Sarah Grace turns 4!

Well, it happened, my baby turned 4 on Tuesday. Just as I say every year, I cannot believe 4 years have passed since the day she was born. She came into this world with an adventurous, loud and bold spirit, and that is still who she is today. Sarah Grace enjoys parties and would like to make time to attend all of them. The "special treats" alone are enough to make them worthwhile, but any new adventure-person, place, etc. is always good in her book. She thought her birthday was "100 good" which is how she describes things she REALLY likes these days. We had a small family party on Sunday and she just really had a wonderful day. She was the perfect birthday girl appreciating everything she received and passing out hugs and kisses a-plenty. I thank God every day that he gave me the priviledge of being this little girl's Mommy. Happy 4th birthday my precious baby.

Grilling again---YUM!!

Typically we grill food all year long, but Greg's grill needed a new part this winter which we did not get taken care of until a few weeks ago. We are grilling again and I am SO happy. This was a recently grilled meal--- Blackened chicken and mini portobellas stuffed with mozz. and marinated artichokes. If you shop Kroger Richmond Road, on the olive bar they have mini mozzarella balls and marinated artichokes (in separate containers). We grilled the portobella's (lightly olive oiled, salted/peppered) until nearly complete and then filled each with the diced mozz and artichokes and grilled long enough to allow that to melt/get warm.....oh it was so yummy. We will be eating it again this week (probably tomorrow). My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

If you give a girl a dinosaur...

This one was supposed to be last...we found a wooly worm on our walk which Sarah Grace adored and allowed to crawl all over her. Towards the end of the walk a pre-teen girl in our neighborhood informed us that some caterpillars are poisonous. Fortunately for us, this one was not! She named it "Turtle" because it moved very slowly. She played with it for over an hour so sweetly then threw it in the water table where I had to rescue it from being drowned. :)

If you give a girl a dinosaur........she will bathe it with water from the table and blue sidewalk chalk "paste" (this is what happens to sidewalk chalk that is left out in the rain and then trampled on by little feet....warning: do NOT try this at home!)

Bathing dinosaurs with blue sidewalk chalk paste makes little girls very happy!

Some old pix..feeling nostalgic today

Can't believe this was only 2 summers ago....

Baby Sam Christmas 2004

Two peas in a pod...Daddy and Sam (early 2004?)


Sam....squishing some edible substance

My sweet l'il punkin Sarah Grace Halloween 2005

The good thing about boys

It is hard to know where to begin and end with "the good thing about boys"....For starters, there is really something to "Mama's boys" and "Daddy's girls"--boys are just very near and dear to your heart. Sam told me today, "I think you are the best cooker in the whole world" and he has said similar things about other virtues he believes I have. While I do believe I am a good cook, I am certainly not the best, nor am I these other things that only he sees in me. Boys believe their moms can do no wrong (not so with girls). Boys keep you on your toes by leaving rubber frogs in your freezer and other science experiments (which I will not go into detail about now). Boys look out for their younger sisters and although they may cause bodily harm to their sibling, NOone else will! I could go on and on about boys, especially the one in this picture. He is a very special young man. If you are reading this, I do hope you have the pleasure of knowing him. This is a picture of Sam on one of our first really warm days in KY this year. He and Sarah Grace played in the sprinkler and had such fun.