William's school project

William has been learning about families and traditions during one of his social studies units. For a school project, he had to create something that talked about his family's traditions. William decided to create a traditions book that showed pictures of our family traditions. William was very excited about this project and worked diligently on it every night after school. Here are some pictures of his book, as well as some video he took to tell Dad about his project.

The cover.....Family Times by William C.

Talking to Santa on the telephone.

Playing Daddy Monster with Dad.


Playing the Wii with Dad.

More of playing Daddy Monster with Dad.

Friday Night Happy Meal Night.

Some videos of William narrating his book fro Dad. He is operating the camera himself so it is not the greatest.

Spring time plantings

I bought a gardening book for North Carolina to learn which plants would be good for our front flower bed. I have decided to plant mainly perennials because they are less maintenance yet still produce nice spring and summer flowers. Here are some pictures of our front flower bed with our new additions.

Our azaleas bushes.

Update on summer garden

I have been a busy girl. In fact, probably too busy because preterm contractions were brought on and my mother has come up to stay with me. It doesn't help that neither of my boys are helpful or good listeners at the moment. In fact, they know that Mommy is not as quick as she use to be. They are taking full advantage of my current state and find daily ways to destroy the house and cause loads of problems for me. Having my mother here has been very helpful....an extra pair of eyes, ears and legs are a blessing when trying to monitor these two.

On Saturday we ventured to Lowe's and I purchased lots of plants for the front flower bed and for back by the garden. We also got some Marigolds for the garden because they attract the good bugs for a garden.....something we have learned from Max and Ruby. I finally got around to planting the garden flowers and the April vegetables. Here are some recent pictures.

The marigolds with two rows of carrots plants.

The finished garden....for now. In May I get to plant squash and zucchini.

Two rows of tomatoes with fresh snap peas beginning to sprout in the middle.

The sugar snap peas.

A row of romaine lettuce.

The lettuce and carrot rows. On the left is the Romain lettuce and on the right is Grand Rapids leaf lettuce.

A view of the garden.

Carolina Beach, NC...Spring Break 2010

As I mentioned in a previous post, I rented a beach house in Carolina Beach, NC for William's Spring Break. With being 32 weeks pregnant it was impossible to travel back to Florida this year, so I did the next best thing and went to our beaches. My parents joined us for the vacation....and it has been wonderful. I found a great townhouse/condo right across the street from the beach. The boys have loved waking up, getting ready and running to the beach. We spend our late mornings/early afternoons on the beach and then run into town and play a bit around the beach villages. This area is very charming with the bright pastel beach colors and NO large condos or large resorts. Very relaxing!

On our first day, Mandy and Megan joined us for the afternoon. The kids made friends with some nearby beach neighbors and spent the after building sand castles, searching for shells and crabs, and feeding the seagulls. It was a wonderful day. Here are some pictures.

A picture of the crab that William found....but could not bring himself to hold or touch. Megan was very kind to hold the crab for the photo. I wonder if William is really a boy sometimes.

Digging a big hole, looking for crabs.

Evidence that Megan and Paulie can actually be within three feet of each other and play beautifully with each other and nearby. Um, this lasted for about 3 minutes and then they returned to their typical relationship.

Playing chase and catch with the seagulls after feeding them.

Feeding the seagulls.

Megan running with pure joy trying to catch seagulls.

Paulie thrilled with feeding the seagulls.

The kids with their new friend, Elizabeth.

Digging away.

Paulie ready for the beach. Look at me.

Happy Easter

Easter Sunday was filled with fun, food, friends, family and of course.......CANDY!!!!!!!!!!! My parents arrived on Saturday for William's Spring Break vacation and was able to spend Easter with us. As is the life of a military wife, you get use to spending holidays away from your spouse so Mandy and I decided we wives would spend it together. We had a yummy meal of ham, potatoes, fresh veggies from my new shopping venture Carolinagrown and the best yet, Mandy's super yummy fruit salad! Everyone loved the ham and the fruit salad. Gaga and Papa then played Easter Bunny and hid all the eggs. The kids had a great time searching the yard for the eggs.....and the Easter Bunny was quite generous this year with eggs. I think we are set for the next few years. Here are some pictures from the hunt and their special finds.

The kids displaying their eggs. William's bucket was so heavy I thought the handle was going to break.

Summer garden, NC style

Today my friend, Mandy, and I worked very hard on getting our summer garden together. Our landscaper was very kind to till my garden for me. So this afternoon while the kids played in the water, we worked like dogs. It was nice to be outside, but I think we have skipped spring and moved straight into summer. Today's high was 90 degrees. Getting the garden planned out, hoed and planted was not that difficult or time consuming. The fence on the other hand, was draining. I had gone back and forth on whether or not I needed a fence. I can not build one given my current state and paying for one to be built is ridiculous. So I was going to go without and just hope the deer, squirrels and rabbits would leave my garden alone. Well after constantly yelling at the boys to stay out of my garden for the past two days, I decided a fence was necessary. I found this linking fence system at Lowe's and thought I would give it a try. If Kevin is not thrilled with it, he can build a permanent fence later in the summer. It looks pretty but was time consuming in assembling. I am glad to have the garden started and so thankful for Mandy's help. I could not have done this by myself! Today we planted two types of lettuce, sugar snap peas, green peppers and red peppers. I plan to plant in mid-April carrots, tomatoes, butternut squash, summer squash and zucchini. Looking forward to fresh veggies from my backyard! YUM!!!!!!!

Picture of the garden rows....six total.

Side view of the garden and fence.

Close up view of the garden.


The garden.

Backyard project, day 2 thru completion

I wanted to post pictures of the backyard project daily; however, this week has been CRAZY. We have gone to the doctor four out of five of the days, had William's 1st grade program, Easter Egg hunts at school for both boys, and on and on and on. So you get the drift....I was not able to blog everyday. I am just glad we survived the week, all are healthy, and will be going to the beach on Monday for Spring Break. So here are some pictures of the backyard from day two construction to the finished product. I am really pleased with the end product. The yard looks great and it is so nice to have sod and not seed! I just need to put down some bark/mulch around a tree to prevent the mud puddle from returning. I know the boys will be sad, but I can't take the mess anymore. Now we move onto ideas and savings for future projects....paver patio, landscaping and maybe one day....a pool.

The finished yard with wall and sod.

A close up of the wall and pictures from day two.