Bulls Game

We've been wanting to take the girls to a Bulls game for awhile. We finally found a good day and had so much fun despite the heat. 

American Tobacco Campus is so well done. Such a neat Durham spot!

Addie figured out that lemonade tastes way better than milk or water...

Brian attempting to explain the game of baseball to the girls...

Collins was a fan of Wool E. Bull...

and Addie was not. :) 

We agreed it's such a fun way to spend an afternoon- especially once the girls get a little older. 

July 4th Festivities

We had zero plans for the holiday so we came up with some. And it turned out to be such a fun day! 

First we picked cucumbers so Brian and Collins could make homemade pickles for our cookout.

Then we headed over to Umstead Park to go on a canoe ride...look who we saw! He let us get so close- Collins kept saying how cool it was and Addie kept saying "dog".

Miss Addie was not allowed inside a canoe, just on top of one. She was in quite a mood that morning so unfortunately other park-goers got an earful of Addie screaming. It's a good thing she's so cute.

Our fun neighbors put together an impromptu bike parade that afternoon. Everyone did a lap around the hood...the first annual Blenheim July 4th Parade!

Donna and Marty joined us for a cookout that night, and we had yummy burgers with all the fixings. Collins's favorite part was the star-shaped watermelon...

and Addie's was the corn. :)

Our attempt at sparklers was a huge bust (they were the ones from our wedding 7 years ago so I think they worn out)...

so our grand finale was cherry pie (I've always wanted to make one!). It was a fun and festive day!

Things We Love About Summer...

Barbecue festivals...

pool time...

baking summer treats...

Bible school (this was Collins's first year attending VBS and it made quite an impression on her- here she is rocking out to the CD which she is obsessed with)...

sister bonding time...

play dates with friends that we don't normally get to see...

and of course, ice cream. Lots of reasons to get excited that summer is only halfway over!

Brian's Cool Work Stuff

Some pretty neat things have happened professionally for Brian lately. First, he was named one of the Triangle Business Journal's "40 Under 40"- an award given out to community leaders. He knew he had been nominated at work, but never expected to actually win and he did! Pretty cool...

He has been practicing law almost 10 years this September and just had his coolest case by far. He represented the NC General Assembly in their case against Governor McCrory. Brian just got to argue before the N.C. Supreme Court in the appeal! The hearing was broadcast live on WRAL.com, and I watched from the playroom as I wrestled those wild girls. Addie tried to clobber Collins with a wooden box of play spaghetti. :)

Brian got to do the rebuttal and put a TON of work into it, and it paid off. He was AWESOME in the courtroom! He got lots of compliments from people on his work (even from a former governor!). We all were so proud of him.

Addie at 18 Months

When Collins turned 1 1/2, we took her to get her first-ever ice cream cone. Of course, it was not possible to reenact this exact moment with Addie since she has had ice cream multiple times (she is the second child). But still, we wanted her to have her own ice cream cone on her big (half) day. And she loved it. Maybe not quite as much as she loves brats and pizza, but she loved it.

Her 18 month check-up went better than expected. Addie's well visits usually don't go very well. She gets hysterical when they weigh her, and then things go downhill from there. She lost it again during the weight check, but amazingly, Dr. Lehan calmed her down pretty easily. She has a very soothing voice and a good way with babies. Physically and developmentally all checked out normal. 

The one interesting thing I took away from the appointment was that Addie is short. It was clear when we marked her growth on the growth chart that she is far behind where Collins was at 18 months. Dr. Lehan confirmed that Collins was in the 90th percentile in height at 1 1/2 years and Addie is only in the 16th percentile! We shall see if she ever catches up to her sister. Here are her measurements:

Weight: 25 lbs 7 oz

Height: 30 1/2"

Head: 19"

I think Addie looks so long and old in the pix above. Hard to believe our baby is quickly headed for two years old!

Father's Day

I felt pressure to make Father's Day really special because 1) Brian is an amazing Dad and 2) because he knocked it out of the park on Mother's Day. Seeing how we had just gotten back from vacation and I had to go help set up Bible School, it wasn't easy to put the planning into it that I wanted. But in the end, I decided that time with his girls, good food and a Steph Curry shirt were the way to go.

I tried a new recipe for breakfast from my new favorite cookbook "Huckleberry". It was eggs baked in beer. :)

We took a bike ride on the greenway- it was exciting that Brian could actually ride a bike!

And then we checked out the waterfall at the end of the Lassiter Mill trail. 

Addie is really into hats (especially other people's). 

We thought Brian needed an updated Steph Curry shirt...he agreed. We also got him a new tailgating table which was desperately needed.

I asked Brian if he wanted to take the night off from cooking, and he was quick to answer "no". Instead, he made a homemade bolognese sauce using steak. Delicious!

My final treat for him was a blackberry cobbler cooked in a cast iron skillet...it turned out that it looked prettier than it tasted. But still a blackberry cobbler can only be so bad.

It was a great day celebrating our favorite Dad!

Garden Suprises

We hired our neighbor Kate to watch over the garden while we were at Wrightsville. I was worried to leave our garden for a whole week in the hands of someone else, especially when a heat wave hit while we gone. Needless to say, I didn't high hopes for our return.

And what do you know? The garden surprised me. It was healthy, thriving, and it gave us our very first harvest...green beans!

Collins was in charge of our first gleaning and Addie "assisted".

Brian made a delicious dinner with them, and they tasted really good. It was so gratifying to eat something we actually grew!

And luckily, green beans are not the only veggie flourishing...the tomatoes are too. We had about 20 at the time this pic was taken. But this was our first baby- we saw it and screamed. :)

And not far behind the tomatoes, came the cucumbers...

It's amazing how fast they grow! What are we going to do with all these cucumbers? Brian says, "make pickles!".

I still can't believe the garden is actually working. I never expected to grow an actual vegetable, but I would now say it's been a complete success. We get fresh herbs for our meals almost daily and get to watch something new pop up every day. It has been the perfect summer project!