Riverbanks Zoo

Happy Memorial Day! Hope you enjoy hanging out with family and friends, and that you stop to honor our servicemen and women.

We went to the Riverbanks Zoo a few weeks ago and the girls had a blast!

The tigers were sleepy:)
Yuck, I think bats are gross


Okay, gorillas are huge!
They were really funny, acting like they had a hard life out resting in the shade
It is indeed a hard life
Reese in the ERGO. She was such a trooper.
Gracie, Pipes, Jack, Ellie, Tristen and Makenzie
The bears were having a brawl right before our eyes

The lions
The little petting zoo
The flamingoes

Picnics are fun

Especially when they are shared with sisters and friends:)

Thank you Mrs. Rita for all the fun picnic stuff!

"O Omnipresent One, beneath whose all-seeing eye our mortal lives are passed, grant that in all my deeds and purposes to-day I may behave with true courtesy and honour. Let me be just and true in all my dealings. Let no mean or low thought have a moment's place in my mind. Let my motives be transparent to all. Let my word be my bond. Let me take no unchivalrous advantage of anybody. Let me be generous in my judgement of others. Let me be disinterested in my opinions. Let me be loyal to my friends and magnanimous to my opponents. Let me face adversity with courage. let me not ask or expect too much for myself.

Yet, O, Lord God, let me not rest content with such an ideal of manhood as men have known apart from Christ. Rather let such a mind be in me as was in Him. Let me not rest till I come to the stature of His own fullness. Let me listen to Christ's question: What do ye more than others? And so may the threefold Christian graces of faith, hope, and love be more and more formed within me, until all my walk and conversation be such as becometh the gospel of Christ."

Amen

"A Diary of Private Prayer" by John Baillie

Mary Mary Quite Contrary....

How does your garden grow...Season 2!

Last year we had amazing success with our little Earthboxes! But they are expensive to make and we didn't have the moolah this year to match the garden I had in my head:) So we went for both a traditional garden and the Earthboxes.

We spent two days prepping, seeding, and sowing and we are thrilled with our results!

Here's what the ground looked like when we started....

Jeremy tilled it for us with the tractor...
Then came the hard labor of making the rows.... There's Matt but we all helped him. I was sore for three days after this!
Nice pretty rows...
Tracie had the idea to cover the rows to keep the weeding down...
Then we started planting. This is Matt and Phil. Phil is our NY city friend. Planting a garden with him was hilarious! He couldn't get over the tractor, making a "farm" as he called the garden, and how hard our ground/dirt is here. F.u.n.n.y. We laughed a lot at him. What a good friend to come and help us:)

Then the girls, Tracie, and I planted...
From seeds! We've never planted from seeds before.
And here are our earthboxes...


Stay tuned! We'll see how much fruit we get!

And we still have to put up the fence to keep the deer out.

Summer Survival kit - Natural Sunscreen with Green tea + Dr. Mercola's BUG OFF

Friends,

This article is worthy of your time as the pools open and we head to the beach!

I can personally vouch for this sunscreen because I bought it last year.

Summer Survival kit - Natural Sunscreen with Green tea + Dr. Mercola's BUG OFF

Strawberries!

May brings the strawberries! We took a trip to Patterson Farms to pick our own bushel. They were SO yummy this year.

Nine

Can you believe Reese Leigh is NINE months old?!!

This little (actually big:) ) sweetness brings so much delight to our house. Really, I can't get over it.

As you can see, we are finally sitting on our own:)

When I took her to the Dr. two weeks ago she weighed a whopping 20 lbs and 12 ozs!! She's 88% for weight and 110% for her height. I think she's 29 inches long. Already wearing 12-18 month clothes!

And her momma finally started feeding her solids. She's really not too good at it yet:) She's had green beans, carrots, and prunes. Her favorite: prunes.
I finally got her sweet little dimple in a picture! Most of the time as soon as I pull out the camera she stops smiling.
Reese is still a great sleeper. Still taking three naps a day. Loves her thumb and sleeping on her tummy. She's definitely a mama's girl but she'll go to others too. She usually wants me back quickly:)

She's really interested in electronics of all kinds. She was mesmerized by Jeremy's phone tonight. I gave her an old remote control to play with but she's not too happy with me. She wants the real deal. Stinker.

The cutest thing: She's discovered Reilly, our dog. She talks and squeals at her anytime she see her coming. It's precious and I really need to get it on video.

She's babbling a good bit now and playing with toys and grasping them well. No interest in crawling or really being on her tummy at all unless she's sleeping. Pipes was a late walker so I guess she'll be too.

Looking forward to this summer with her! She loves the water!

May Brings...

Beautiful weather and lots of time outside.

We've been enjoying the trampoline

Even me

Oh and silly bands. Have these things invaded your house yet?