ALL-ABOARD!

Grant and Daddy have been enjoyed some "back from Iraq bonding" and Geoff has been thrilled that Grant is getting big enough to actually play (which he may or may not have thought he was going to be able to do the day we came home from the hospital!) After our trip to Dallas when we'd been up all night because Grant wasn't feeling to great Geoff said he needed get out for a while. Totally understandable. Well I was so touched when Geoff walked in with a little train set for Grant because he wanted to get him to smile. Geoff was like a kid in a candy store hurrying to set up the little train before Grant woke up from his nap. Grant did wake up and was VERY excited by the new "choo choo", correcting us every time we called it a train or a choo-choo by reminding us "my choo-choo".
The funniest part of this story came yesterday when Grant was playing by himself, I looked over and he had gotten his Wonderpets characters out and was taking them for rides on the train! I mean seriously, look at Linny the Guinea Pig, that's some serious balance on top of the hay barrel! All by himself, just wheeling them back and forth because with the characters aboard they were too tall to fit under the bridge to make the figure 8. Too freaking funny for words.

notice his lips in pic number one; he can't play with it without saying "choo-choo, all aboard" the whole time
P.S. Grant LOVES him some Wo-pets!

Dallas Shenanginz

Although we were super bummed that we couldn't travel to North Carolina the weekend to be a part of Sally and Mike's big day, we made the best of our weekend in Texas.

Friday we stopped by a goodbye party for the Pooles as they move to take a Pentagon job (lucky ducks) and Saturday morning we headed up to Dallas. Nicki, a friend of mine from high school, and her family live in a suburb there and invited us up to play. Here are some shots of the Shenanginz we got into:

We spent the day at the Dallas Arboretum awhere they had art instilations from kids books, then the kids (Grant and Ava, as well as Geoff and Keegan) played and splashed in a fish fountain. We had a great picnic in the garden and wore ourselves out, unfortunately for us the kids were too excited to sleep for naps so we ended up heading to Shenanaginz, the family business, to play arcade games, bowl, ride on go-karts and lots of other fun things. Grant LOVED bowling! they had this stand where he could just set the ball on top and "PUSH" (he said push out loud everytime) then he'd clap when the pins fell and would run over to the ball return to eagerly awwait its shooting up and return! Back at home the kids had baths and dressed in the super cute matching PJs. We had yummy italian for dinner before Grant decided that he wasn't going to sleep at all, so the night was rough, but what a fun day!

Happy Birthday Granddad Doug

Do you see the picture I'm coloring for you? Its Blue, with a party hat just for you!

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Welcome to our not-so-typical but typical-to-us night last night. We got Grant in PJs, scrubbed the heck out of his teeth, sang our songs and put him to sleep. He played for a few minutes before drifting asleep and we went out to watch TV. About an hour and a half later I heard something funny and made Geoff mute the TV. Wae walked into our room, where the monitor is, and this is what we heard...

"All aboard the Choo-choo train" as a last hoorah for about 5 minutes before it fell silent again~ silly, silly boy!

Servus Aus Fredricksburg

Geoff had a four-day this weekend so we took advantage and went Texas exploring. About 2 hours from us is Fredricksburg, a town that was settled by Germans and still holds on to their heritage. First stop was Wildseed Farms, a working wildflower farm. Highlight of that stop was the butterfly house. (I don't know how but when I switched my camera to take bigger file sized pictures it also but up my photography skills because I am IN LOVE with my butterfly pictures.)

Next was dessert, we stopped at a pie shop so that Geoff could discover that his Buttermilk pie is actually better than most! I had a German Chocolate pie (think chocolate creme with cocnut and pecan added) that was amazing. We had lunch next, schnitzel and wursts at the Auslander Biergarten. Grants favorite part was the wall full of coo-coo clocks so that he could say "Choo-Choo" throughout the whole meal! We strolled along the shops, window shopping and collecting ideas, then drove to Enchanted Rock but we're really in the mood to hike so that was a quick stop. Heres the whole slew of pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/laurabchilds/FredericksburgTX#

Stay tuned for the Pennsylvania part of leave, I haven't forgotten!

BabyGirl's Sneak Peek

So, as most you know, my incredibly thoughtful and incredibly crafty friend Rory is having a girl in September. Well I knew I had to come up with some good goods for BabyGirl and you'll all have to wait fro September to get the full effect of the goods I came up with, but in order to keep my sanity I had to give Rory a sneak peek:

Come back in September for the whole she-bang!

10% Love (the remix)

Do you all remember this? My big score at Brooks Brothers? Well, welocme to your second installment of 10% LOVE. Yesterday as Grant napped and Geoff was eager to try out the new NCAA football game I found my perfect opportunity to escape and go to my spa, my place of serenity, a.k.a. Hobby Lobby. I went in looking for ribbon but you know how that goes. "lemme just check out the scrapbooking stuff" "wondering if they have cute 4th of July stuff on sale" and all that jazz. well let me tell you, I hit the mother load!

Silver platter originally 39.99 mine for 4, rustic frames perfect for a gallery project I've had in mind originally 24.99-31.99 mine for 2.50-3.20 and the piece de resistance the rose platter originally 59.99 mine for 6 and it just happens to go PERFECTLY with this Paula Dean pitcher I had bought in the spring to give as a gift but didn't, it means I'm officially ready for wedding season 2010. Speaking of wedding seasons, this is our fridge right now, I'm happy that so many of our friends have found their "one", it makes me smile everytime I go to grab a popsicle!

Block Leave Part 1: Atlanta

The boys and I had a great block leave over the past few weeks, we drove for 2 days to get from middle of nowhere Texas to Atlanta, had a wonderful time visiting Geoff's family and friends there. We, I mean Geoff, grilled out a ton, spoiled Grant with more birthday goodies, had friends and family welcome Geoff back from Iraq and spent a good bit of time doing nothing, which was the biggest gift. We did fill the time with some Atlanta sightseeings, went to a Braves Game with Geoff's dad and cousin Tommy. Stopped by to check out the new and quite impressive aquarium and stopped my the zoo so Grant could be where he belonged! :o) Other things that made me happy there were scoring some old windows from the 1800s that a family friend took out of a house they are fixing up, I'm not quite sure what they'll become but I get giddy just thinking about them. I scored some goodies at the Talbots outlet, Geoff snuck away with Doug to see Transformers (that makes me happy because I didn't have to go!) and laughed a lot!

the rest of the pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/laurabchilds/AtlantaOverLeave#

platters'n'splatters

I just got message from 2 former Elon AOII sisters about doing plates for them as wedding gifts and figured it was time to show some updates as to whats going on in Platters & Splatters land.

A family portrait platter; A wedding party gift all done up; and A long over due baby plate for a coworker of Patty's


Its weird having to start fresh in a new city because it means trying to remember which box everything is in and finding a place to set up. I get discouraged when I think that I'm just going to have to pack it all up/ find a new kiln to work with in August when we move to Oklahoma but its all still exciting. Heres to thinking about Fort Bragg when I WILL have a space all to myself to paint and craft til my hearts content

WE'RE BAAAACK!

Hello everybody! Did you miss us?!?

Well we're back in good ole K-town and have the messy apartment to prove it. The next week will be filled with unpacking and laundry galore. I'm in the midst of uploading and sorting pictures so stay tuned...Since I don't have those ready I thought I would share 2 super favorite things that I have discovered over leave with you all

Patty turned me on to this and man its addicting (but totally okay because its healthy stuff!) Run, not walk, to your grocery store and get some Morton's Nature's Seasons, its this salt/pepper/spice mix that is soooo good. Dip your baby carrots in it for an added punch. I'm channeling Emeril when I say its like a "BAM in your mouth". We sprinkled it on cut cherry tomatoes and oh my goodness. I'll channel Rachel and say "YUM-O"

and while we're on food here my other new favorite:

these little beauties were found at B&N (I started with the slow cooker one and got addicted, at $9 I can do that) FINALLY a cookbook that is made from simple stuff. No 1/4 teaspoon of Cream of Tarter that I will never use again, No imported mushrooms or fancy-schmancy things that you can't get in middle of nowhere Texas, just 3-5 ingredient meals that are easy-peasy and taste so good.

Lots of food, back from traveling, I'm a happy girl!

Warning:MIA

Block Leave has started. We survived the 900 mile drive from TX to GA and are gearing up for a fun week in Atlanta followed by another rockin' time up at the lake (near Scranton PA). So just picture us, having a great time and we'll be back in a few weeks with pictures and stories to share~

Party On Dudes

Grant had a wonderful party full of laughs and sugar highs! We're thankful to have a small group here at Hood that we actually call friends and I'm gonna be sad to leave them come August (luckily almost everyone is moving on around the same time) Here are some pictures from the bash, I didn't take too many during the actual things so its a lot of detail shots: http://picasaweb.google.com/laurabchilds/GrantS2nd#