My Little Gardener

Last week, I got a sweet card in the mail from my mom. The neat thing about it was that the outer shell of the card was actually paper implanted with wildflower seeds. I decided that Anna and I needed to find out if they would really grow. Nannie had given me a Carolina planter a while back that has been begging for something to be planted in it, so it seemed the perfect fit. We started out soaking the card in water...

My excited gardening assistant

Then we tore up the card and planted the pieces in the soil.

I think Anna had way more fun playing in the water.

And guess what!?...a week later we have sprouting!

I'll keep you posted on our progress! I can't wait for pretty wildflowers!

Tinkerbell Goes to the Baseball Game

Anna decided before the last Dash game that she wanted to wear her Tinkerbell costume from Halloween. So, we changed her into her "social butterfly" outfit to match and headed to the game. Some of those ballpark workers about had a fit over her...

"Flying" with Nannie and Pops

Goofing around with Daddy

Weeeee!

Photography by Anna

During the game, Anna discovered how to use our small pocket camera and proceeded to take A BUNCH of pictures. We came home with almost 200 on the camera and I easily wittled it down to 40 or so (lots of duplicates). Thank goodness for digital! Here are some samples of her work...

Our Trip to see the Cows

One of my friends from work, Tina, is the mother of twin three-year-old boys (Lord, bless her). She does a fabulous job of finding fun and creative things for them to do. Last week, she invited some friends to meet her and the boys at Homeland Creamery and Dairy Farm in Julian, NC. I was so excited! Anna and I picked up our friends Jennifer and Noah and made the hour trek to Julian. We learned so much about cows and milk!

Anna posing on our hayride

She got to feed the baby calf her bottle!

Anna was not a fan of the big turkey.

After the hayride, we fed the baby calf and saw the different animals. It was really neat because dogs and cats and chickens and roosters were just running all over the place. The kids especially liked watching the rooster do his "cock-a-doodle-doo"! They also had a modified milking station set up so you could see what it would be like to milk a cow. Anna didn't want to try it once she realized it would get her hands wet, even though it was just water! Crazy girl!

After the tour of the "milking parlor", they brought out cups of their homemade ice cream--so creamy!

Anna with her friends Noah and Jace

This is the third generation that has kept the dairy farm going and they now provide dairy products to much of the piedmont NC region. Because everything is done on sight, their products can enter the stores within 24 hours of milking! Isn't that amazing? I'm going to have to look out for them while I'm grocery shopping!

We topped the trip off with a McDonald's Happy Meal for lunch. What a treat!

Going to Watch "the Soft Girls"

My sister, Sarah, is the assistant coach for the Reagan High School softball team. She was quite the player in high school herself, so loves passing on her knowledge to the girls at Reagan. Anna and I finally got over there to watch a game last week. (I say that as if it's miles away...actually, it takes twenty minutes...yes, I feel bad about that.) Anna loved watching "Aunt Sewah" and Coach Ray out on the field and the girls were so sweet to her. They kept calling her Boo, from Monsters, Inc. After the game, Sarah took her out on the field and let her run the bases.

Once Anna and Sarah got back to the dugout, all the girls had left. Anna looked at me and asked, "Where did the soft girls go?" Priceless!

Dashing to the Baseball Game

The minor league baseball team here in town has undergone an amazing transformation. They used to be the Winston-Salem Warthogs. I mean, seriously, who came up with that name? And who wants to go watch a team called "the warthogs" play anything? So, a new stadium has been built downtown (lots of political drama to accomplish this, but I digress) which many people say rivals many of the major league stadiums. It is pretty nice! They also renamed the team the Winston-Salem Dash. Yes, I realize that there is technically a hyphen in between Winston and Salem, but "The Dash" has become a nickname of this area by the less grammatically correct. I love it!

So, partly for community support and for a little bit of PR, Hege Financial Group bought half-season tickets to the Dash games. Will and I were a little apprehensive about how Anna would respond being at a baseball game for 2-3 hours at a stretch, but I'm not sure now why we worried. She loves it!

The first game we went to, she asked if Rameses was going to be there. God love her! We had to explain that, for once, we were not at a Carolina sporting event and that the Dash had another mascot, named Bolt. She figured that out quickly and can now spot him in a millisecond. During the second game we went to, Bolt came over our way and we raced to take a picture. Once we got a shot, Bolt kneeled down and opened his arms to give Anna a hug. She went half-way, stopped, and then "bolted" back into my arms (sorry, that was for Will). Then he put his head in his hands in disappointment. When we were walking away, Anna said, "Bolt is sad because I didn't give him a hug." We explained that it was OK and that she could just give him a hug next time. Oh, the drama of a toddler!

Anna, Daddy, and the Dash mascot, Bolt

Anna finally figured out how to play in a bounce house in the Kidz Zone!

We even got free hats!

I have a feeling lots of fun will be had at the Dash ballpark this summer!

Rain Boots

It has been raining quite a bit lately. The other day after a rain shower, I looked at Anna and said, "Let's go outside and play in the puddles!" At first, she looked at me like I had a hole in my head. Now I realize this was pretty out of my Type A, everything has to be perfect, box. I was risking wet clothes and potential muddiness. However, I try hard to let my guard down for quintessential childhood things...and playing in rain puddles is one of them. Once she realized I was serious, her eyes popped open with excitement.

We went into the closet so I could get my rain boots on. While I was putting my socks on, I looked over and found this sight and had to run get the camera...

Her ladybug boots were much more her speed...and she could actually walk in those. We had the best time! I wish I had gotten pics of us playing in the puddles, but we were having too much fun to think about a camera!

Orange You Glad?

Anna seems to develop food obsessions lately. She'll find something she loves, ask for it all the time, eat it over and over for a while, and then move on to the next thing. She's done it with yogurt, grapefruit, cinnamon toast, and celery. Luckily, she doesn't refuse the old foods once she moves to the next and will still ask for them occasionally. The newest obsession...

I cut up half of a HUGE orange worth of slices and she downed them and asked for more. Eventually, she ended eating the entire orange! I'm glad I don't have to worry about her getting enough Vitamin C!