The Eberly Journals: May 2014

When we got home from our early spring vacation we were so thrilled to walk around the house and see what all had started blooming while we were away. This little pot had been planted by Joanna in the beginning of spring and she had waited so patiently for them to bloom.

We always enjoy the bright pink flowers of our American Redbud in the butterfly garden.

Katy received these Marigolds at Sunday school on Mother's day to give to me and we planted them in the butterfly garden.

usually I miss the tulips blooming with the timing of our trip every year but everything was later this year so I actually got to see them this time :P

And the bleeding heart bushes:

This azalea gets even more covered with beautiful blooms.

and I had lilac blooms this year! I got shoots from my Grandmother a couple years ago but this is the first time they've bloomed for me :)

I love the smell of lilacs!

I had several pansies actually make it through the winter, I could hardly believe it!

This is the plant that Joanna picked out for me at her Sunday school on Mother's day:

When I went to pick her up she said, "mom I got you these flowers for Mother's day! Can I have them?!" Haha! Of course I said yes and helped her find a nice spot to plant them :)

I got pretty spoiled on Mother's day. We went out to eat after church and spent a lovely day together.

It was such a perfect day and we just laid on a blanket in the yard

The following Tuesday I went down to see my parents in NJ and my sister and her two lovely girls. I took along the shirt that I had made my mom while we were on vacation. It was her mother's day gift :)

And it was so nice to see baby Kasey again! She's too cute!

The third Saturday of the month we had our Great Strides walk for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It was another beautiful day and I was amazed at how many people were there! We met up with some friends from our team and the girls had so much fun. Joanna had a toad in her cup:

It's a 3 mile walk that actually goes pretty fast because you're walking and talking the whole time. Joanna walked the whole way but Katy was not that in to it :P

Judith in the green shirt is the little girl with CF that we were walking for, she's Katy's age...

They provided lunch for all the walkers afterwards but the girls decided they HAD to have balloon animals, so we went to stand in that line before eating, thinking it would not be as long then. Well the clown making the animals was VERY slow and we ended up waiting 45 minutes for stupid balloon animals! :P The girls didn't seem to mind though. They danced with their friends and chased bubbles and ran around while I waited.

By the time we were done in that line I didn't feel like going back and waiting in the lunch line so we just headed home. It was a good day and we raised lots of money for Great Strides!

When we got home I got to building this awesome secret garden hideout for the kids that I had gotten an idea for. Ricky and I kept talking about getting a playhouse for the girls but they are so expensive... this I made for free! The kids absolutely love it too. I will have to take another picture of it later this summer when the vine is covering it. They also now have blankets and pillows and books in there and my super creative Joanna painted the ceiling :)

Chase and I had been pushing hard to get school done with by the end of the month but I decided we needed to take a little break and go to the State park, Chase did his school work on the way there and back. We had a picnic and then took a hike in the woods with Peaches.

The kids and I have been training Peaches to shed hunt (find fallen deer antlers). We were on phase 4 of 5 and practiced with her while we were hiking. I have a man made deer antler that was specifically made for training dogs to hunt sheds. I cover it with deer scent and then one of the kids hides the shed or throws it into the woods while I cover her eyes and then we tell her to, "find it!" It took her longer then when we're at home but she's doing so good with it and sniffed it or every time!

She really loves this game and won't give up until she finds the antler! We've now moved on to the final phase of training (using a real deer shed) and she's doing so well with it! Hopefully next spring we'll be finding loads of sheds in the woods, Ricky is so proud :P

We also worked on getting her to swim more. She's still not so sure about the water...

I think the kids wanted to swim too :P

The girls had their last day of gymnastics for the year and were given an awards ceremony.

Joanna was so excited to get her very own trophy!

Yes the girls are wearing matching, homemade by me, shirts :P

Daddy getting some love:

Peaches got her first ever haircut too. I didn't want to cut her hair because she was so soft and fluffy but it really had to be done. She was so miserably hot and it hasn't even been super hot yet! She sat so good for me it hardly took any time to finish. It did take some getting used to her new look but we adjusted and think she looks as cute as ever now :)

Happy doggie...

The garden keeps getting more and more beautiful by the day. I need to run around taking more pictures again but here's the ones from May. I love these red Columbine I got last spring: