Ok, so there is no reason to bother with excuses for not blogging, although I have been cameraless for several months. So, I’m just going to try to play a little catch up for those of you that are still with me!
I have been trying to learn what to do with my new camera, a Nikon D3100. My first attempt at the strawberry patch was almost a disaster. As I trudged across the field about to take the perfect shot, I got the insert an SD card message… Thankfully, we happened to run into sweet Franne who was on her way out and happy to lend me hers.
Ansley takes her strawberry picking very serious and only picks and eats the very best. Rogers Farm is wonderful in that they don’t mind the kids feasting on sampling the produce while they pick. We walked away with 12 pounds and a sunburn. Enough to make 6 pints of jelly, a huge heap of strawberry shortcake and plenty to snack on.
Riley is right in the middle of baseball season, with 2-3 practices and 2 games a week we stay on the road a lot but it is so much fun! Even when the ball doesn’t quite make it to the glove…It actually ended up bouncing off his foot, and while he didn’t get the out the other kid didn’t make it off 3rd base.
Even Ansley finds time to do what she enjoys during the games…
We also just celebrated her 8th birthday! I can’t believe my baby is 8 years old, my baby wears a size 7 shoe ( I wear a 10) and my baby still loves ice cream just as much as she did when I was pregnant with her. That’s all she wanted in utero, ice cream 24 hours a day, imagine that!
Keeping with the love of ice cream we loaded up some sweet friends and headed to the Yum Yum Shoppe for a pig trough to celebrate the day!
I tried so hard to get the cutie in the middle to quit pressing her nose on the glass, but it sure was funny. A pig trough for those of you who have never experienced it, is a scoop of every flavor of ice cream in the shop (about 40) and a slathering of every topping all in a lovely pig sized bowl.
She could not keep her hands out of it. As a mama who can be, let’s just say it, germ-a-phobic, this was really hard.
Good thing we had Caroline there to keep everybody looking good. It was quite a mess to clean up but well worth it. She even included a picture on her timeline project as a defining moment in her life.
Pappa and Nanni gave Ansley a flower garden for her birthday, imagine our surprise when planting day arrived and it was 50 degrees and raining at the end of April. Nanni jumped right in and they got to work anyway. She has a cute little flower garden right outside her play house window.
Nanni is very patient and took time to explain everything and how to care for it. She knows that left up to me it will all die. Hopefully, Ansley got that green thumb.
Riley helped some, but took advantage of a cancelled game to practice archery.
We finished the birthday with a vanilla polka-dot cake, with chocolate butter cream frosting. I so wanted to make this cake. I thought it came out cute. Ansley, however, simply commented that it was too plain on the outside. She didn’t get my inspiration that it would be plain-jane and then you cut away and the oooo’s and ahhh’s would start. Oh, well, there is always next year…
In the same way, the Spirit helps our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words can not express. Romans 8:26
