Sunshine Lavender Farm

Our cute friend Miss Pam invited us to visit her brother and sister-in-law's lavender farm for the harvest celebration. The Andersen family joined us, and all of us had a fabulous day at the farm. It was oh so beautiful up there and the weather was perfect. We saw ponies and horses, learned all about lavender and its many uses, made fun lavender crafts, had a picnic, and even ate lavender ice cream. On the way home Grant asked me, "Can we go back again next year?" Yes! :)

Miss Pam and the crew, eating yummy lavender ice cream

Kate and Grant brushing Daisy the pony

Kimball and Kate made lavender wands, and I made a lavender basket. Liza and Grant chose to make little bags of dried lavender.

In the middle of the lavender garden. Look at that cute house in the background. The whole farm was seriously picture perfect!

Riding Trotter, the most kid-friendly horse there. :) 

Grant loved this horse

Checking out the horse pasture. Don't you love Liza's boots ?

Preschool Graduation & Tea Party

We've done a little co-op preschool for Liza this year with two other girls in our ward. All of the moms taught once a week, so the girls got to go three days a week. We had a lot of fun singing and reading and playing and learning together. I can hardly believe it's time for my Liza to start kindergarten, so I decided to throw her (and her little school friends) a party. We had a short graduation program (complete with Pomp and Circumstance playing in the background, of course) then we had a fancy tea party. My favorite memories of the whole party will be the time Liza and I spent planning and preparing everything. She was really into setting the table fancy and using our china teacups and making sure we had lots of good food. My kind of girl! :)

Doesn't get much cuter than that!

The last few months we've been letting the little brothers come to preschool sometimes, and Grant really loves it. He wants to do everything his big sister does. He's sure going to miss her when she starts kindergarten. :(

The whole crew

Enjoying our tea party

Showing off the graduation cap I made and the fancy fan and wand Liza decorated during the tea party (and of course Liza's favorite baby doll Rebecca made her appearance)

I'm sad my baby girl is growing up, but I'm proud of her for what an amazing little lady she's becoming.

Marshall and Lisa's Visit

Strawberry picking at a farm near our house

It was oh so fun to have my brother Marshall and his cute wife Lisa Jane come to visit us this month. We hadn't seen them since 2010, so it was definitely time! We fit a lot into our week together. Here's a sampling of our fun adventures.

Hiking by the Eno River 

Racing (Grant's favorite game) on Duke campus

The cute couple. We're so excited about their baby coming this summer!

Posing at the Bennett Place Historic Site

The dinosaur trail at the Museum of Life and Science

Lovin' our favorite summertime treat: Pelican Snoballs

Yes, we jumped on the bed in Asheville at Mark's awesome apartment. :)

Looking out from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC

I just love these guys.

World War II Memorial in DC

Funny to think that when Mark and Marshall first met, Marshall was only 10. :)

There are a hundred more fun pictures, thanks to Lisa's sweet new camera, but here's enough to show how much fun we had exploring North Carolina and DC. Of course we don't have photo proof of staying up late playing board games or eating lots of yummy food together or reading books with the kids or driving for hours and hours in our van... but we sure did make some good memories. Thanks for coming, Marshall and Lisa. We miss you already!

Springtime in NC

We are loving the perfect spring weather--especially since we know the humidity and heat will be here all too soon. We had a great day at the zoo last week with Kimball's second grade field trip.

Kimball with his awesome teacher

Yes, we spent a lot of time at the elephant exhibit. Kimball has decided elephants are his favorite animal, and I couldn't be prouder. :)

My kids with some of Kimball's friends from school

Kimball was quite the photographer at the zoo. This is one of his shots.

This weekend, my kids decided to try out spring sledding in our backyard... 

Along with the usual arguing and teasing, my kids have been playing really well together lately. They've been into Legos and dart guns and running around outside together. It makes for happy kids and a happy mom.

A Week at the Beach!

We just got back from a fabulous, relaxing week in the Outer Banks. We rented a beach house with a fun group of friends (23 of us in all), and we played hard from morning till night. We saw three lighthouses (Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke, and Bodie Island), visited some beautiful beaches and spent several full days hanging out on the awesome beach right outside our beach house, went to Kitty Hawk and Jockey's Ridge, celebrated Easter (complete with church, an Easter devotional, an egg hunt, and egg dyeing), stayed up late playing card games, ate amazing food... wish we were still there! Here are some of our favorite pictures from the trip:

Easter egg hunt on the beach!

Taking our morning walk

Standing in the huge hole we dug for the kids to play in. You can see it better in a couple other pictures...

Always have to take a self-shot. :)

The hole (complete with balance beam)

Posing on some random posts on our beach

I love these kids.

Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers Monument

The first lighthouse we visited, Cape Hatteras

Sitting at the base of the lighthouse--this give you an idea of how tall it is!

Visiting Ocracoke... it was cold that day, but oh so pretty.

Football on the beach on Ocracoke Island

A pocket-ful of sand

Ocracoke Lighthouse

On the ferry (with our cars) riding back from Ocracoke 

Digging for sand crabs by our beach house

Sand crabs!

Poor Kimball. Grant was very worried about him. :)

The guys found an old canoe under the house and took it out into the ocean. There was a huge feeding frenzy going on about 200 yards away from us in the ocean, with birds swooping down to catch fish, and dolphins jumping all over the place. It was amazing! The guys were able to go out there and get a closer look at the birds and dolphins.

Cute friends

The final lighthouse we visited: Bodie Island

Driving home... yep, we even topped off our vacation with a trip to Krispy Kreme. 

We all needed the time away from our daily stresses. We got to reconnect as a family and recharge our batteries for the busy months ahead. We're thankful for great friends here who made our vacation into a real party. Happy times!