kids Brick, Cable, and Gates, and their friend Shannon.  Running, sliding, climbing, running amok, kicking soccer balls, swinging, driving the car, throwing rocks, eating cookies and cheese, and lounging in the shade then commenced for a couple of glorious hours.

Sliding...

Climbing...

Swinging...

Running amok...

Eating cookies...

Kicking soccer balls...

Drawing...

...and driving a car, oh my what a day!

The Matthews also brought their dog Taos along too, and Billa just loved her.  She was very mellow and so sweet and gentle with the kids.  She let them love all over her and she reminded me of my childhood dog, TB.

Ericha and I kept trying to get a great picture of the girls together...even though her arm and camera are in this shot, I still love it!  And I definitely love the look on my daughter's face!

Puppy lovin'

Gates thinks Taos is the bees' knees.

Taos is such a great dog!  Billa just adored her and gave her a hug as she left.  She even said, "Bye, dog!" and  waved...so cute!

In the end, we hated to say goodbye, but we had to get home to get some things done and Billa was starting to get a little too pink for comfort (note to self: time to buy this year's supply of sunblock).

Hugging our godfather goodbye

I foresee a dog in our future someday too...Billa just LOVED Taos!

We had a wonderful and were so grateful to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.  I foresee many more park playdates in the future...

Cheers!
Kelly & Co.

A Spring Saturday with Sydney

My last post was a little somber so to brighten things up is a sampling of some spring Saturday...fun.  (I really tried on the alliteration, but an 's' word for fun didn't come to mind)

The blooms on my lemon tree are opening! The fragrance is a heady mix of spring floral with the promise of the sweet citrus to come.

Today we went to a birthday party for a little friend of ours.  Sydney and her little brother Jacob live next door to Madeleine and Cameron, and today was Sydney's birthday party.  Her mom asked me to make Sydney's cake, which I was happy to oblige.  Sydney is really into the Littlest Pet Shop right now, so that's what we went with:

The birthday girl and her cake!

A closer shot of the cake I made

The weather was gorgeous and the kids spent most of the time either in the playroom or outside in the bouncy castle.  Billa loves bouncy castles!

Because Sydney's birthday falls so close to Easter on some years, her parents did an egg hunt as part of the festivities!  We had so much fun and I don't know whether Billa enjoyed the eggs or the actual egg basket more...she picked out a Thomas the Tank Engine bucket to collect her eggs.

Some of the kids looking over their goodies

Billa loves opening eggs and seeing what's inside!

We hated to leave, but our two year old still needs a midday nap and I'd pushed it off long enough.  We had a wonderful time and I was very glad we got to partake in the beautiful spring Saturday!  It may not be official yet, but spring is definitely here in Central Texas.

Happy Saturday,
Kelly

Vision Check

Do you see what I see?

No?  How about now?  Can you see it now?

Still no?  Then this should do the trick:

That, my friends, is the promise of something sweet (and tangy)...homemade lemon ice box pie, lemon sorbet, lemonade, and lemon iced tea.  Spring is on it's way!