Somethin' Bit Me!

Do not be fooled by the sweet innocence of this little man's face. Yes, he has entered the biting stage! He has quite the choppers let me tell you...or maybe I should just show you the bite marks on my arms and legs.

Blessing #1

I have been born of goodly parents...

Not only do I owe them for the gift of my life, but also for raising me and teaching me so many (too numerous to name) life lessons. I am so grateful to be able to call them Mom and Dad. Happy Anniversary! I love you!

Count Your Many Blessings

I realize that I have so many blessings to be grateful for and decided I need to share my gratitude with others. So, as I recognize different blessings in my life I may just share with them with you my fellow blog readers. Look for Blessing #1 coming soon!

Family Fireworks

We spent the Fourth of July weekend in Pennsylvania at Matt's parents house. Here we are all gathered together for our own fireworks show! The kids enjoyed the sparklers (the adults couldn't wait for them to run out!) and Matt did a great job putting on the fireworks show for us.


**No participants were hurt during the creation of these pictures.**

Happy Fourth of July

America: Home of the free because of the brave.

We hope all our friends and family have a wonderful Fourth of July. We feel so blessed to live in this country where we have the freedom to worship as we believe and that we enjoy that freedom because of the brave men and women willing to die to protect it. May God bless America and protect those freedoms and rights we enjoy from those who would seek to destroy it. God bless our troops where ever they are serving.

Our Trip to the Lowcountry

Matt had a training seminar for work in Charleston, South Carolina and the children and I got to tag along with him for vacation. Matt was done by 4 o'clock everyday and so we got to spend time together as a family enjoying the sights of the lowcountry. We had a blast! Madelynne didn't want to come home until she realized her best friend, Evie, didn't live in Charleston. Even then she wanted Evie to come to Charleston to live instead of us going home to Cleveland.

Most afternoons before nap time we would go swimming. My secret plot to tire my children so thoroughly out they would want to take a nap.

The Lowcountry Children's Museum...

...the perfect rainy day solution! Since we couldn't do outside activities without getting soaked, we spent the afternoon exploring the offerings of the children's museum.
First, we tried our hand at being shrimp boat fishers.






The cutest little shrimp boat fisher you've ever seen.


Next stop: The Charleston Market.
To market, to market...it was so fun to watch Madelynne grocery shop all on her own! I was pleasantly surprised to discover she filled half of her cart with fruits and vegetables.




Madelynne managed to find the only chocolate the market was selling. Chocolate chips! She is definitely my daughter.


Waiting in line to purchase her groceries.


Unloading the groceries on the conveyor belt.


Jackson loved playing in the water room. Look at that smile...




Madelynne getting ready to race her golf ball on the "roller coaster".


Pretty, pretty princess. We could have stayed here all day and Madelynne would have been perfectly content! A whole room of the museum was turned into a castle. Madelynne was estatic to dress up in a pink dress and sleep in a real castle with a real princess bed. She kept pretending she was Sleeping Beauty.


Last stop: The art workshop.
Madelynne really enjoyed creating her own masterpieces in the art workshop. She was very excited to use the paint. The picture she is painting is of a fish swimming in the water. She also painted him wearing a raincoat so he would not get wet in the rain. Don't you just love the way children think?



The perfect ending to a rainy day outing. We went to this cute bakery devoted solely to cupcakes! Yum!

The delicious choices!

I, of course, chose a chocolate cupcake. The actual name? Death by Chocolate...not a bad way to go if you ask me!

What could of turned out to be a not so great day on our vacation actually ended up being one our favorites.