Girl Trip

This weekend some friends and I enjoyed a kid-free weekend away in Harrisonburg and Staunton Virginia. What do these two no-name cities hold for adventure-craving young mothers, you ask?? Well, we enjoyed rooftop dining in a historic downtown, ever exciting bowling complete with friendly competition and harmless flirting from the 20-year old next to us, late night playing cards and eating as much junk as our stomachs could hold, relaxing pedicures, a Shakespeare play, and eating out at restaurants and not having to worry about what they have on the kids menu! It was so wonderful. My friend Crystal has an excellent blog about it, so check it out:

http://parkin4son.blogspot.com/

Also, if you scroll down her blog, she has an amazing Peter Pan picture of James that you won't want to miss out on!

I married me a Doctor!

The kids patiently waiting at the graduation ceremony:



That night we had a neighborhood Graduation BBQ to celebrate Bryce and his accomplishments! He got to pick the food . . .

corn hole


And, of course, water balloon launching!


This doesn't really have anything to do with Bryce, but I thought I would put it in here anyway, because the wives of students deserve some credit too!

Bryce's Graduation!

So, yes, Bryce graduated yesterday - I know, he has been in school FOREVER! We were so proud of him yesterday, seeing him up on stage and having some of his accomplishments read. I took this video of his PHD hooding on my camera (so its not the best quality) and I was holding Annabelle, but you can sort of get the idea.

Mother's Day

I have been meaning to put up some pictures of Mother's Day - no pictures of me and the kids together (what was I thinking???), but a few of what Bryce and the kids did for me!

They made me breakfast in the morning (which was totally unexpected because we have morning church and that means Bryce had to get up EARLY!) and brought it to me in bed (except I had snuck into the shower while everyone was busy, so I had to get BACK into bed!); it was so yummy! Just what I had wanted, as well as a bunch of hand-made loving cards.

All day, Bryce and the kids worked hard to let me take it easy. Bryce did lunch, and dishes, and naps, and dinner, and clean-up and dessert, and I just sat around and enjoyed my foot-rubbing kids! I orded homemade chicken cor-do-bleu which he mastered, and molten lava cakes for dessert. I have to be honest, I was a little worried these wouldn't turn out - but they were a wonderful mix of warm cake and inner hot gooeyness. Yum. Good job, Bryce (and this was all the day before he defended his dissertation!) Thanks family!

Caleb's Performance

Caleb had his first school music performance a couple of weeks ago! He did such a good job! He practiced and practiced when he was at home and really sang every word at the performance. He is a really good singer. I'm a little slow posting a video of him, but he's on the bottom in a white shirt singing away - so enjoy!!

Hokie Baseball

(Caleb is on the far right standing near the pitcher)
Caleb is playing baseball again this season and I am lucky enough to be his coach! We have so much fun and all the kids are learning so much. Our team got invited to meet some real Virginia Tech baseball players at their game last Tuesday. The team got to go down on the field with the players and shake their hands and talk to them. Then they got to run out onto the field with them and stood with them for the National Anthem. It was so cute seeing those little players standing next to those big, strong, baseball players! Being the head coach of the team, I was invited to throw the ceremonial first pitch of the game! It was so nerve racking being out there all by myself! But so cool. It was so fun! The kids had a great time and loved being at the game. I love baseball.

Crafty?

So I've never considered myself a super-crafty person, but I do try! I made this little ribbon pillow today for a friend who's having a baby and thought I should put it on here because I thought something I made actually turned out ok! Hope the baby likes the colors and textures of the ribbons. Caleb told me I'm a really good pillow maker and that I should make a bunch and sell them! (He's a little entrepreneur!)