Spring sprung and summer is here!

This was quite possibly the loooooongest winter I have ever witnessed. We had one week of cold, dreary weather after another with what seemed like no end in sight. And of course, the first weekend with warm weather, which we planned to spend doing yard work, going to Gray's t-ball game, and all that fun stuff, was spent in quarantine. Gray woke up that Friday morning with a fever that escalated to 104.5 and he tested positive for the flu. He is the only person I know that has had the flu twice after the flu season has ended! But after a wild goose chase to track down Tami-flu, he was back to his old self in no time flat. We kept ourselves busy with after school activities, which seemed to cut down on the meltdowns and idle mischief. Hayes took another semester of ballet and had her first big dance recital on a real stage. I'm not calling ABT yet, but she has definitely learned some new moves and I'm so proud of her! She has been showing off her tondus, releves, and plies every chance she gets, but blowing kisses as she curtsies is her favorite move by far. She is such a ham! Even Lovie and Cousin Greer came to see her big debut and stayed for pizza and playing dress up afterwards! Gray joined his first t-ball team (Go Cubs!) and we are already plotting ways to poison him against it. It is probably more so a function of the fact that we didn't know what we were doing when we signed up him and accidentally signed up with a league that is clearly preparing the kids for the Major League by age 10. However, we were way in over our heads! The kid had 2-3 practices a week PLUS a game! Our only saving grace was the fact that half of his games were cancelled due to the rain or wet fields....which ultimately meant that some weeks would require 2 practices plus 2-3 games in one week. Sheesh! If he didn't look so darn handsome in his uniform, I might have had to pull the plug. But, we are not quitters and we stuck it out for the season, but you can bet that next time (if there is one), we will opt for Church league or something far less intense. Lesson learned for this Momma! The kids have also just completed swim lessons at the Pool School at St. George's and they absolutely loved it. And I loved the fact that they were so worn out afterwards that they could barely manage more than a bath and a meal before begging for bedtime. Summertime couldn't come quickly enough! Here's to hoping that this summer we have 2 full-fledged swimmers! We are so excited about our new piece of furniture that we had a family friend make for the wall in our breakfast room. After searching for years for the perfect piece, we were thrilled at the prospect of designing a custom one for our space. We finally have a place to display all of our red toile pieces and even better, more storage! Many thanks to Jim Hover for his talent and patience as we worked through it together. We know this will be a piece we have forever and will hopefully pass on to the kiddos! We spent Easter in Gulfport at my parents again this year and had a great time with the whole family. The weather was gorgeous, the kids were pretty well-behaved (for them), and we ate some awesome food. We had a crawfish boil on Good Friday, fought over whether to eat Brooklyn pizza or Lil Ray's po-boys for lunch and compromised on both, and then enjoyed fresh seafood from the White Cap, a family-owned favorite. Adam and I took the kids to Lynn Meadows Discovery Center on Friday and then P and I took them to the St. Mark's Easter Egg Hunt. We wore them out in between with trike races, croquet, bubbles, jump ropes, and my parents new investment.....the bouncer (a.k.a. the smartest purchase they've ever made). We finished off the weekend with a magic show from my parents neighbor, "Harry the Magician", and a yummy lamb roast. Even though we had to jump in the car for a long 6 hour drive right after Easter supper, it turned out to be more-than-tolerable for the first time thanks to our newest discovery: wireless headphones! I don't know how we are just now finding out about these little beauties, but let me just say that they are life-changing. It's the little things, you know? Until next time, The Pattersons