Beach Practice, er, I mean, the Fourth of July

The Brownings and McNeely's celebrated the 4th of July together. Celebrating the birth of our nation, the birth of their back deck, and the long awaited beach trip that was just around the corner. The boys went swimming then later enjoyed Jake's sand and water table, and I tried to explain to them that the beach was just like that...only humongous! I'm not quite sure they grasped what I was telling them!


The sprinkler proved lots of fun as well, as it always is. I see this now as foreshadowing to the hosing off the boys would get just a few days later at the beach house...

Happy Highlands

I needn't bore any of you with more reasons why I love this place. But I do have to post pics of each and every visit. Then it's obvious why I love it.

Wild Kingdom

It's been almost 4 years since Ben and I randomly found this little neighborhood and fell in love so deeply we quickly sold our house and moved here. 4 years, and I still love driving down Colston Road as much as I did in the very beginning. Part of what I love so much, apart from the neighbors and the feeling of home, is how very far away we feel from one of the largest, loudest, most polluted and heavily congested cities in the country.

Take for instance the wildlife we have! In the past 2 weeks alone we've encountered deer strolling down our street in early morning, as well as the following two friends.

I was minding my own business, doing some planting in our new beds by the back deck when I felt something breeze right past my head. I thought it was the biggest monarch butterfly I'd ever seen! When I turned and looked at our arbor at 2 o'clock in the afternoon I was shocked to see a bat! Now, this is especially a thrill for me to see a bat up close, between seeing the cool bats in Austin and that we have so many mosquitos, I've seriously considered purchasing a bat house for our back yard.

I'm sure something was wrong with him, though, that he was out midday like that. I managed to get a few pictures of him and then went about my business. A little while later, I hate to have to tell you he went to fly off, ran head first into our deck and dropped dead before my eyes! I was surprisingly heartbroken by his sudden demise, but since our relationship I've certainly decided to invite more of his family to live in our yard when we're finished our outside rennovations.

Then a few days later, I was feeding Matty dinner when this gorgeous hawk swooped down and perched in our back yard. We actually saw him the very next day as well. I was thrilled to get some good close up pics of him before he flew off. Come to think of it, I never did see the bat corpse after this...

Steppin' Into Summer

I have to be honest. I was born, raised, educated, married and went on to reproduce in the south. The deep south. Lower Piedmont Plateau. And every year I dread the coming of summer. I know there are at least 4 months ahead so hot you can hardly breathe and just stepping outside can be exhausting. And this year, with temps already topping 100 by mid-June, you have to do whatever you can to beat the heat! Fortunately, for the first time in our family's little history a beach trip is just around the corner (16 days but who's counting). In the meantime, it's been pool dates, sprinklers and water tables a-plenty!

I never gave having a pool a second thought when we moved into this neighborhood we love. But come June when my skin is cracking it's so dry, we're thankful to take advantage of our friend's pools! A couple weeks ago we had a late afternoon play date with the Fingers and McNeely's at the McNeely's neighborhood pool. It was tons of fun to splash and play and hang out after the kiddos were done. And Jakers gave us a fun ride from the house down to the pool!

Hudson's grandmother, Gigi, gave Matty this awesome sprinkler toy for this birthday. Reminds both Ben and I of ones we had as kids.

It's not quite as fun as a pool, but in the shade with the water cold enough, Matty's new water play table helps cool things off enough to get us outside late afternoon.

16 days...16 days!