artsy fartsy

I almost forgot one of my favorite parts of the trip to Asheville... browsing the art galleries. The art scene is very vibrant and we found gallery after gallery with all sorts of objet d'art - some that could only be described as things that make you go "...hmmmmm." But we did find some prints to bring home, including a cool digital diptych, several quirky natural scenes, and some clouds.

But here is a self portrait by my favorite artist!

Altitude Affects Attitude

After the birthday weekend, Mimi & PawPaw offered to stay longer so Wayne & I could go on a little vacation. While we dreamed of more far flung adventures, we kept it within a 2 hour radius and visited lovely Asheville, NC, for 2 nights. We had a little guilt for missing Miles's actual birthday on Monday but got over that. We stayed at the Richmond Hill Inn which was not far from downtown, so much of our time was spent strolling that area, finding some fantastic food and doing a little shopping. We ate at My Father's Pizza in Black Mountain, Thai Basil, The Laughing Seed & Salsa downtown. Wayne's favorite had to be Luella's BBQ. One of his high school classmates owns it, but unfortunately she wasn't there when we stopped by. The 'que was fantastic, but my fave was their hush puppies side dish. I got more for dessert!

The next photos are of the porch of our cottage and the gardens of the main building at Richmond Hill Inn.


Neither of us had been to the Biltmore, so that was the main stop. We toured the amazing "house" and gardens, and visited their winery. Here is some of the beautiful scenery.




It was a relaxing break, thanks Mimi & PawPaw!

Happy 4th Birthday, Miles!

We celebrated Miles turning 4 last weekend with a little Jumpity Jump fun. Miles wanted a Superman party and I think some of these kids were leaping buildings in a single bound by the end of the afternoon. Here are some scenes of the fun with his buddies. Thanks to all who came to celebrate with us!

we're here

So that virus hung around a lot longer than expected, but I'm finally back on track. I'm still amazed that the kids stayed well the entire time, but I guess my cracked cuticles are testament to how much hand washing I did. So what did we do over the last week and a half? Hmmmm....
The kiddos are bundles of energy from sunup to sundown. Audrey has given up her morning nap, and Miles has pretty much given up his nap altogether. That means we get to go and do things in the morning now, but mommy's "me" time is seriously limited. I can get him to do "quiet time" in his room for an hour which means he flips through 80 books off his shelves, comes out to potty 3 times, and asks "how much longer?" every 4 minutes. C'est la vie.
The last couple of weeks at his school they've been learning about the circus. The even put on a little circus and Miles was a cute little clown. He was pretty funny, doing pratfalls somersaults and rolling around on the mat. And next week Miles will turn 4 years old..... four... IV... quatre... I'm a bit amazed at that fact. He's such a big kid now!
Wayne and I are excited about a little getaway we have planned for next week. Since the grandparents will be in town for Miles's 4th birthday, Mimi & PawPaw have offered to stay a couple of extra nights so we can have a much needed vacay. We found a beautiful place to stay in Asheville, and already have a list of must do & eat in the works.
Hopefully the little princess won't be too much of a pistol for her grandparents. She's still pretty attached to me although much of it is just for my benefit I know. Today I took them to childcare at the gym (for Zumba!!)and she had tears rolling down her cheeks. But as soon as I was out the door she was fine. She's also showing a feisty side, fueled (I hope) by her inability to communicate verbally. She'll get frustrated and flail about, hit, throw things and even pinch. And of course she has learned the power of a forceful "no!". Our favorite move is when she preemptively starts screaming and running from her brother. She already knows how to play the blame game and I try to catch myself from automatically asking Miles what he did to her. Ahh, the terrible twos, here you come again! But look at that cute face, it's hard to get mad at a sweetheart like that.

Back from Nashville

We're finally back home after a long visit in Nashville. We had to be there two weekends in a row so we thought it would be easier to stay a few nights between than to go back and forth over and over. I ended up catching a lovely virus which hit while we were there, so I helped a lot that YaYa & B (& Aunt Elizabeth and the cousins) were around to entertain my kiddos. Thank you all so much for having us visit.
It happened that my brother & his wife were in Nashville the first weekend, so we got to visit with them a lot and even went swimming at their hotel pool. Here we are at one of our two breakfasts at Puckett's that weekend. Saturday was cousin Evan's 7th (!) birthday, so the big kids went to the indoor climbing wall. Miles made it up about 10' and tried a couple more times. Wayne thinks he liked it, until he looked down.

We spent the rest of the week playing, jumping, eating , running, napping & having all sorts of fun. Oh and shoe shopping (see previous post). Wayne came back for the next weekend when we had tickets to see Green Day. What an incredible show! If you're a fan and they come near you, I encourage you to go. As Wayne said, it's got good Return on Investment. Saturday we headed home after a quick lunch with some Alpha Chi friends and their babies. We also stopped in along the way to visit Wayne's grandpa and several of his cousins who were in town from Virginia. It was a fun filled week of visits, but we are glad to be home again!