Maple Jones and Wormie

Whenever we go out for walks Hannah and Lily are forever walking at a snail's pace stopping to pick up what sometimes seems like every rock or twig that lines their path.  This week I decided that we should actually use some of the things that they liked to collect and turn them into something fun.  We took a little walk outside before the heat became too unbearable to intentionally collect all the sticks, rocks and leaves their little hands could pick up...

We brought all their findings home and dumped them out on the table...

I grabbed the glue gun and we got to work.  Here is one of our creations...

Her name is Maple Jones according to Hannah and she now sits on the windowsill in our kitchen. She has an apron made from leaves from our bushes, a maple leaf for a hat, rocks for a body, sticks for arms, leaves for feet and a sweetgum ball for head.  We think she's pretty cute!  My favorite part of this project was watching Hannah use her imagination and come up with using these great leaves for Maple's feet and showing me how they also make great bunny ears.  This is a project that I will keep on hand for those days when we are going a little stir crazy in the house and need a little distraction.

We also have a new pet in our house.   She looked like this when she arrived...

 

Her name according to Hannah is Wormie Worm and she is actually a caterpillar.  She arrived at our house attached to a piece of corn in our "vegbox".  We decided to put her in our little bug viewer with her corn and watch her for a few days.  Hannah and Lily thoroughly enjoyed watching her feast on the corn and crawl around the little bug box.  A few days later though we checked on her and she looked like this...

So we are now raising a butterfly.  We have changed her home to include some leaves and a stick, read up on what to do when she emerges and plan on releasing her back outside once she is ready.  It is a really neat process to watch and we are anxiously awaiting Wormie's debut as a beautiful butterfly.

Have a great weekend!

A week of firsts

Whew! We had what seemed like an incredibly busy week of firsts at our house and they all revolved around my favorite little 4 year old daughter.

Hannah had her very first dance class...

her first vacation bible school (complete with a great closing performance)...

and her first swimming lessons...

It was a whirlwind of running from one place to the next trying to get Hannah where she needed to be, not to mention getting Lily to her school and fitting in her naps.  Lily stayed in good spirits all week despite being awakened from her nap most afternoons for Hannah's swim lessons.  She is so ready for her turn to be involved in all of this fun...

I think this might be a glimpse into my future hectic life down the road.  Thank goodness though, for now, life can return to our normal, slightly more relaxed, schedule next week :)

Have a great weekend!

Meeting in the Middle

My sister, Bekah, and her husband of 1 month and 11 days, Hugh, live in newly married wedded bliss in Nashville, TN. 

Nashville is 3 hours away from Birmingham and Birmingham just happens to be where Bekah's favorite older sister lives. Hugh is originally from Magee, MS which is about 4 hours away from Birmingham and is where Hugh's sweet parents, Kim and Alfred, still reside.

Bekah and Hugh have a dog named Cooper that they received as an early wedding gift...

He is a labradoodle and he is very glad his parents are finally married.  Cooper also loves his summer haircut that he received before the picture above was taken.  He is usually nice and fluffy but now he is cool and comfy.

So Bekah and Hugh went on a belated honeymoon last week to Jamaica and Hugh's kind parents agreed to dogsit Cooper for the week.  Hugh met his parents in Birmingham to drop off Cooper before they left for the honeymoon and last Sunday Birmingham was chosen again as sort of a mid point for Cooper's grandparents to return him to his mama and daddy.

I was so excited when Bekah sent me the email from her swanky beach resort to let me know they would be coming for a little visit when they returned home. Mom was already planning on being here to stay with us while Matt went out of town for work so all I needed was my baby sister, Rachel, to make this visit perfect.

I have not had both my sisters under my roof in a really long time and so I gave Rachel, who also lives in Nashville a call. Rachel is in school and had a big test this week but she caved and agreed to hitch a ride with Bekah and Hugh and study in the car.

Sometimes you just miss your sisters and need a good visit to make things all better.  Everyone met here for lunch and for a little belated birthday celebration for Mom.  My heart was very happy to have these three playing with my girls and sitting on our porch swing...

 Our cousin Lauren and her husband, Chase, joined in on the fun too.

 

With my girls entertained by so many people I could actually walk around and take some pictures.  It was quite a treat...

 

 

 

 

The day was over way too soon but I am so glad for even these quick visits from family.  I am hoping for another visit from my sisters in the near future and this time overnight bags better be included :)

How does your garden grow?

I have dreamed of having my very own garden for several years now and my sweet, precious, dear, wonderful hubby decided that this was the year to help me make that happen.  We only have one spot in our yard that is really an appropriate place for a garden and that involved taking out an entire row of not so attractive privet hedges.  Matt did this by hand and, as things always tend to do for us, it turned in to quite a job....

A whole row of these suckers had to come out and let me tell ya it wasn't fun for poor Matt.  But it is done and our yard really does look better with the hedges gone.  Our neighbor has beautiful azaleas that were hidden behind our hedges so now those line our garden area.

We are planning our garden based on the book "All New Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew.

It seemed like the best solution for the little area of space we have in our small yard.  Basically we built a raised garden where you grow your fruits, veggies, flowers, etc.  in square foot sections.  There is a whole formula to all of this but Mel, the author, has it all figured out and has laid everything out in a seemingly simple manner.  I will let you all know if it is as revolutionary as he claims when it comes time to harvest what we are planting.

Once the hedges were cleared, Matt and Hannah marked off the garden area...

The building process was a family affair...

and I have never seen Hannah work so hard on a project.  Sweat was literally pouring from her sweet head.  I should probably stop here and tell you that I did not realize how much work she was actually going to do when I let her go outside in the dress she was wearing.  This was actually the same day as Lily's 1/2 birthday celebration so they were both a little overdressed for working in the yard.  Thankfully Hannah's dress was machine washable :)

Now that that little matter is cleared up...Both girls really did enjoy helping out and Hannah is now a master at reading a level, holding a hammer, and many other great things.  She loves, loves, loves working with her daddy and I am always such a proud mama when I see my girls involved in what we are doing around the house.

With the construction phase of the garden complete we have spent the past couple of days putting in the soil and planting our summer veggies.  I will save that for a later post though.  I hope you all have a great weekend!

Love,
The Browns

Strawberries & Lemons

In honor of Memorial Day, and all the good food and drinks that come along with it, I thought I would share some photos from our latest adventure in the kitchen making strawberry lemonade.

From Hannah's licking the lemon to Lily's trying to eat the rind both girls agreed that lemons are, in Hannah's words, "yucky" but the lemonade was mmmmmmm.....good!

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Happy 1/2 Birthday

This month we celebrated Lily's half birthday.  We had to do it a little late because my little ones were under the weather on the actual day but we celebrated nevertheless.

18 months is such a big time in a baby's life and so much has changed over the past 6 months.  Lily's personality is developing more and more with each passing day and I love watching her grow.  This sweet child of mine is so sensitive and loving and independent and boy does she ever have a temper.  She wants to simultaneously be on my hip every second of the day while at the same time running around doing everything on her own.

Lily's bunny is her best friend right behind her sister Hannah or "Nannie" as she calls her.  Every morning when I go to get Lily out of her crib she proudly holds Bunny up and points to her and says excitedly "Bunny!" as if she is introducing us for the first time. 

It is "Nannie" though that is Lily's favorite these days.  Lily chases her around and her eyes are constantly watching and learning from her sister.  She wants to do absolutely EVERYTHING Hannah does down to drinking from the exact same cup and eating off of the exact same plate. 

Lily's favorite food is Italian meatballs, she loves black eyed peas and broccoli, and no matter how many times I try she won't touch milk with a ten foot pole.  Lily is in love with her teacher Ms. Waffa at her Mother's Day Out program and constantly asks for "Vaffa" at home.  Her favorite place to play is outside whether it is at the sand and water table or digging in the rocks, dirt or mulch (which really stresses her ocd clean lovin' mother out).

This blond headed, blue eyed little girl is, as her older sister would say, "teeny weeny" (weighing in at a whopping 19lbs 5 oz).  She thinks that the Sandra Boynton book "Blue Hat, Green Hat" is absolutely hilarious and loves to read anything that involves animals.  Lily loves animals but right now but only from afar.  The second one comes too close she starts looking up at me waving those little hands for me to save her.  She is talking up a storm, even forming simple sentences, and it seems that every day produces several new words.  (Today she asked me "'ere's MY Nannie?" aka "Where's my Hannah" and my heart melted just a little.)  My favorite words to hear her say right now are puppy and bunny.  She has this cute little intonation when she says both of those words and it is just too precious.  Lily has a gang of friends that she loves to sleep with in her bed and she calls them each by name...."Ne", "E-E", "Baby", "Puppy" and, of course, "Bunny".

In case you can't tell I love this little baby girl oh so much and I am so blessed to be her mama!  Happy half birthday my sweet Lils!