I'm a Person

Here is a conversation that Sims and I had this morning.

Sims:  You're a person.

Me:  Yes, I am.  So are you.

Sims:  I'm not a person!

Me:  You're not?  Then, what are you?

Sims: I'm Sims.

Me:  You can be Sims and a person, too.  I'm Mama, and I'm a person.

Sims:  I'm a person, too!

Here Sims is showing me where he got the boo-boo next to his eye this weekend.  Sharp corners can hurt!

Strawberry Patch

While Jason's parents were visiting this weekend, we decided to do something new and take advantage of the beautiful weather and the season.  We went to a farm to pick our own strawberries!  We drove out in the country to a beautiful farm that grew organic strawberries and were greeted by the sight of horses and free-range hens.  It definitely helped feed my idyllic view of farm life, even though I do realize that it's probably not as idyllic as it looks.

We all pitched in to pick the strawberries, but I did a bit more photo snapping than picking.

We left with seven, yes seven, pounds of strawberries!  So we've been eating a lot of strawberries around here, folks.  Strawberry salads, strawberry pie, strawberries for snacks...  I'm thinking of making some strawberry shortcake.  It's good that we all like strawberries!  They do look delicious, don't they?

Easter

We had a wonderful and fun-filled Easter weekend!  Mom and Smith came up and were our first visitors since we started the kitchen renovation.  This made for a very busy week prior to Easter for Jason and me.  We had a deadline for getting the house back together and clean.  It has taken us a long time to unpack the kitchen and get the rest of the house back to working order!  Sometimes it's nice to have a deadline to force you to get it done.  Even though I have to admit that the kitchen is still not completely unpacked, but it is mostly done.

I spent all Saturday afternoon in the kitchen cooking, and it was my first time really cooking in the kitchen.  It was fantastic!  It was so much more enjoyable to cook in a kitchen in which you want to spend time.  It just makes me happy to be in there!

We dyed eggs on Saturday afternoon, while Isla was visiting.  Sims was mostly interested in putting the eggs in the dye. 

Isla got help from her dad to decorate some eggs before dyeing them.  Alex wrote a lot of her cute sayings on them like, "I don't know."  He was nice enough to even write, "Luv you, Aunt Aggie."  She hasn't really said that one yet, but I'm sure she's thinking it!

We got up early on Easter to go to church.  We loved having the whole family with us!

 

The Easter Bunny visited while we were at church, and Sims was excited to see what had been left in his basket.

He received some train track accessories, steam engines from his favorite train series, and food for his kitchen.  I couldn't help but laugh when he asked me what this was.

That's not something in our regular diet around here.  I have never been a fan.

Then we had an egg hunt in our front yard, which was a hit with Sims and Isla.

After the egg hunt was over, Isla wanted to find more eggs, so Neely kept grabbing one from her basket and quickly tossing it in the grass.  That kept her entertained for a while.  Sims, however, wanted to hide the eggs.  He threw all of his eggs in the bushes, and he refused to let me get them out.  They're still there, by the way.  He threw most of them so far in the bushes only the woodland creatures will be able to get them out.  Hopefully, they like boiled eggs.

After our large Easter lunch, we headed out to Bond Park to feed the ducks, but it was too busy for the ducks to come near shore.  Instead we took a stroll and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

It was a wonderful end to our Easter weekend!  I hope you had a happy Easter as well.

Party and Hockey

Last Saturday was a big day for Sims.  One of his best friends at school had his birthday party at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham.  We had never been there, but I had heard great things about it.  We were all excited about going, and it did not disappoint!  They have a little bit of everything there.  They have a miniature steam train that gives rides around the park.  They have barnyard animals, life size dinosaur replicas, a butterfly house, and musical instruments to play.  That's just what is outside!  We didn't even get a chance to explore inside (except we did quickly walk through the weather room, and I showed Sims a cumulonimbus cloud.  Yeah, I'm a nerd.) 

Sims had a lot of fun at the party with his school friends.  He even held hands with the birthday boy, and there is just nothing cuter than that!

We all loved the museum and can't wait to go back to spend more time.  It definitely could be a full day event.

We left the party to grab some dinner before we took Sims to his first hockey game!  We had been preparing him for the noise, so whenever we would mention we were going to watch hockey, he said, "It's gonna be loud."  I'm so glad that we prepared him though because it really was loud!  Luckily, it didn't phase him a bit.

It didn't take him long to learn that after you hear 3 horns in a row, everyone yells, "Let's go, Canes!"  He even paid attention for most of the first period, which I thought was really great.  He needed to walk around a little for the beginning of the second period, and we left at the end of that period.  It was just too late for the little guy. 

Unfortunately, the Hurricanes lost, and it was a shut out.  We hated that he never got to hear the big horn blow when the Hurricanes get a goal.  Next time, hopefully.  Too bad that won't be until next season, since this was one of the very last home games.  (Why do we always take him to a game at the very end of the season?  We did this with the NC State baseball game last year.  Now, that's next on our list.  We have got to go to another baseball game before this season ends.)

Hanging Rock

The weekend of St. Patrick's Day, the three of us went up to Hanging Rock State Park for the 12K trail race up and over the mountain.  Oh, no, no, no, no, we did not run in the race.  My sister Ame and her husband Mike have started organizing trail races, so we went to help out and spend time with family.  We stayed in a cabin in the park and got to see all 5 of Ame and Mike's girls.  We were even surprised to find that my brother Johnny came to help as well!  I hadn't seen him in a LONG time.  Needless to say, we had a great time, and Sims loved hanging out with his older cousins.

This was my first race experience, and I really enjoyed working at the water station.  Sims hung out with me, and he was amazed by the runners.  Jason was stationed at the top of Moore's Wall, where the trail started to become a bit trickier for the racers.  Sims later told a family friend that his dad was a climber.  Sims and I got to go to the finish line and watch many of the runners run the home stretch.  It was fun to watch Sims hang out with his cousins and clap for the runners as they ran by.

I believe this race may have inspired Jason to sign up for his first 5K, which is in May and not on any crazy mountain trail like this one.  I will admit that the energy of the race did make me think that I would like to run one in the future.  Maybe a short, all downhill one?  Do you know of any of those?  That would be my kind of race.

Almost Finished

We are getting really close to having the kitchen complete.  There are plenty of items on the punchlist, but the kitchen is usable again! 

We were supposed to be able to move back in to the kitchen this weekend, but that didn't happen due to many reasons.  We were able to use the oven for the first time though, and I ended up burning the food because I forgot about it.  Oops.  A great way to start off, I know.  At least it was just a toasted cheese sandwich for Sims, and it was easy to redo.

I will have to admit that I am ready for this all to be over, so I can have my house back.  Right now, we still have our pantry cabinet in our living room, and the house is just a wreck.  I'm done. 

Renovations are stressful, and I think I have quite a few new gray hairs to prove it.

Great Wolf Lodge

Last week, while the floors in the kitchen were being stained and poly-ed, we headed out of town to Great Wolf Lodge for a couple of days.  It was nice to get away (especially since our dining room and temporary kitchen had to be moved to our living room during this process) and get to enjoy the water some.  We all loved the 85-degree indoor weather at the water park and spending uninterrupted time together.

The water park was pretty great with a wave pool, huge treehouse-like structure, kiddie area and the requisite slides.  We had arm bands that got us into our rooms and the water park, and we could even use them to buy food at the restaurants and vending machines.  It was brilliant!  This way we didn't have to worry about bringing money and the room key into the water park and leaving them unattended.  I will have to admit that the food there was average at best, but it was convenient.  We didn't want to waste any time at the park going somewhere else to eat.

Sims is not big on being splashed.  (Yet another trait he got from me, but I was a good sport.)  So he wasn't crazy about the treehouse, where you are constantly being splashed.  Even the kiddie area had some unexpected splashes that upset him.  But by the end of the trip, he allowed Jason to stand under the big bucket that was on top of the treehouse that drops 1000 gallons of water on you.  Let me tell you, Sims is still talking about that bucket!

As for the kitchen, we should be able to move back in this weekend, even though it is not fully completed.  We will finally get to cook in our brand new convection double oven!  We even got to use the dishwasher last night.  It was so wonderful (happy sigh).  If you are wondering how could I possibly update you on the kitchen without a photo, well, sorry about that.  We are so close to being done, that I figure you can wait a few more days.  (I can be such a meany.)