Creative moment

On this cloudy, windy, slightly rainy day (because of Hurricane Irene), I got creative. We made chocolate chip cookies!


Here is puppy enjoying the finished product.

Swim lessons

We enrolled Clara in swim lessons this summer. She LOVES them. She loves everything about water, swimming, pools. The very first class, she was so excited, it was very hard to get her to practice anything. She just wanted to squirm and splash around. Since then, she has calmed down and is "learning" more.

The classes are not really what I expected. They are designed to get toddlers used to being in the water and if possible be in the water on their own. I thought there would be more instruction from the teacher but there is not. So really I just paid $$ for me to teach my child to swim. Anyway, Clara doesn't know any better and she is enjoying the lessons so I guess it is worth it (and we have bonding time).

Classic

We were just lounging around last night and Clara pouts her lips, droops her eyes, and hangs her head low; she looks at me and says, "Clara's sad" in a cute, quiet voice.

"Oh, your sad." I reply with concern. "What can I do to make you happy?" And I grab her and give her a huge hug and start tickling her. She starts laughing and smiling. I stop and she asks to be tickled again.

Classic memory!

Kids run the bases...

...at the Durham Bulls baseball game.

She ended up being the last one running so Wool E. held her hand and ran her in. Below she is running the bases and going to give Scooby a high 5.

Scooby Doo verses Wool E. Bull

I think they tie as far as Clara's love and admiration. She has no fear when it comes to mascots or anything.




We went to a Durham Bull's baseball game on Sunday, July 31. Scooby Doo was going to be the special guest star. Mike introduced Clara to Scooby Doo and she loves him. So we took her to see Wool E. Bull (she has met him before) and she also met Scooby Doo. She was in heaven. Adorable... her giggles...her big smiles.

She took a stuffed Wool E. Bull with her and showed Wool E. it. He liked it so much, he got his picture taken himself with Clara's stuffed Wool E. Bull.

4 years, Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith

4 years to my amazing husband, Michael
July 28, 2011
2 dozen roses!

We saw Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith in concert that evening. Great concert!

Beforehand we had a nice, childless, dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Love me some cheesecake!

Beach, July 2011

When you live 2 hours from the ocean, you have to take a trip to the beach in the summer. We were planning to go on Sunday, July 24 but the temps were close to 100 and the heat index was around 110 degrees. Too hot!

So Mike and I decided to go on Tuesday the 26th. We woke up to drizzle and clouds in Fuquay but left. It was cloudy and rainy as we drove but we continued on. When we got to the beach, it was just cloudy and actually on the cool side. So it was a nice day. We found a less crowded beach (and free parking) in Kure Beach near the NC aquarium. We spent close to 2 hours at the beach. Clara LOVED it. We couldn't keep her out of the water. She wanted to run in it, lay in it, sit in it. splash it, everything. It was a lot of fun. She LOVES water. She will be starting swim lessons next week on August 8. She has started to blow bubbles in the water.






These two remind me of the start of a triathalon. Her Aunt Sarah would be proud.

Cute!

4th of July

Helping mommy bake brownies for the 4th of July party at Ms. Kim and Mr. Dave's

And we can't forget about the cutest dog in the whole entire world...BEAR!

Summer, summer, summertime...summertime....

Nothing like a dip in the pool on a hot summer day!

Our track star

Running her second race in her life, 100m at Carolina Godiva's Summer track series.

Time: 1 minute 19 seconds.

When we got to the track, Clara wanted to do nothing but run. She probably would have gone a full 400m if we let her. She just kept going and going and going. Where does she get all this energy. :)

Four generations

We headed up to Ohio at the end of June. My Dad's side of the family was having it's annual family reunion picnic and we also visited with an aunt and uncle on my Mom's side of the family.Clara met her Great, Great Aunt Joanie and her Great, Great Uncle Jack.

She also met her Great Grandma Meyer

Her Uncle Jack read a book to her and she conned him into reading several more. I think he didn't mind. :)

Busch Gardens

While in Virginia, we went to Busch Gardens. Mike has been wanting to take Clara there forever. Finally, she seemed ready. She loved Busch Gardens and all the rides. This girl does not have much fear whatsoever. Here are a few photos from the day. We have plenty more but I won't post them all :) .

Oh, and that orange paper bunny showing up in some of these photos is from the Fuquay library. His name is "Flat Sunny." The library has a real bunny named Sunny but he is on vacation for the summer so they were handing out these paper bunnies. The kids were to take them on vacation with them because Flat Sunny enjoys going on trips. So we took him with us to Virginia. Clara enjoyed showing him around.



We went on every ride she was big enough to go on. Clara met Elmo and we watched his show. She loved the sprayground area in the Elmo area. And at the end of the day, she was exhausted. Love it when she is so tired like that she falls asleep in the car.

Trip to Virginia

We spent Father's Day weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Biasi's house in Yorktown, VA.

We watched a big ship leave the dock for a voyage out to sea.

The dads and their children
(L to R) Preston, Raymond, Grandpa B., Lila Anne, Clara and Mike)

Town Celebration

Fuquay-Varina held its annual Celebrate Fuquay-Varina on June 3-4. Clara went on her first amusement park ride and LOVED it.

A day in the life of Monkey

Monkey joined Clara and I for the day. First we had breakfast. Monkey enjoyed his pancakes.

Then we headed to the library to find some books and do some painting (they had a drop in craft time in place of storytime)

After the library, we went to Womble park. Monkey loved the swings as much as Clara does. He even went down the slide.

He napped in the afternoon. He and Clara were exhausted from the morning. In the evening, Clara and Monkey visited with the neighbors.

Strawberry picking

What seems like ages ago, the first Friday in May, the moms group I belong to had a playdate at a strawberry patch and picked strawberries. Clara and I went and had lots of fun. I've never been and was unsure about the quality of the strawberries but let me tell you, they were the reddiest and juiciest strawberries I've ever seen/had. Clara couldn't wait and ate a few while picking them.