Independence Day 2009

Robert & I began our Independence Day fun with homemade made-from-scratch blueberry pancakes! We haven't had pancakes in ages and they couldn't have been a better start to our most perfect day. Our breakfast was followed by hours and hours on our beautiful and sunny 72nd street beach.

The beach was more crowded than the average weekend day, but wasn't too packed to enjoy several naps or good times and fun with the good company with family and friends all day long!

Robert & I finally tore ourselves off the beach and back down to Norfolk, made a quick change, and walked to the newly renovated Town Point Park down the street for HarborFest activities! The park was pretty crowded with lots of people and food vendors as well as aromas of all types of food and music. We walked around investigating the new set-up of the park along with the various options for dinner. :) While walking around, we were greeted by the Independence Day (crazy) Band, consisting of dancers and horns and bells and whistles! After all that excitement, we grabbed some grub and sat and listened to a few different bands and then scoped out a good spot for fireworks!

We found a great spot on the upper deck area of the Half Mood Cruise terminal next to Nauticus. This is a view of Town Point Park from our firework-viewing-position!

Here's us at our place waiting....and waiting.... Since it was the first major firework show at Town Point Park, they spent lots of money on making the pyrotechnics super-duper! There were 2 barges loaded with firecrackers that went off simultaneously and were coordinated with the typical patriotic music for the show!

The beginning of the show...

















A hidden smiley!

it's been a whiiiiillle...

Well, how is it that July 4th has already come and gone.....same with our annual family vacation to the Outer Banks with Robert's mom's side of the family! (more pics, etc to come from the 4th) In between those 2 major events this month, I've managed to find a job and have started for the rest of the summer!

I'm babysitting 2 little girls (Kyli-age 4 & Kaylynn-age 4) from our church for 4 days a week until the end of August. So far they've been super cute, funny, sweet and very entertaining. In the 6 days I've been with them, we've been to the pool, the park, the movies, the library and definitely have more trips planned to the above places along with tea parties, puppet shows, and makeover days that the girls are looking very forward to in the next few weeks. We've been lucky to have 2 other girls join us for some of our summer adventures! My best friend Amy is babysitting a rising 4th-grader, Amanda, and they've joined us at the pool and at the park for some playdates already. I look forward to all the other fun things we'll plan to do with all our girls for the rest of the summer!

Fruits of all kinds! (tomatoes and cupcakes?!)

Robert & I have got some patio tomatoes working so hard to grow on our very sunny, hot patio. Our pots dry out so fast, so we have to keep them watered constantly! Even with faithful watering, the leaves look somewhat sad in the late afternoon sun. We've been working on keeping them happy...and while they seem a little droopy on occasion, our efforts have worked pretty well so far! We have about 5 baby tomatoes between our two plants. They're still little, but we can't wait to harvest them. :)

They're so tiny!

This next type of fruit is debatable. :) On Tuesday, I drove up to Richmond to visit my friend, Krysten, who's living there for the summer. Krysten & I had a yummy lunch at one of our favorite spots (the Baker's Crust), walked around a few Short Pump shops, then drove to a fancy cupcake shop down the road that I'd heard about from some lovely friends who went there recently. Frostings is a beautiful take-out cupcake shop; the inside could not smell any better!!!




Anyways, back to the "fruits of all kinds..." The two "cupcakes of the day" were Boston Creme Pie cupcakes and beautiful Green Apple cupcakes (which we both devoured respectively). :) The apple cupcake could not have looked more like a real granny smith apple! Under the green shell of frosting, there was super-sweet plain frosting and within the vanilla cake there was a green-apple surprise filling! The tart filling with the sweet frosting was absolutely perfect. :) I think if I had a million dollars, I'd start a fancy cupcake/cookie shop very similar to Frostings. :)

Presto Pesto!

A few months ago, we started growing basil (Sweet basil & Lettuce leaf basil) from seeds. They sprouted and poked their little leaves out and finally produced big, lovely green, fragrant leaves! I picked the majority of the leaves off the plants yesterday afternoon to make some fresh Pesto! Our good friend from high school, Rachel Berryman, made the best pesto for us last summer a few times. She was kind enough to leave a copy of her special recipe with us before she shipped out to Albania with the Peace Corps. (read about her adventures here!)

The first attempt at pesto turned out fairly well; not exactly the same as Rachel's, but yummy nonetheless! It made about 3 meals worth! We had it for dinner tonight with some whole wheat three-cheese pasta--delicious!

"Flutter Fantasy"

Most Fridays, Mom & I try to go out and do something fun. :) Last Fall we invested in a Family Membership to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens with great hopes of going go every Friday to enjoy the gardens in seasonal transition throughout the year and more importantly walking around the gardens for fitness. We've definitely gone more times than I thought we would! While we haven't done as much walking for fitness, this spring and summer we've seen some of our favorite flowers budding and blooming.

Today, we walked around in the extreme sun and 90 degree temps to see roses in full-bloom, over 200 hydrangeas (some of our faves), and the botanical garden's "Butterfly Fantasy" exhibit! A screened-in garden full of butterfly bushes and tons of other butterfly-attracting plants and flowers were enclose d and butterflies of all stages fluttered about. We saw mainly monarchs and other orange and black butterflies, Painted Ladies and the Gulf Fritillary, flying around or resting on the plants. Some of them were nice enough to hang out on a plant for a bit for me to snap a shot.

Father's Day Fishing!

Last week, I wrote my Daddy a poem and "painted" him a picture inviting him on a Father's Day Fishing trip for his Father's Day present. Yesterday, me, my Daddy, and Robert went fishing in Suffolk, VA in Lake Cohoon. It was a lovely day; bright sun in the amazing blue skies with white puffy clouds. We really couldn't have asked for a better day. It's been years since I've been fishing with Daddy and it was great for all of us to get out there, spend some time together, and enjoy the combination of relaxation and excitement out on the water!

Robert & I caught a few crappie and brim aka "4-inchers." (we called them "4-inchers" growing up. that's all my brothers and i normally caught; small fish, approximately 4 inches long, that we just caught and released.) Daddy caught the same few 4-inchers as well as the biggest bass he's caught in years. It was about 2 lbs!!!

A little sunning for a yellow-slider...i was doing my fair share of sunning on the boat, too!

Robert getting his fishing line in order before showing some crappies who's boss.

Daddy and his big ol' bass.

Another good pic of Daddy and his 2-pounder!

Sweet kisses for the brim. :)

here i am!

i think i'm a chicken for thinking for a looonnnnnng time about blogging or even just attempting for fun or for keeping up with my friends and family near and.....far.

i, for some reason, always thought blogging was something for deep, philosophical, thinking-type people, or for hip-mothers with kids who need to let family and friends know of how fun and cute and adorable their kids are and keep everybody up-to-date with all their musings.

i don't really consider myself either of these types of people. :) 1. i'm certainly not a deep thinker or feel as if my opinions are extremely important and new that i think and hope people will read and will then change their lives. 2. perhaps one day i will be that hip-mom telling everybody of my kids, the trials and triumphs of motherhood, as well as my children's accomplishments as they grow.

so, for now, i'll just tell about things and life and me as they come and go... :)