June 29

The little man and I took another road trip this weekend. This time we traveled over to Arcadia to visit our old friends the McManus'. It's such a lovely drive to the town in the middle of nowhere. Relaxing. Peaceful. Beautiful.

We had some good old summer time fun with our friends. We filled up our bellies with some delicious soup, salad, and sandwiches. Hit up the local mini theater and saw the adorable movie Wall-E. And after all the running about "town" we relaxed by the pool. The kids energy and imaginations were in full throttle.

It's so wonderful to have good friends to visit and share these summer moments with. Sometimes we get wrapped up in our busy little lives and don't stop to notice how wonderful our friends are and how important they are to us. But I've been noticing things more and trying to be more aware of the simple gifts we have been given :)

Happy Summer!

little Ethan is 1 month old!

I can't even believe it! It's been one month since I last saw this cute little face. I think I'm one lucky gal to be the personal photographer for this happy boy. His one month pictures are up on flickr if you would like to check them out. Next up - 3 months!!!

Leu Gardens

While we were in Orlando this weekend visiting Jill and Ethan we took a trip to Leu Gardens. It was a beautiful place with tons of paths, bridges, hills, gigantic trees, and gorgeous plants. At this lookout over a massive lake Kaiden was in search of the resident American alligator. He was no where to be found but we did find a couple other friends that wanted to visit!



This big guy was in the middle of one of the paths(Jill almost stepped right on him!).
But luckily Kaiden was brave and rescued him from being smooshed by any others. Kaiden was fascinated by this HUGE seed pod. It came from a sausage tree. Tons of these were hanging like fruit from this massive tree. Kaiden insisted we take this big one home and plant it in our hard to have our own sausage tree. He carried it for quite a while until he became too hot, tire, hungry, and cranky to move it any further. Then I took over looking like a crazy person carrying a large sausage throughout the gardens.

Even though it was terribly hot we still had a fun little adventure. Exploring, finding treasures, and animal friends. What more could we ask for?

big kid class

Kaiden has been having such a good time at KDO this summer! He was moved up to the "big kids class" and has enjoyed all of its benefits. They play soccer, football, cook in the kitchen, build amazing creations out of K'Nex without the little ones demolishing them, and just do all the cool things big kids do!

Here is Kaiden and his buddy Lance. They are inseparable at KDO! They play together all day, sit next to each other, hold hands, and always stick up for one another. Lance is actually 4 years old and supposed to still be in the 3-4 year old class but they let him go up to the big kid class with Kaiden since they are such good pals.

When summer is over I think Kaiden is going to go into Lance withdrawal. The days that we aren't at KDO Kaiden asks all day long when we will be going to KDO next to see him!

ready for an adventure

Kaiden and I had a fantastic day over at Oscar Sherer State park last week. Our first order of business was to check out the hiking trails.

While at the information center (which was awesome! lots of bones, fossils, and exhibits) we found this neat local animal track guide. Kaiden couldn't wait to get out on a trail and find some tracks. He insists we found wood rat, panther, and red fox tracks. The guide also had a scat and splat (aka poo trail) section. I picked up some badger poo by accident ;)

We took the trail along the creek and stopped periodically to watch the large fish jumping out of the water. I tried convincing Kaiden to go canoeing with me. He says next time.

All along the way we were checking out holes, sticks, trees, small paths, and keeping our eyes out for Indian artifacts. Here is a picture of Kaiden exploring a hole with his "Indian knife" which he donated to the information center for other children to learn about ancient Indian tools.

After the trail we took a refreshing dip in the lake. We had the lake all to ourselves and it ws so peacful and relaxing.

We also took his bike and he rode on some of the more even trails. This place had everything an adventurous boy could ask for. I think he was ready to set up camp and stay for the summer!

cock-a-doodle-doo

Check out the chickens - They are all grown up! We were hoping we had all hens but it turns out we were blessed with two roosters. So now meet Gretchen, Mr. Bird, and Winston. I absolutely adore my chickens and was so sad when one morning I heard some slight cock-a-doodle-dooing. We are allowed to have chickens as long as there is no noise disturbance. I was in search of a new home for them the next day.

So now here they are in their new luxury coop - complete with their own tree for roosting and a special nest just for Gretchen.

I'm terribly sad to see them go to another home. I miss letting them out every morning and having them follow me around the backyard clucking with excitement while I water my garden. But they now have a wonderful place to live and good people to care for them. Plus, we can visit whenever we want!