Start of Summer

According to the calendar Summer doesn't officially start for another month. But, after all the warm weather we've had the past couple months I'm going to venture to say that we have unofficially started summer in our house. We've been wearing shorts and sundresses, Kaelyn had her last day of school yesterday, I've had to apply sunscreen almost daily and we broke out the sprinkler a few days ago.

Kaelyn was ecstatic when I suggested it. After all, her idea of a good time outside had been to help me pull some very stubborn weeds from the flower beds. I may say I did it for the kids, but in reality I was dripping with sweat after only five minutes outside, so a quick run through the sprinkler sounded pretty good to me.

LOVE this picture!

Bren loves playing in water so much I truly thought he'd be as excited about the sprinkler as Kaelyn. I was wrong. I guess the erratic, unpredictable spraying was more than he could handle.

And it truly felt like summer when Matt came (early even!) with some Bell's Oberon and we sat on the patio watching the kids play until it was time for dinner. I don't know if it was the heat, the fact that I was dying of thirst, the sprinkler running, the relaxed atmosphere with the kids happily playing or a combination of all of these things but that Oberon truly tasted like summer in a bottle. And then I read the label: "Oberon, our summer ale. An American wheat ale with the color and scent of a summer afternoon."

Bren decided he was safer digging in the garden with me and watching the sprinkler from a distance.

A perfect way to spend a midweek Summer, I mean May, afternoon.

Mother's Day Tea Party

So, I guess I'm a little behind on my blogging again. C'est la vie! (Fancy Nancy and Fancy Kaelyn should be very impressed with my use of French here.) Well, my fancy girl Kaelyn invited me to a very special Mother's Day Tea Party at her school last week. It was really quite precious. And it was Kaelyn's first real tea party.  I'm so glad I got to share that time with her. The kids came in and sang all of us moms and grandmas a special little Mother's Day song.

Then the teacher read a little something that the kids wrote about their mom or grandma.

I'm not really sure why, but she looked like a scared little bunny until she got to come sit by me.

The whole set up was really quite precious.

We decorated some cookies and drank our tea.

After seeing mama drink tea almost every morning for the past 3 1/2 years Kaelyn finally got to try it for herself.  She choose blueberry.  You could tell she really wanted to like because she thought she was supposed to like it (kind of like the carrot cake milkshakes I made for dessert the other day).

After a couple tiny sips she seemed relieved when I told her she didn't have to finish it.

Thank you for a very special day my sweet girl!

First Haircut

You may expect this post to be about our youngest child, and not our over 3 1/2 year old. But you would be mistaken. I gave Kaelyn her first hair cut the other night. Not that she really even needed it. As much as she may wish she was, Rapunzel she is not. But she has this one chunk that grows from the middle of her head and is much longer than the rest and it drives me bonkers. Plus, it stays straight while all the hair underneath curls. Headbands, bows, clips, even hairspray. I've tried it all. But I have yet to find that elusive tool that will stay in her hair and keep that crazy long piece in line with the rest and out of her face. Not to mention that we have this tiny little trip to the beach coming up which involves just a little (a.k.a. big) event. So I decided her long hair needed a little trim.