The Great Outdoors

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Happy Birthday Grannie!!

WE LOVE YOU GRANNIE!!

5 birthdays

5 years goes quickly, much quicker for me as a mom then ever before in my life. So here is a run down of Rocco's 5 birthdays. I have made him a cake every year, and every year I swear its the last one I will do as they seem to become more and more complicated. This years WALL.E almost did me in as I stayed up till 2:30 am to get it done (I must note that my wonderful husband stayed up as well to help me, without him I would probably still be trying to finish) I thought I should document this though so I can show them the "labor of love" that I go through at each birthday...I know, pretty pathetic right?! Anyway, here's hoping this blog site is still around in 2040

Year 5

Two parties, one small one in Ashburn and one in Syracuse celebrating alongside his Dad, and Aunt Auberry (Aubrey)

Year 4

Wow, two parties in a row at the same house!! Ashburn is officially home.
Lighting McQueen "Speed, I am speed!"

Year 3

First party in our new home in Ashburn VA.

Year 2

Party at the pool in the neighborhood pool at our other house in Falls Church.

Year 1

First birthday in our first home in Falls Church and my first cake decorating experience ever.

Rocco began a 5 year stint of being a cake glutten here. That is until his egg allergy kicked in, he still loves the icing though.

Watching....

"He didnt tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."

~Clarence Budington Kelland

R&R love their Daddy!! (and SO does Mommy!)

The Squiggley Road....

My husband actually had a spontaneous moment (in almost 10 years of marriage these are few and far between). He usually likes to have a plan and be VERY prepared before we do anything. However, having the photography bug that he does has been very good for him in stepping out of the box. This is because the thought of being able to use his "toys" makes him giddy as a school boy. So on a whim we up and headed out to Skyline Drive with the hopes of getting some cool pictures. It was actually pretty amazing.

I dont think that is the actually Massanutten mountain in the background, truth be told, we really couldnt tell which one it was even though you are supposed to be able to based on the discription provided.
The boys posing on a rock...
What a cool bird of prey!! perhaps one of the elite Peregrine falcons??? nope...just a turkey buzzard..oh well perhaps we should take a few ornithology courses.
Rocco was pretty obsessed with being on what he called the squiggley road...we had just seen the movie "Cars" where they show the map of where Lightning McQueen drives off the freeway and ends up in Radiator Springs. He was pretty sure we were on that same road. Also, he was pretty excited about this tunnel...if you cant tell from the photo, just take my word for it.

We also saw a black bear shoot across the road in front of us which was one of the highlights, unfortunately my husband was driving and I dont have the photojournalist reflexes that were required to catch it on camera...oh well, perhaps next time...

Got a cap (and tassle too)

Rocco graduated from preschool on May 28th...and I know I used to think that preschool graduations were kinda silly (obviously in my pre-mommy days) but now I realize that its just "cuteness" in every sense of the word.

Yes, they actually had caps with tassles!!

This was the one picture where R was not making one of his infamous silly faces

They did an alligator skit showing all the stuff they know

Receiving his diploma (the very smart teachers just rolled up a piece a paper for the photo op and then gave the parents the real deal later)

Enjoying some ice scream afterwords to celebrate.....




The March

Sound off...

Backyard discovery

We recently discovered that we have a natural ant farm living under our makeshift patio. Which provided some fascinating entertainment for R&R below.

I am always surprised at the nature we find in our smallish fenced in backyard. At any rate its fun to watch the boys learn about the world around them.

Couldnt you just watch this for hours? Ants are truelly amazing insects, did you know that there are over 10,000 different species of these little insects? Hopefully not all of them are in our backyard...but I never cease to be amazed when I look at even the smallest of creations what an amazing world God created.