What a change in only THREE years!

I have taken the kids strawberry picking early each summer for the past three years. They love it, I love it, and its always lots of fun... Usually HOT, but none the less fun :) In the three years, many things haven't changed...

Madison still eats more then she picks...

Anthony still wanders and explores quickly leaving behind his basket of berries for cooler things to discover...

The laughter and fun is always there, always loud, and ALWAYS makes me smile...

As I was uploading pictures from our berry adventure this year, I was amazed by how much the kids have changed... Major changes in just three years...

Long gone are chubby cheeks and baby grins... Now, the pictures capture big boys and girls, growing rapidly, quickly approaching full on school-agers. In only three short years I will be in the midst of the "tween" years... How can this be?

 2010

 2011

2012

It seems like just yesterday (before I was comfortable picking... Mad was just over a year old and Anthony was a little over 2 and they were BOTH handfuls!!) I was pulling Madison in a wagon filled with a bucket of berries looking at pies in the market only to turn and discover she had ate more then half the bucket (oh was THAT diaper rash UGLY!!) 

Time is flying and I wish someone would hurry and invent that slow motion button for life... My babies are getting too big too fast!

Fabulous Father's Day Weekend

I hope all the dads out there had a great day! I think Jason enjoyed his special day... We are so lucky to have him. He is a great husband and an even better father! I could not have asked for a better daddy to my children...

We had a great family weekend. I love those. No commitments, no activities, just the four of us free to do whatever we want!

Saturday, the kids and I wanted to introduce Jason to geo caching (aka treasure hunting). He wasn't to sure about it, but he went with it because the kids were so excited. (see good daddy I tell ya)

We drove out to a mountain close to home, parked at one of the trails parking lots, sprayed ourselves with some deep woods Off, and trekked into the forest...

The kids were excited as we weaved our way deeper and deeper into the woods, climbing over logs, dodging mud puddles, and searching for three caches we had logged. Jason was kinda not digging it. He was watching for poison ivy, bees, and bears haha (We are city people, not woods people, though I am slowly discovering my inner "country")...

After quite some time, we finally spied our first treasure!  The cache title? Out Of Place...

After our first find, Jason was hooked! He was totally into it :) Our next find, was a big kids cache! The minis were crazy pumped as they dug through the loot, carefully choosing a few items, and taking their time selceting what to leave for the next kids...

Our third find of the day was a bit tricky, but we found it :)

Three hours or so and a couple of miles later, we emerged from the forest, all smiling, and not one of received as much as a single mosquito bite. Jason has been planning our next treasure hunting adventure, and we are all pretty excited about it!

The rest of the weekend was kinda lazy... We rode bikes, lazed around, sampled some restaurants, and just enjoyed each other. It was a fantastic weekend and I wish they were all so laid back and easy!

Rock Star

In the past week my daughter has:

• taught herself to ride her bike without training wheels
• learned to whistle (which, for the life of me, I still cannot do)
• and figured out how to hang from the trapeze swing upside down without holding on

All of this in a week and all self taught! I think those are some major ROCK STAR moments!

Wordless Wednesday

one of my most recent favorite pictures of Madison

 

For more WW: A Beautiful Mess, Look at What Mom found... and Dad too,  Momspective,  Wordless Wednesday ,

eeek!

The other night I decided it was time. Time for the forced removal of training wheels. After all, last summer Anthony would ride up and down the street with out them (admittedly crying the whole time because he was "scared but he could DO IT). Once he would ride up and down he would INSIST the training wheels be put back on. Anthony will be 15 years old still swimming with floaties, but by god he was going to ride that damn bike. So meanie mommy made him try...

Guess what?

He like it and LOVED it! Now, he was riding on his wee little bike because his real bike's tire tube is busted and we need to grab a new one, but my boy did it, is still doing it, and is riding EVERYWHERE! So proud of him!

Of course, once Madison saw what her big brother could do she was all over being training wheel less too! So we practiced a bit, but she was still struggling... My back started hurting from crouching over holding the seat so I passed the reins to daddy and ran to the store.

Jason's back started to ache and Anthony was riding all over so he stopped helping Mad so he could make sure Anthony A. stayed where he is "allowed" to ride, B. didn't crash into any parked cars, and C. did not get run over by the maniacs in my 'hood!

Fast forward an hour or so...

I come home and as I am driving down the street my blind as a bat self sees a kid riding a bike in the middle of the road. My first thought? This kid is gonna be hit! Where are her parents!! Upon closer inspection I see that it is MY daughter riding in the middle of the road with NO TRAINING WHEELS!

Jason saw me turn in so he let her go ahead because he knew I would FALL OUT! Shocked does not even begin to describe my feelings! I was beaming with pride and could not (still can't) believe my just turned FIVE year old BABY is riding a bike like a big kid!

The best part? Madison persevered and taught herself! Jason said she just kept trying and trying and the next thing he knew she was turning the corner and riding towards him! I guess this is one time her stubbornness has paid off!

So my monkey see monkey do minis are off, riding big kid bikes, and growing up much too quick!

*excuse the poor picture quality! It was almost dark!

X Marks the Spot

I have wanted to go Geo Caching for a while now and I finally felt like A. the minis were big enough to understand and the B. they would actually enjoy it, so last week we went for it! I spent the morning looking for local caches and was AMAZED by the sheer number of them in a five mile radius!

I found four at a local park we haven't been to before and we were off!

The minis were super excited and loved watching the phone to see where we needed to turn, how far the "treasure"was, and how far we traveled. I totally went in the opposite direction for quite some time, so next time I MUST make sure I understand in WHAT direction I need to move... lol

We hiked through fields, woods, crossed bridges, discovered a camp ground, picked some blackberries, and just had fun along the way. Finally, we spied an old shack / shed in the woods and totally new it was our X! It was a wee bit spooky and I swear I am not sure I would have gone into the shed if the kids weren't so excited... I mean there could have been SNAKES in there or god knows what... but we did it!

The cameras flash makes it look so bright in there, but trust me it was DARK and SPOOKY! You can see the "I don't know about this" on the kids faces lol

Inside an old freezer was our prize :) The kids were pumped and could not wait to check out what their treasures were.

We signed the good ole log book (4 4 fun), the kids picked a prize, and we left some things behind for the next treasure hunters. We spent a good bit of time doing this and the kids loved it, so we will have to check out the other three caches hidden there on another day.

So, if you have a smart phone or gps, I would HIGHLY recommend geo caching. My kids really enjoyed it and I did too! Next time I want to do one in the real woods with some real hiking!

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday

"Tony Stewart is my number one fan!"

I think he may have that backwards :)

***

Anthony was a little sad that his favorite driver wrecked on lap nine Sunday, but he clutched his prized car and hoped for the best :)

For more WW: A Beautiful Mess, Look at What Mom found... and Dad too,  Momspective,  Wordless Wednesday ,

Gentlemen, Start your ENGINES!!!!!!!!!!!!

At any given point throughout the day, I am a lucky witness to my sweet son's impressive imagination. I smile as I hear Anthony belt out the national anthem, shout "Gentlemen, START YOUR ENGINES, and it is always followed by burn outs, engine revs, and crashes. Lots of crashes. NASCAR has become his thing. It's SO not my thing or really Jason's thing, but Anthony loves it. He devours each race, he roots for his favorite driver(14, Tony Stewart of course), he screams and gets mad when Jimmy Johnson wins (just because that's daddy's chosen driver), he reads book after book on the sport, he you tubes it, and the facts his little head holds is a bit scary. Yes, I would say he is quite obsessed. I will admit that its a bit refreshing after nearly 6 years of living and breathing trains (they are not forgotten though... I still have tracks everywhere lol)

Sunday, was race day at Dover and my fab hubs surprised us with 4 tickets to the race. This was Jason and Anthony's second race, but a first for the girls in my house. At the last minute Madison bailed, opting to spend the day doing girly things with girls... I would have joined her if it weren't for Anthony being super excited for his mommy to see the race (plus Jason said it would be easier with 2 grown ups lol... Welcome to MY world buddy!)!

So off we went! It really was a lot of fun! All the pre race stuff was cool and they had a TON of stuff to see and do!

Anthony totally took advantage of the kids zone and surprisingly he never really had to wait to do anything! They had moon bounces, rides, face painting, candy making, mazes, car races, Lowes had a build and grow clinic set up, and the list goes on... There really was a TON to do.

The start of the race was pretty cool, and it was neat to hear the drivers chatting with their crews over our headsets... Some of the things I heard made me laugh and my jaw dropped a few times lol! Anthony was TOTALLY bummed when Tony Stewart was outed after a crash on lap 9 but he still enjoyed the race... Though he was a bit ticked when Jimmy won :) 

  I lost interest, after about 15 laps, I mean 400 times around a circle makes me wanna stab my eyes out. BUT just seeing how much my little guy's eyes sparkled made it all worth while. I checked back in during the final 50, the end is always fun to see, and I like when the winner does his victory lane thing... :)

My view for majority of the race :)

All in all it was a fab day and Anthony is SO looking forward to his next race!

We will see how long daddy can hold out before he buys some more tickets lol (who can resist that joyous face! I'm thinking either Richmond or the Poconos this fall is in their future. The jury is still out on whether I will be a repeat attender... I'm thinking Mad's girly day may be more my speed :)