Maryland

 It was soooo nice to get away from it all last weekend. Here's another BIG thank you to my awesome Aunt Debbie, who offers her amazing palace of a lakehouse to her family to enjoy while she works tirelessly to take good care of soldiers overseas. I knew I was kind of stressed out, but I wasn't aware how much and how good it would feel to let it all melt away for a few days and bathe in the sun, lake views and uninterrupted family time. Sighhhhhh . . .

Here's what we did:

took a longish car ride to get there

explored historic downtown Berlin (MD! : ) )

enjoyed more than one kind of pool

(I received the truly lofty praise from my husband who is not wont to such gushing "I was pretty sure you'd be terrible, but you weren't that bad.")

went fishing

ate a bunch of chips lakeside

said, "what responsibilities?"

played tag

blew bubbles

danced in them

sat on the dock

had a nice breakfast out

enjoyed cups of coffee

fooled you! just water in the little ladies' cups, but it's so fun to pretend to be a grown up

said, cheese

hit the boardwalk at Ocean City

and danced there

ran around like wild

just a reminder that I was there too!

held hands

got treats!

jumped and splashed

went fishing again

hung out in the backyard

kept close tabs on the waterfowl

celebrated fathers day

hit the beach

and for the grand finale, a canoe ride the morning of our departure

It was a good weekend.

Driveway continues

Work on the driveway has continued. It's been the focal point for a lot of our family activity these days. In between trying to figure out crazy illnesses with fevers and spots among other things. Cue cute sick girls:

We've made a lot of progress. The gravel has been tamped.

Sand has arrived. Its delivery wasn't quite as exciting as the gravel's but it is a lot more fun addition to the back of the house than the rocks were (don't get me wrong, the girls love picking up rocks too, but they are actually allowed to play in the sand).

Paul has been tirelessly spreading sand and laying bricks and pavers, day and night, rain and shine.

nice evening

nice night

 nice day

rainy night

Meanwhile, the girls are enjoying our mini-beach when the weather is nice.

It is looking great! Paul got the top layer of sand over pretty much the whole patio tonight, quickly, as a downpour began over him. This driveway is going to be a lot stronger for all the heart and soul built in!

Toddler humor explicated

This morning, Ella and Nora and I were reading books and I had asked a question about colors or something to which Nora replied, "Poo poo!" Both girls dissolved into giggles while I rolled my eyes. Then Ella had the courtesy to explain to me, still giggling, "That makes no sense. But it is SO funny!" I had to join in the giggles at that point. : )

Dump truck

The dump truck came and brought the gravel the other day. The excitement was almost worth the price of the rocks!

Sweet singer

Driveway

 We're making a driveway! By we, I mean everyone but me is making a driveway. I am the photographer. Paul has got it almost all dug out. The next step, which we are all really excited about, is having a big dump truck deliver a whole bunch of gravel to put down. That will be a thrilling moment for sure! It is scheduled for Monday. Til then, "we" are all helping to dig and level.

Hopefully we'll get some good footage of the truck on Monday!

Nieces and nephews and Gramma's big day!

We had two little beautiful babies born into the Malone family last winter, and I got to spend some time with their cute little smiley faces over the last few weeks. What little sweetie pies!

Part of the reason I got to see those little sweeties was that Gramma had a big birthday this month! We had a lovely time celebrating her with breakfast at the pier, a little piano concert for me of some of her favorites from ALL the Psalms she has set to music and memorized in time for her birthday ( I repeat, my amazing mother has memorized all the psalms and music to go along with them), a plantarium show, and some delicious steak on the grill. I am so thankful for my Mom's 60 years. The more I learn about mothering, the more I am struck by the wonderful work my Mom did in guiding me through my growing up. What an inspiration and what a great friend! Love you Mom.

I look so pretty . . . in my heart! Alt. title: Hello little butterfly!

Easter egg hunt!

Visit from Mah-maw and Pee-paw

We spent the last week and a half hosting Paul's parents while the girls enjoyed some sweet grandparent time. They got their first look at our little cafe and helped us around the house. They are in between houses right now, moving to Austin (which is great!-because Paul's sister lives there too and it will make visits so much easier (second side-note, thank you to all my stateside family for all living in the same town as well. Mike, well, at least where you live is exciting and exotic, but work on that proximity thing. ; ) ) ). The girls were delighted to have so much time with them, and as is their fashion after a beloved guest leaves, are continuing to look for them in the magical guest room that is normally shut, but every so often opens to reveal that a super exciting family member or friend is sleeping inside. "Mah-maw?" Nora asks and points to the door. : ( Nora christened Vovo and Granddaddy McCall as "Mah-maw and Pee-paw" while they were here. I'm sure she will call them by their right names someday soon, but I thought this was extremely cute. My mom was "Bah-maw" for a while when Ella was learning to talk.

Here are some photos from their visit.

Ella is 3!

After naptime

 Naptime can be so lovely. But it is also wonderful to come up and find these sweet little rosy cheeked and rested ones with their bedhead and cuddly little bodies when it is over.

Last month

Well, so February was a silent month on the blog. You know that little saying, "if you don't have anything nice to say . . . "? There may have been some of that thinking involved in my lack of posts. But let me just sing one note in praise of the month of February, it is the shortest of the whole year.

I do have a couple of photos to highlight the month.

Grandma came to visit! (And arrived roughly the same time as Nora's (thankfully short-lived) stomach flu. Oh February, how you tested me!)

Here is the only other post-worthy photo of last month. Ella and I went to church just the two of us, since Nora AND Daddy were sick that weekend. I just thought I should snap her being almost 3 in her carseat, since she is there so often. Just a little glimpse of what we see quite a bit of day to day

But thankfully, March has roared in, and I am disregarding the still chilly wind and wearing a dress today. This weekend they are calling for the 70s and I am SO excited!

Snapshots

I believe I already mentioned in my last post that our life has gotten extremely crazy in the last month with Stay & Play opening up. But here are some sweet little glimpses of these beautiful girls having fun in the midst of it all.

Snow

Oyy it has been sooo crazy around here with the opening of our little cafe. But still, it's winter, it snowed one day, and we played in it. It was about 5 minutes 'til poor little hands had had enough of holding icy snow-chunks. We live in North Carolina so we just don't need mittens that often and (sheepish) don't actually have them. (We did have a pair, but at that age our little misses would not keep them on no matter what we did. They are older now so we should probably buy some. Does this sound like a plea for someone to gift us mittens? That is not what I intended.) Anyway, here are some shots of the girls enjoying our meager snow.