Happy 32nd Birthday, Josh!

The night before Josh's birthday, Eli and I baked him a birthday cake. Eli loves to help me in the kitchen. (training him for his future wife...she'll thank me one day!) We picked out a strawberry cake with strawberry icing...one of Josh's favorite cakes. 

Eli's favorite part is mixing all the ingredients. He's gotten very good at using the hand mixer.

Icing the cake was pretty fun, too, especially since Eli snuck little tastes every now and then. I guess he was tasting it to make sure it was alright for his Daddy to eat :)

The next picture is blurry, but I had to include it. Eli loved giving his Daddy his birthday cake and Daddy loved it too!

The next night (Josh's actual birthday), Zue-Zue took us all out to eat at one of the restaurants on the lake. It was such a special night getting to celebrate one of the best men I've ever known :) 

Seeing these two together makes my heart nearly burst!

Josh and his mom

Me and my love :)

When it came time to give Josh his gift, Eli was all about helping. We didn't get anything big for Josh because he's planning on getting something for his future man cave/golf room in the new house, but we did get him a shirt he can wear when he golfs.

Josh reading his birthday letter from Eli and me in his book. I bought one of these books for each of us and instead of spending money on cards for each holiday, birthday, or special occasion, we write in our books to each other. I think it's going to be fun to look back at all the messages over the years.

Josh and I don't eat much candy, but our one vice is peanut butter M&M's. I bought him a little box and Eli promptly took it from him. Looks like those are his favorites too :)

After we ate we walked around outside for a little while before heading home. I tried to get some pictures of Eli in front of the lake but he was very distracted by tall the scenery.

Eli and Zue-Zue

We enjoyed our night celebrating Josh's birthday. I'm so thankful and blessed to have him in my life! Happy Birthday, sweetie! I love you!

Memorial Day Swim

On Memorial Day, Josh, Eli, and I spent some time at the pool. We were so excited to get to spend the day swimming with Josh. He doesn't get to go to the pool with us much because of work :( Eli was excited to show off his swimming skills to his Daddy. He's doing so much better! 

My favorite two boys in the whole world!

After playing on the boogie board for a little bit, Josh helped Eli try to learn how to float. I couldn't stop laughing because Eli couldn't relax at all. He kept laying his head back and keeping his legs straight up in the air at a 90 degree angle. He's got a lot of practicing to do before he gets better at this!

It was a wonderful day at the pool and I'm so glad I got to spend it with my boys!

Three Little Boys

Eli and I are always looking for a fun play date during the summer and last week we got to visit some wonderful friends. My friend, Sarah, and her boys, Clayton and Cooper, invited us over to their house to swim and play for a couple of hours. These three boys are stair steps of each other so it's always fun to watch them play together. Clayton is almost 4, Eli is almost 3, and Cooper is almost 2. They all had lots of fun playing outside and in the pool. Eli especially loved riding around in their John Deer Gator. I'm thinking one of these is a must when we move to the new house. 

The "teachable moment" of the day happened when the boys discovered a katydid on the windshield of the Gator. I'd never seen one up close before, so I was very interested in watching it crawl around. The boys pretty much just wanted it off the Gator so they could drive without it crawling all over the windshield!

After the poor katydid had gotten a tour of the entire backyard from the windshield of the Gator, I found a stick and released it to a tree in Sarah's yard. It crawled away really quickly so it must have been grateful to get away :)

The boys played on the Gator for a few more minutes, then started playing a little baseball. When it got too hot to be outside in the sun anymore, they went under the garage and got to pet Fluffy the rabbit. I had to remind Cooper and Eli to pat Fluffy gently quite a few times...poor Fluffy is all I have to say.

After all that riding around the Gator was very dirty and need a car wash. Clayton didn't have any problem with that! Eli and Cooper supervised and after a few minutes (quickest car wash in town!) Clayton was finished. After a yummy lunch, Eli and I loaded up and went home. It had been a very busy day, but it was a great day spent with friends. We can't wait to go back!

Blueberries for Eli

Friday Eli didn't have school, so I wanted to do something fun and get us out of the house. When I signed him in for school Thursday, I noticed a flyer advertising a blueberry farm close to where we live. I'd been to this farm several years ago thinking I could pick blueberries only to find out I couldn't. I was very sad. I went with the hopes of picking fresh blueberries and taking them home and baking all kinds of delicious goodies. But at this particular time, this farm didn't have the "you pick" option. Now they do! I don't know if they are under new ownership, but I'm so glad that they have opened their blueberry farm to the public. There is nothing better than a fresh, ripe blueberry that just bursts in your mouth when you eat it. YUM-O! It's one of the things I think of when I think of summer. I checked their website and saw that for just $1 a pound we could pick as many blueberries as we wanted! If you're not into picking your own blueberries, they also will pick the blueberries for you for $2 a pound. It's a great deal either way!

We got there and the people who run the "You Pick" part of the farm were incredibly nice! They offered us ice cold water and sunscreen and were extremely accommodating. Eli and I chose to get just one bucket because I didn't know how long he would last. Picking blueberries sounded fun to him, but I kind of knew that he wouldn't last the entire time...boy, was I right about that!

The farmers told us to find the bushes with the light green tape tied around them because those blueberries were the ripest. We hurried off to find those bushes. I tried my best to make it as fun as possible for Eli. I purposely led us to some the side of the bushes that were in the shade.

As you can see, Eli ventured away from the shade to some other bushes to pick a few blueberries. He started off very interested in picking blueberries with me. He looked for the big fat blue ones and picked about five of those and then things started to go downhill. I'd love to say that our blueberry picking was idyllic and couldn't have been better, but it wouldn't be the truth. The truth was that I couldn't wait to fill up my bucket because of a certain little two year old that couldn't make peace with the fact that his toes were getting wet from the dew on the grass. Oh dear!

For the next thirty minutes, I scoured the bushes looking for big, fat blueberries and Eli whined about his feet getting wet.

(Dear Son, if you're reading this, I hope that over the years you've adjusted to getting your feet wet. I, too, hate stepping in wet grass, but at certain times, you just have to suck it up. Hopefully, you've made your peace with the dew on the grass. If you haven't, I'm guessing you never leave the house in anything but shoes that cover all your toes. Not matter what, I love you. I'm thankful that you were placed in my life despite your hatred of wet grass :) Love, Your Mother)

At one point, I was holding him on my right hip clutching my phone and camera at the same time, had my purse on my left hip, and had the blueberry bucket hanging from my neck. Whew! I tried to stay upbeat though because I really did want this to be a fun experience for both of us. I kept asking him to help me pick blueberries and even offered him some of the plumpest berries to eat right then, but Eli still wasn't happy. He kept asking if I was all done about every two minutes and trying to climb up my back so his feet wouldn't touch the wet ground. I managed to fill my bucket almost completely to the top and we darted off to find Edwin, one of the workers, to get some ice cold water. Eli posed with "our" bucket of blueberries. He was just happy that we were finally finished and his feet could dry off now!

Edwin gave us some water and that made things a little better. Just to clarify, we went at 8:30 in the morning, so it really wasn't that hot yet. I checked the temperature before we got out of the car and it was only around 80 degrees. Eli never complained about being hot, so the temperature was not the issue...just the dew.

They weighed our blueberries and packed them in a box. Our grand total was only $4.38. Wow! What a great deal! If you live in our area, please go visit them! They are trying to get the word out about this great opportunity to pick your own fresh blueberries and I feel the urge to help them out a little bit :) You know, blueberries ARE a super food and are extremely good for you!

I plan on going back in a couple of weeks to get some more. If I don't use them all this summer, I'll freeze them so I can have blueberries throughout the year. Hopefully, Eli will have a better experience when we go back. I'll just make sure he's wearing boots this time :)

Golfing with Daddy

Eli loves all things golf. He watches golf, plays golf outside, practices golf inside. Golf is definitely his sport of choice! The other day Eli and I went with Josh after work to play a quick nine holes. I'm glad we went when we did because I can't imagine golfing during the middle of the day! It's so unbelievably hot already and it's only the beginning of June!

My two cute golfers :)

Eli doing his practice swing before teeing off.

Even though it was close to dusk it was still pretty hot. I made Eli sit with me in the cart as much as I could to keep him from getting too hot. His little cheeks get so red though even when it's just a little warm. He looks really tired and hot in this next picture, but you wouldn't have thought that if you'd seen him on the course this day!

Eli and I stayed in the cart while Josh teed off each hole and would always get out when he made it to the green. Eli was great at grabbing the flag out of the hole so his Daddy's golf ball would roll in when he putted it.

We got to hole #7 and had to take a water break. It was just TOO hot! Eli knew exactly what to do...

We even convinced Daddy that he needed to hydrate too.

Our excitement of the night came when Eli jumped in the cart and accidentally pushed the pedal too far down and we took off at high speed. I was in the cart when it happened, but I was sitting on the passenger side and couldn't reach the brake immediately because I had a death-grip on Eli (no seatbelts on golf carts, you know). I managed to keep one hand on Eli, one hand on the steering wheel, and eventually scooted my way over to the brake to stop us. Whew! As Eli would say, "Whew, Momma. That was a close one!" Josh had to run to catch up to us for the next hole, but thankfully no one was hurt!

All in all, it was a great night on the golf course. I loved spending it with my two favorite boys!

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming...

A pattern has already developed for our summer days and Eli and I are adjusting quite fine. Tuesday-Thursday Eli goes to a summer program at his old preschool. Josh and I thought it would be best to keep him on a schedule of going to school that way there won't be that big of an adjustment in the fall. He stays at school from 9:00-12:00. At first I felt a little guilty sending him to school since I was home all summer, but it's allowed me time to do things that I need to do-work for school, errands, exercise (only happened twice so far!), etc. It's also given me time to do things that I don't necessarily "need" to do, but things I "want" to do, which mostly consists of blogging and reading. When I pick him up from school, he takes a nap until about 2:00 and then we spend the rest of our afternoon at the pool. Ahhh, how I love summer!

Eli has gotten A LOT better at swimming in just a week. I'm thrilled with all his progress! He now jumps in the water to me, blows bubbles in the water, and goes down the slide. He has gone underwater several times and is handling it so much better! I've contacted a friend about swimming lessons for him this summer and hopefully he'll start those soon.

He rarely swims without his glasses :)

We're very thankful for the generosity of friends who have let us use their pools. This summer we've visited Mr. Art's pool a lot, but a lady that Josh works with, Mrs. Dolly, has let us come to her house to swim too! Both pools are fabulous and we are so thankful that we have been given the opportunity to swim so much. It's a great way to beat the heat!

Josh stopped by Mr. Art's house on his way home from work one day and Eli decided to show him his skills on the slide. Needless to say, Daddy was WAY impressed! I was so happy that he was finally going underwater without any problems. I was starting to get worried! I can't wait to see how he progresses over the summer :)