Backyard entertainment

We have great shade in our backyard in the morning, so Emma and I sit outside some mornings, which Emma loves.

She watches every car from one end of the road to the other.

And she talks all about it!

Super sweet Rite Aid deal

This week I made a stellar transaction at Rite Aid. I read a bunch of blogs about all the free stuff you can get at drug stores like Rite Aid, but I've never really done it. Anyway, I read about a deal where you could get a beach umbrella for free!

I probably wouldn't have thought that was anything special, except that when I was getting things ready for the beach last week, I thought it would be good to have a beach umbrella for Emma to sit under (turns out that we didn't need that last week though!).

So with coupons in hand, I headed across town to Rite Aid. I got this umbrella:

And the two packages of toilet paper in the background for less than $4 - and that was for the toilet paper because the umbrella was free!

I was impressed, and now I can't wait for a sunny day at the beach to bring along our new umbrella!

Our 2 year wedding anniversary

We had a nice, quiet evening at home (and Emma was at the house with us!). We listened to the recording from our wedding and had A LOT to eat :-)

Crab cakes for dinner, dark chocolate fondue and raspberries with champagne for dessert - yum yum!

Couldn't help but think about Mr. Nic today; this was his wedding anniversary too.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to both our dads! And Emma has a special surprise waiting with her when Daddy got her out of her crib this morning - a Father's Day card!

We had a great day. Busy at church this morning with set up for Martin and me playing the drums. A relaxing afternoon (though Martin did mow the lawn since it finally stopped raining for a few hours!!) watching the Orioles finish a 3-game sweep of the Phillies. I grilled hot dogs for dinner, followed by more relaxing! After such a busy week, it was good to have some down time to recharge. Monday, here we come!

Yard Sale Steal

I'd been looking around at yard sales for an exersaucer-type toy for Emma, but to no avail. But my family found an amazing one while yard sale-ing last weekend!



Its basically in brand new condition, and we knew the people selling it! $15 well spent!

HFGs reunited!

Emma and I met two of my college suite-mates and softball teammates this week at Cape Henlopen...to go to the beach. Apparently we picked the wrong week cause it was cold, rainy, and windy just about every day. But, since we're all so spread out, a windy day at the beach together is better than nothing!

(Emma was having a hard time posing for these pictures - it was really windy)

She didn't mind it too much though:

And we wrapped her up in blankets, which she seem to think was pretty cool:

We only stayed on the beach for about an hour because it got cold. We did go for a walk through the state park, including going to the nature center. Emma got a kick out of looking at the fish in the aquariums. Hopefully we can have another HFG reunion with some better weather this summer!

5 months - first cereal!

Emma is 5 months old! The time sure has flown by. We are loving all the new things she can do. She really likes to play now, with toys and with people. She is fascinated by books, trying to grab the pages and hold them herself. Emma LOVES to sit, especially for play time now. She is "already observing the world with a great deal of interest."

We gave her cereal for the first time on Saturday. Emma was a bit apprehensive at first:

But she quickly learned what the spoon did and what treasures it contained. She wanted to help feed herself already:

She likes to eat! (she got that part honest!):

Poker

Last Friday evening, Martin took part in a charity poker tournament through his work. His company paid the entry fee and encouraged employees to take part in the poker tournament - including prizes for the top 5 players.

Martin volunteered to go from his area. After we found out the date, however, we almost decided that he would try to get out of it because it was the same night as our small group meeting at church. Since it would have been short notice, he decided to go ahead and go to the poker night.

We are so happy that he went - Martin won 3rd place! (out of over 50 people)

And his prize:

Dinner for two at the Hotel duPont in Wilmington! This is an amazingly gorgeous place and we can't wait to use our gift card!

Little friends

Emma is starting to enjoy being around other little people. We took her over to our friends the Johnstons house to stick her feet in their kiddie pool the other day. She wasn't a fan of the water (it was really cold still), but she seemed to have fun playing with their son, Owen!

Or at least Owen had fun playing with Emma :-) He took off her hat and rubbed her head! Too cute!

What a storm!!

We had a crazy storm last night! Not only was there copious amounts of rain, but hail too. I have never seen so much hail. The wind was blowing really, really hard, and the wind was so loud against the house. There were tornado warnings in the area, so that's pretty scary. I'm really glad Becca was here with me and Emma, because it was pretty intense!

We watched our table and chairs get blown by the wind. In fact, one of our chairs ended up 3 yards over from our house! For a minute there we thought the table was going to go through the sliding door.

This much hail collected in one of the pots outside:


Our neighbors the Johnston's tree blew over completely:

Out front you can see how hard the wind was blowing:

And all the hail covering the ground:

And saddest of all:

My tomato plants that had just begun to flower:

Congrats Kidron!

Saturday Kidron graduated from Baltimore Lutheran High School - Congratulations, Kidron! We traveled to Timonium for the ceremony, and it was really great to see so many people from Lutheran. Emma met Mr. Barth, my softball coach (and his parents), and one of my classmates, Heather, also!

Kidron's picture from the senior slide show:

This was the third graduation that Emma has been to already (and like Karene said to me, you forget how long the graduations at Lutheran are until you're sitting at one)...she amused herself by chewing on her foot:

We had dinner at a yummy Chinese restaurant afterwards. Kidron with Emma, who is being easily distracted:


Yes, they even ate their cake with chopsticks:

Two pictures of us!

Karene and Jeremy

My future brother-in-law :-)

Emma's sitting!

This past week, Emma started to be able to sit on her own.

At first, she wasn't quite sure what to think:

And then she realized how much fun it is to be upright!:


She also has a bit of a gorilla pose in the above picture (for all you Triple Espresso people...Bobby Bean lol)

Emma is holding herself up with her hands pretty good now:

She sure is pleased with herself!