Memorial Day

Memorial Day was AWESOME - no traveling and SO much time with friends.  The morning started with a HOT baseball game

than time on the back deck with Jill and Marc followed by an awesome picnic in New Hartford with Kelly and her family along with all their neighbors.  Sunday at church and Monday morning after our canton Parade was rained out we were able to attend the Simsbury Parade all together.  

Love seeing these 2 walking together hand in hand

Simsbury band - yes, I was hoping for Sirocco!

Quick family shot at a parade I have attended for YEARS.  another surreal moment of living back here.  With my family - young and old!

Now off to the pool

Ladies Night out

Our chicken are officially adolescents - that awkward stage where they have some 'down' left on their bodies, yet their feathers are coming in too - they are creating LOTS of dust in the basement and with the weather so warm - we decided it was time to get them outside =)!  Our friends have this great little coop that no one is using at the moment.  So to allow more time for further construction - we borrowed it

So tonight is the first night the girls will be outside.

I will admit - I was a bit nervous for them.

But they seemed to love it - looking for bugs, enjoying the fresh air - win win!

Here they are getting a little extra attention from the neighbors =)  They will be friendly chickens (or scared to death of us with good reason!

Snack Shack with my buddy

Our little league baseball or gram hosts a snack shack every season.  Folks bring crock pots of meals to share, restaurants donate yummy goodies.  They ask the parents to volunteer time selling and often times high school kiddos help out as well.  Drew and I managed to schedule a time slot on Saturday morning and we LOVED it.

It was DARLING seeing Drew help out, handle money and be responsible.  He rose to the occasion and I want to remember the time in the snack shack with him. grabbing gatorades, heating up hotdogs.

Love this kiddo

Bead head Drew

Somedays this kiddo wakes up with the BEST hair - this day was particularly unusual - but I had to snap a photo

Later that day, we were rooting around our local thrift store and check out this $2 gem =)  of course I need a Toot Gun

That evening was made complete at our local carnival.  It was a BUSY friday night.  Chris took the littles while I had night for the bigger rides.  His and I were standing in line for the swings when his 2 best friends discovered us - Tate and Ryan - they were instantly 3 little peas in a pad roving the carnival.  Loved just seeing the joy in Nick's eyes when they ran up to him.

Chris was a rock star with these 2 while I got to chat with the moms too.

Just a great night in small town America

May Dance

The May dance is a yearly event on Cherry Brooke and sweetly simple Its an afternoon we get to watch their class as they have put together so super cute dances - 

Cannot believe this little guy will actually be IN IT next year!  Thankful he is in my lap at the moment.

Shane Dancing to Alabama Gal - great lead buddy!

https://youtu.be/qvXluBQQeyw

Nick's Simple square Dance - He even gets through the confusing part!

https://youtu.be/URdMipReZKI

The Grand finale - the May Pole dance and Nick was thrilled to be part of it

https://youtu.be/MrGmzCwMn1I

Came home to let our adolescents out - 

Getting so much bigger!

Loved having these 2 stop by for cocktails on the deck - they are enjoying the week together before Mrs. G heads to the Vineyard!

Chicks are 2 weeks!

Right before we headed in for School photos I had to snag one of my own - Look at these cuties - Paul Cryan does school photos for Cherry Brooke every year and I LOVE going!

After some great smiles we headed home to let the ckicks out - Almost 3 weeks - Pauli is a little interested

Love how they are still so cute and fluffy

They really make she sweetest peeping noises too

https://youtu.be/_tDf-t2WZyU

Well hey there lady

In case you were wondering, they get PLENTY of attention

Love seeing this one be calm amount them

And this one doing his homework right by them

Chicks - so far, so good!

Mother's Day

Favorite gifts on a Mother's day - these sweet boys and their creations - Loved that we got to go to Church as a family -

Boys and Trees - they are one!  Never thought this tree at my folks house would ever be such a great climbing tree

We enjoyed some wine at a local spot that we drive by so frequently - finally we went it - thanks chris for prepping a yummy snack for us all

Just had to capture one of my favorite spring time plants - thankful he came back this year.

Wonderful mother's day!

Training

Thursday May 5 - 

I earned a training lunch with the Rodan and Fields leaders (from San Fran!)  in Stamford CT - it was almost a 2 hour drive and I needed to juggle some kiddo pick ups - but the lunch was wonderful and meeting other RF folks in the area was great too - one of the many perks.

Loved the title of this post as on the way home - I spoke to my newest business/training partner - My sister!  Holy moly am I excited.  Excited as to wear this business can take her - excited for her, excited to do this with her.

So excited we have twins! wait, what??  

Yes, Jill stopped over with her darling boys Zak and Nicholas.  Drew was off getting into mischief with Mia (Literally) while the boys enjoyed their own version of training.

Pauli Girl

The week following our race it literally rained that entire week - YUCK.  Rainy and cold.  

Pauli was being seen at our vet for an Ulcer in her eye.   Apparently she sees everyone else get in this seat and figures its a must. - looks a bit uncomfortable

On the way home, I remembered a dog washing place where it is $10 and they provide EVERYTHING except the dog. 

Warm water, towels, shampoo, Hair dryer.

Here is Pauli - pampered

Towel her off

And yes, now you can lay on the circle chair for the moment

princess - no wait,

QUEEN

Super Sunday

Sunday morning May 1 and we are signed up for the First Collinsville 10 K - 

These are my weekley running buddies and i must say i love them.  I love how a relationship can be formed and nurtured through running - one common interests wether for health, exercise, mental or physical - we get together and run and that is therapy.

This guy - no matter how he trains - rocks the run and this morning we were thrilled to have him join us

The run was just one way - which was really nice.  it was a dreary morning (and rather chilly as we all were bused to the start point and needed to wait until race started)  As we ran, I could NOT resist snapping this shot (while running)  Love the traffic blocker!

The race was great, my buddies went on ahead as they are training for a 1/2 marathon and are stronger runners right now.  I had Jon Bon Jovi and no head phones, so I had a few fellow runners that got to hear my music too - I was thrilled to meet that 'finish strong' partner - you know the one that you have kept pace with for a few miles, you pass, he passes you, you pass him and at the end you race each other stride for stride across the finish.  Yes, I love finding folks like that.

We indulged in a HUGE breakfast and on still on our runners high - we took these 3 to Petals and Paws to buy 7 baby chicks!

Everyone including my folks got to pick one.

Nick was sweetly excited and honestly a bit concerned for the welfare of the other chicks.

He also struggle to name his - she was named, Josey, Taylor and a few others - but I think we have no settled on Violet

Shane's is Coachie

Drew was the first to name his Roxy - All in black!

A few others, Maggie, Muffet, Gertie and Buffy - All in the cooler downstairs with a heat lamp on.

Truly another Leadbetter adventure!

So far its just food, water and heat.  Hanging out in the basement.