April Showers and May Flowers

In between moving into our new home and selling our old house we've had some fun times the last two months, but it feels like Spring has already come and gone (in part because it already feels a lot like Summer here in Texas!)

We both celebrate birthdays this month--Jeremy loves to make old lady jokes with me for 18 days every year.

Delaney is 19 months old--she probably has around 300 words in her vocabulary, still loves books, and her hair is getting long but we're delaying a haircut because we don't want them to cut off her curls! 

With BB's Big Brown Bear

She spends her days with Nana and they have a routine that includes teatime, our neighborhood park, and a program for her age group at the Library. On rainy days, we try to get her to Gymboree to or the inflatable bouncy place.

Daddy and Nana took her shopping and she didn't leave the accessories!

At Gymboree with Dad

Having fun on the see saw...How many Nana's can do THIS in their 70's??

 

 

Someone is not happy...she wanted to keep spinning and NOT waste time taking this photo.

Sidney is wrapping up 7th grade. He was glad to hear he passed the test to be in Algebra next year and made the transition to school team sports. He'll be on the football team next year and is getting closer to looking us in the eye every day.

Watching him play on the big fields this year was awesome and even though I'm pretty sure I heard other girls saying his name, his little sister might be his biggest fan. Delaney learned his number and loves to yell "Go Boba! Go Nine-teen!!"

Post-game with his former teammate--they were nervous they might accidentally pass the ball to each other!

Sidney's team made the District Championship and then with 44 seconds left, they broke the 3-3 tie to win--very exciting! Here's the team being silly for their victory picture--is it me or are Middle Schoolers looking pretty old these days?

Here's what we've been up to:

For Easter, we visited BB & Grandpa and Uncle Matt, Aunt Sarah, Leyton and Beckett. It's really fun to watch the cousins together and BB always puts on fabulous holidays! Delaney dyed eggs for the first time at Aunt Sarah's (she was very brave to host and gracious when we had an accident in her new kitchen!) and we had homemade pizza with Sid's tasty pizza sauce and Uncle Matt's crazy combos (anchovy and egg, lately?).

The Wood and Atkins families at BB's school

Dying eggs--Purple was her favorite. That and the stickers of course!

 There were two egg hunts and lots of playtime outside. Raleigh is so green and pretty, especially with the Cherry Blossoms and Magnolias.

Looking for eggs--Delaney shook them to see if there was candy inside!

How about

a little

toddler tetherball?

 

Easter Sunday photos

Miss Bossy kept telling her cousins to "Sit Down!"

 

 Our last day before heading home, we went to a super cool place called Pullen Park and rode paddle boats and a historic hand-carved Carousel.

On the paddleboat looking for duckies

BB and Sid paddling away

On the carousel

We've had some visits from family and friends over the last few weeks. My oldest nephew Billy is in Texas with his company for a contract, and we had he and his family over when his wife and son TJ flew in for a weekend. We played Euchre, grilled out, and Billy took the boys to ride go-carts and play Laser Tag. I don't have any pictures from their visit but it was so good to see them!

Our next guest was Jeremy's dad. Since his recent retirement, we've been encouraging Grandpa to come for a visit and had a really enjoyable time with him. We went out for Texas BBQ and the guys went to an Express baseball game afterward. He was able to come along to one of Sidney's games and he and Sidney cooked dinner together. I'm pretty sure Sid may have picked up a few card tricks from him while he was here.

We took a short trip to Fredericksburg and enjoyed German food and walked around the city park with historic buildings and shops.

Luckily Grandpa had some quarters for this--she did not want to stop!

Can you tell we LOVE homemade pizza? Sid and Grandpa mixing it up in the kitchen...

All of our mouths are full with treats from the German Bakery. YUM!!

 

 

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. I was able to sleep in a bit and Jeremy planned a few surprises: he and the kids planted some roses and flowers for me in the front yard and made a delicious brunch of homemade waffles with fruit & whipped cream. After a walk and some good family time, Mom and I were able to watch a movie together later that afternoon. Sidney picked out a really special necklace that has "Mother" engraved in 10 languages around a circle and I've already worn it a lot!

Summer is on the way! Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend--we hope to see you very soon!

At the pool...Daddy had her on the Fun Noodle swimming all around.

This poor Panda kneeled for about 10 minutes as we coaxed Delaney over to take this picture...

With Boba walking home from the park--too sweet.