What's up Summer?

The Johnsons Storm the Beach

After our busy weekend full of recitals at South Riding Dance and at Tiny Toes, we packed up the car and sped off drove to the Jersey Shore to escape our crazy lives here and soak in some quality family time - uninterrupted.  And that's exactly what we did.  Woke up late, ate breakfasts entirely too big for our stomachs, watched dolphins swim, laid on the beach, played in the waves, walked and shopped, played board games , took bike rides and surrey rides and enjoyed eachother.

First, we took the Cape May Lewes Ferry:

Loading up our car onto the ferry - ready for the hour long ride to Cape May:)

Windy but fun ride!  Kayden kept shouting "Land!" when we got closer - like she was on a pirate ship!

Land Ahoy!  We set our stuff down and ran to the beach - although it wasn't the perfect beach day, we staked out our slice of beach and got to work!

What's a vacation without matching outfits?

 

Love that Cape May is so pedestrian friendly.  We walked/rode bikes through the whole town.

 

It was windy so we grabbed a kite from the dollar store and went a'flyin

Let the waves wash over another fun Summer adventure :)

 

 

Now.....back to reality......and more home improvement projects.

 

To be continued....

 

 

 

Summer is for Strawberry Picking

We checked out Wegmeyers Farms in late May for some early morning Strawberry Picking.  We loved that it was so close to home (in Hamilton - a 15 minute drive west) and that the staff was so friendly and welcoming of the excited toddler that was about to storm their patch.

Upon arrival, Kayden excitedly squealed and skipped down to the starting line to snag a bucket and get to work. Besides learning how to choose the best berries, she also had a lesson in patience as we moved slowly down our very own row to hunt for these yummy smoothie fillers. 

 

 

 

 

After about 30 minutes of hard work, here's the loot:

 

 

Another day of summer down....if only it could stay relaxing and warm like this all the time:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let Love Grow

 

Over the last few months, my darling daughter and I have been working hard at our little piece of Leesburg land.  A combination of in ground, Earth Box and potted planting makes up our tiny little *garden*. From planting tiny seedlings to creating the painted signs that show where and what we planted, Kayden seems to have enjoyed  tolerated our hours of diligence together.  In early March, we planted carrots, lettuce, a few types of tomatos and peppers, cucumbers, onions and strawberries.  A week later, we had a terrible hail storm that tore apart our Hostas and threatened the lives of our tiny seedlings.  Thankfully they *all* made it through and are blossoming into a tasty array of veggies for our summer plates.  Here are a few shots from a month ago (when they were about 65 days old):

My garden hand:

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The tomatos in their Earth Box (behind the planters)

red, yellow, green bell peppers and some hot and sweet peppers too!

Lettuce in the back row, cucumbers in the front!  We actually have eaten all this lettuce already (field greens) and the cucumbers plants have spread through this whole box now!

Onions

 

There's your little tour of our tiny little garden!  Now we need to pray for a little rain to keep it going:)

 

 

Hippity Hop! Easter week!

Luckily the week before Easter was our break this year! Yay! Here's the brief recap of what we did all week!
 

Day 1: The Farm!  We went to Frying Pan Farm and park and had a great time!  Kayden got to see a peacock, cows, sheep, chickens and pigs. Her favorite were the baby piglets!

I can't tell if this goat is smiling or plotting.....

 

 

Day 2: The Bouncy House! Kayden is Miss Independent here - apparently I'm not cool enough to go on the equipment with her.  She says "no Mommy...just me!". SO off she went while I watched my little girl fend for herself a la bouncyland.

Day 3: The Mall ...because that's where every 2.5 year old wants to go, right?  Well, at least they have a carousel and a train ride...and Mommy is running out of free/cheap ideas: First stop-storytime at Borders

 

Then the "Spinny one" on the Carousel:

 

Daddy to the rescue! Day 4: The Baltimore Aquarium!

 

 

Day 5: Up to Philly to see Mom Mom and Pop Pop!

Teaching Mom Mom how to use an iPhone!

And finally, EASTER!  The Bunny came through:) Off to church we went and enjoyed a relaxing day at home!

 

 

It's been a while

It has definitely been a while since I posted - I finally finished downloading pictures from the middle of April off the camera....602 to be exact.  I am going to do my best to get up to speed!

 

Here goes:

We spent our week off in between sessions painting, cleaning, organizing and generally re-making the studio. But in our down time, here's what we did to entertain ourselves:

 

General silliness to include:

 

Shopping

Reading and sounding out words:

Monkeying around at Gymnastics

Riding Bikes...

Four Wheelers....

Roller Skating...

And just plain being a princess who greets everyone at Mommy's store:)

 

Looking forward to a Summer full of nice weather and outside time with my girl!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haircuts and Rollerskates

A busy week again for the Johnsons!  I ran in a 5k and Kayden had a haircut, went to gymnastics, made a stop at the playground and rollerskated until she couldn't skate anymore! (Not in that order!!)  Here's the recap on the week:

Hopping down the stairs like a big girl!

 

Yes, that polka dotted blur is Kayden jumping off the springboard at gymnastics!  Even that big girl says "whoa"! My competition ballerinas better look out..Kayden's working on her C jump:)

Off to Eclips for a mini spa day.  Nothing like Chocolate shampoo and a good blow out....at least we're not dealing with the diaper kind anymore!!

 

The final product.  Look at that angel face!

Off to the next event: Roller Skating.  She strapped on her helmet and away she skated! Nevermind her old lady sweater.

Apparently the sweater was holding her back.  Away it went along with the skates....on to the scooter event.  As you can see, the competition was at least two full scooter lengths behind....thanks to neighbors  Allie and Sam for letting Kayden scoot into the lead for a moment.

 

Looking forward to our last week of the session before a week "off" to play!  Tomorrow is supposed to be in the  mid 80's which means lots of outdoor pictures! Stay Tuned:)