My Memorial Day Weekend in Pictures: 2018

For the past several years now, I have done a "My Memorial Day Weekend in Pictures" blog post for you all.  So here we go again this year.  As I look through these pictures, it occurs to me that we didn't go any place particularly special or do anything extraordinary.  But we are masters at the moments between the moments.  It's where the magic often happens, you know.  :)  This year we just stayed close to home.  We had an especially wet forecast and a lot of outdoor plans, which typically don't mix well.  But thankfully, we dodged the bullet on (most of) the impending rains, and had a delightful little holiday. 

Our long weekend started last Friday.  Lexi attends tap and ballet classes with her friends on Friday mornings.  And every week she also brings along one special "baby" that sits at the edge of class to watch.  So it was Zuma's turn on Friday.  Here they are gearing up for class to begin. 

It happened to also be the fourth weekend of the month, which meant that the Nashville flea market was in town.  John went early, and just look at what he brought back.  This is an old outdoor sign from a Wendy's restaurant.  It's HUGE!  But he thought it looked like Lexi.  Let's see.  Red hair, blue eyes, pigtails, bows.  Yep, I can see it.  I think this lovely will look great hanging in our garage so hopefully we can get it mounted soon. 

He also bought me this amazing dish of succulents for the back deck.  I arranged them on our deck table with a few of my birdhouses and voila!  That mushroom in the background is Lexi's little stool.  It moves around the yard almost as much as she does. 

Our Friday night plans actually did get rained out.  Oh well, maybe next weekend instead.  So we ended up making margaritas from limes (or something like that) and headed to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner.  Here are me and Lexi (and her baby Skye) donning our matching red, white and blue for the start to the Memorial Day weekend.  

My gingham is a top, but her's is a dress.  Both came from Old Navy recently.

We popped into a little ice cream shop right around the corner after dinner.  Lexi chose strawberry ice cream and I had a cantaloupe popsicle.   John had a butter pecan cone.  There are really no wrong choices here. 

Saturday morning brought haze, steam, and the threat of more rain.  But the rains held off long enough to squeak in a trip to the park. 

We packed a picnic lunch and ate under the trees.  After lunch, it was time to test out the gigantic bubble wand she got in her Easter basket this year. 

Those big wobbly bubbles soon attracted lots of attention, and before we knew it we were making lots of new friends who were also interested in the serious business of blowing and popping huge bubbles. 

Saturday night brought the promise of more rain, so we asked Lexi if she wanted to spend some quality play time with her Grammie and Papa so John and I could have a little date night.  She did!  And we did too!

We did dinner and a movie.  We saw Life of the Party.  It was a Melissa McCarthy flick, which meant that I was all about it, and John pretty much suffered through it.  But hey, she played an awesome lady named Deanna, so there's something already, right?    The storyline is a little predictable.  She is a mom who is sending her daughter away to her senior year in college.  Her husband asks for a divorce about 5 minutes into the movie.  So she decides to get it together and get on with her life by finishing her own college degree- AT THE SAME COLLEGE AS HER DAUGHTER.  Here's the official trailer. 

And here we are.  All smiles.  

This was the concoction that John ordered for dinner. I think it was called a horseshoe.  It was bread, with a hamburger patty, then cheese, covered with french fries, queso, chili, and jalapenos. I'm not sure why on earth he ordered this.  Even he didn't like it (that much).  I ordered a couple really fresh fish tacos that we soooo good, but this picture was better.  Ha!

Sunday morning brought the sun back out.  We finished up a little planting in the yard.

And it was then that I noticed that our lillies are abloom once again in the pond out back. 

After a little yard work, we were ready to hit the pool for the first time this season.  Lexi jumped right in. And she was completely undeterred by the chilly water temps.  

I snapped the photo on the right below at the pool on Sunday and I instantly had deja vu.  When we got back home I searched and searched until I found the photo on the left.  It was taken almost exactly two years ago. Lexi had just turned two, and spent the entire summer in swim caps.   Now, at four, she's far too grown up to wear the swim caps anymore, but other than that, she still looks exactly the same to me.    

We spent the evening at home grilling in our own back yard.  John manned the grill and I whipped up a couple Mai Tais for us.  I am planning to post the recipe on the blog next week.  It's a winner.  We first fell in love with Mai Tais in Hawaii, and then were reminded how good they are when we were down in Florida last month. 

Monday morning was hot and humid out.  Before taking off to the pool, we knew we needed to snap Lexi's annual birthday photo since we had not done that yet and her birthday was almost a month ago.  Ever since Lexi turned one, I always take this picture of her at the edge of our garden with the chalkboard declaring how old Lexi is (now).  That beautiful white dress she is wearing is one I purchased on Etsy to replicate the Mary Poppins supercalifragilisticexpialidocious dress.  White dresses and four-year olds don't really mix that well.  After a couple minutes her pretty dress met with the red chalk on the board, and both were done for the day.  In any case, I did get this pic.  Yay!!

And to give you an idea of what these pictures have turned out like in the past few years, here she is last year when she just turned three.

And again and age two. 

And where it all began as a babe just turning one. 

But back to the events of this weekend.  All was not lost once the dress and the chalkboard collided.  We did get quite a few cute little outtakes before I slipped her out of that dress.  

Then it was back to the pool for the second day in a row.   Lexi always likes to start in the kiddy pool, and I mean for like usually two minutes or less.  Just enough to get wet, and then my big girl wants in the big pool. 

This will be her third summer of swim lessons, but the first time she has actually worn goggles.  She is requesting them now, so we are working on it.  Lessons will start again soon.  This kid is fearless in the water, which as you all know, is good and bad.  We have to watch her like a hawk, and we do.  There isn't much down time to relax when you are at the pool with the babe, but we all have fun, and that's what counts. 

Just look at her smile!  We rounded out our holiday weekend with another night grilling at home, and then the rain set in again.  

And now, we prepare for Subtropical Storm Alberto to move right over us and dump a lot of rain on our part of the world.  I know it already has and will continue to impact lots of you too over the coming days, so please stay safe as it moves through.  

That's all for now.  It's been another great holiday weekend here.  Hope you all had a nice one too.  And I hope that we all can take a little time to remember, reflect, and express our gratitude for the reason we celebrate Memorial Day each year. 

My Week in Pictures: May 25, 2018

Well. it's certainly been awhile since I have done a "My Week in Pictures" post but it would seem that we have had a lot going on lately, and have a lot of pictures to prove it.  So I thought I would resurrect this column for a few weeks and see how it goes.  As in the past, I am posting this on a Friday and the "week" that you see here actually started at the end of last week, and continued through today.   

So, here we go...

Late last week, our Babydoll finished up her first year of preschool.  What a milestone!  She started back in August at the grand old age of 3, and finished as a big girl at the ripe old age of 4.  Here she is on Day One back in August.  

Full of spirit and ready to go!

She has made so many little friends at school this year, and loves her teachers and all the activities they do in class.  What a wonderful experience this has been for us all.  Here are some of her very first school pictures, taken last fall, when she was right at 3 1/2 years old. 

And the books she is "reading" below are actually our books.  We sent in some of her favorites to use as props.  And this picture turned out to be one of my favorites for that very reason. 

Fast forward (literally) to the Spring of 2018, and our Lexi girl had another set of school pictures.  Here she is almost 4 years old. 

And here she was last week on her very last day of school.  When we were just starting her school year for the very first time, someone (I can't remember who now) told me to save whatever she wore on her first day and then wear it again on the last day.  I can't believe I remembered to do it, but I did!  And what a wonderful tip.  It's a great visual reminder of how much they have grown over the course of the school year!

In Lexi's case, she grew 2 1/2 inches since last August and this little dress won't work for very much longer, I'm afraid.  She's also wearing the same bow and shoes as she did on the first day.  The shoes just barely fit now, and will have to be replaced with a shiny new pair for next school year. Thank goodness bows always fit!

Her class partied their last day away.  Here she is with quite a few (boy)friends enjoying popsicles for snack that day.

Last weekend, the rodeo made their annual stop in our town, and we decided to take Lexi for the first time to see how she enjoyed it.  Here we all are as we made our way up to the gates.  You could hear fiddle players playing outside as we walked up.  So we knew we were in for a treat!

Babydoll got all dolled up for the rodeo in her red gingham dress.

And matching red cowgirl boots. 

And then it was off to the races!  Lexi has loved pony rides since she was a wee lass.  And just look at her now.  Still loving on those ponies!

Oh, but she had her sights set on much bigger things.  From the moment she spied the mechanical bull, she wanted to ride it.  I definitely wasn't so sure and once we saw the line, I didn't think she would go for it either.  But Lexi would not be deterred.  She was all business.  Check out that game face.   I told the operator to take it easy on her and he did.  Thank goodness.  But when the ride was over she was upset that she didn't get thrown off like all the others before her had.  Can you say daredevil?

Once the rodeo action began, Lexi was honestly more interested in eating popcorn than watching the show.  Oh well, she kicked her little feet up for a while to watch the calf roping and bronco riding.  That action was so fast paced, I couldn't get pics that weren't a blur. But it was super fun to watch. 

This lovely lady was a trick rider and I actually managed a few pictures of her and her fabulous horses. Here she is riding two horses at once, barefoot, and standing atop them both. WOW!!  She even added a third horse in the middle at one point.  Amazing! 

Saturday night brought our annual Crawfish in the Cul de Sac block party.  Every year this party gets a little bigger, and it's always so much fun.  The kids play.  The adults chat.  We all catch up and eat.  To me, this get together will always signal the unofficial start to summer. 

As the sun gets a little lower in the sky, the low country boil gets spread out for all to enjoy. 

We always pull out our popcorn machine for the kids (and big kids) to enjoy. Here's Lexi and one of her friends giving us a not-so-subtle hint that they are ready to get the popcorn popping. 

Babydoll donned her little crab outfit.  It's the closest to a crawfish outfit I could find.  Incidentally, she just got this scooter and she spent a big chunk of the evening scooting all over the cul de sac with her friends.  I'm pretty sure she tuckered herself out, as you can see here. 

At some point in the 8 o'clock hour, the sky rumbled a bit of thunder and people started clearing out left and right.  Those of us that actually live in the cul de sac didn't have far to go, obviously, so we took the time to pull up the radar, and we soon realized that there weren't any storms threatening us after all.  So we decided to keep the party going.  Here I am with some of my wonderful friends and neighbors.  

We even summoned several of the neighborhood ladies back and ended up staying up far far too late after all the kiddos were down for the count- chatting about a little bit of everything under the stars.  The men folk were around somewhere too, but by the end of the night, we were ready to sit and relax a bit.  We had such a nice time, and thankfully the weather cooperated after all. 

That same day across the pond, there was an intimate wedding ceremony between a lovely couple- an Englishman and an American actress.  It received a little media attention that day.  Did you happen to hear about it?  :)  In any case, this was my attempt at Meghan's wedding day hairdo.  I think it needed a tiara, don't you?

By the beginning of this week, Lexi slipped into her new vintage Bambi dress that Aunt Donna made for her birthday, and we took a few pictures of that pretty dress in action.   In case you haven't seen the full blog post about how to make a dress like this, here's the link for you. 

Did I mention that Lexi loves to swing?  She could literally do just that ALL DAY LONG!!  

Earlier this week, I also blogged about a new-to-me recipe/ cooking app called Mealime.  It houses a ton a simple and healthy meal plan recipes, and it has me so excited to prepare dinner for my family each night.  Here's the link to the full blog post in case you haven't seen it yet.   This was dinner that I whipped up on Monday night- fish tacos- made with fresh halibut, homemade slaw, and homemade guacamole.  It was so yummy!

After dinner, it was off through the neighborhood for a little golf cart ride.  Lexi likes to bring a couple toys along to play with once we get to the neighborhood ponds. 

I like to bring a little vino along for the same.  :)

We keep a couple bottles of bubbles in the console of our golf cart so we can see to the business of blowing and popping bubbles at a moment's notice.  It's the little things. 

By midweek this week, I was back in the kitchen with another fabulous Mealime meal.  This time it was a grilled Ribeye with a tomato, corn, and avocado salad.  I cannot say enough how good these meals are, and how easy- beginning to end about 35 minutes in the kitchen. 

Then it was a little time in the yard to see how our plants are coming along.  We were late planting this year.  We had a super late frost date this spring, and then we left for vacation.  By the time we came back home, it was firmly in the 80s every day and definitely time to get planting.   Here are my shamrocks and a few herbs.  I bought those shamrocks on St. Patrick's Day this year, and they have at least doubled in size already. 

We have most of our potted plants already planted for the season, and they are starting to take off now.  Hoping to get it all finished over the upcoming holiday weekend.  That little flamingo watering can was a Target dollar bin find!

We also got the waterfall on the pond fired up again this week.  John cleaned the pond over the weekend and the fish are all happy (and healthy) and eating us out of house and home once again. Life is good. 

As the first week of Lexi being home on summer break, I thought we would be a lot busier, but as it turned out, she has had a couple of low key days- not quite under the weather but also not quite herself. So we are making a bit of a slow entry in our summer break together.  All is well.  When life gives you rain, it's usually followed by rainbows- or at least pretty blooms from the garden.  Lexi felt much better today and helped me clip these lovelies to bring in from our rose garden. 

The Harris Sisters have been in constant contact these past few weeks as we prepare for our annual Girls' Weekend.  Much more on that to come. And today kicks off the long Memorial Day weekend, which looks to be a bit rainy in these parts.  But it will be nice to have some unhurried family time together no matter the weather.  I hope you all enjoy your long weekend ahead too.  Be well, friends.