Giggles!

We caught Maggie giggling on film! She's been laughing a lot more often these days, and it is the best thing EVER!!! I just love hearing her laugh. Penny is her favorite thing to laugh at today. Friday it was an egg shaker that Danny from work gave to her. That's when Brian caught her with the camera.
My flowers are doing well! Some still haven't bloomed, but the ones that I thought weren't going to make it are looking fine now! Penny has only gotten into the flowers once since we planted them, so that's good.
Saturday we took Penny and Maggie to the park. Penny was so excited when we came through the entrance that she started shaking. There were lots of people there having graduation parties, and she of course wanted to say "hi" to all of them. Maggie was only awake for a few minutes in her stroller before the nice breeze and outdoor sights and sounds put her right to sleep. I got some much needed exercise, and we hall had a great Saturday.
Last weekend I decided to take my easel out onto the porch to paint. It was a good idea until the rainclouds rolled in and blocked out the sun. It's not easy to paint in the dark. Everything is still sitting out there, waiting for me to finish!
I tried to upload the video of Maggie laughing, but it is too long...I'll get a shorter one soon.
Instead I'll post a cute picture of Maggie visiting with her cousins yesterday!

We did it!!!

We planted all the flowers! In the back yard, we had to clear away some grass to make our flower bed bigger. We have two pampas grass plants, some white vinca, dahlia's, gazanias, snap dragons, and more. A few of the snap dragons look a bit wilted but hopefully with some good watering they will look better. Brian's job was to clear the spot, which turned out to be quite a dirty task, and my job was to plant the plants.

As you can see in the photos below, there is still some work to be done. There are lots of weeds by the fence that need pulled, and we need to put down some mulch.

I have some planters on the front porch, and I decided to plant some wave petunias in them this year. They are looking good so far. I have also included some pictures of my house plants. My spider plant had a baby, and my aloe plant has been revived. Maggie watched us plant the flowers, and Penny tried to help. She's been really good about staying out of the new flower bed!

There were some plants sprouting in the back yard last year that Brian usually just mowed over, but this year we let them grow and discovered that they are peonies! They are blooming now, and look very pretty! I'm glad we let them grow this time.

It was so nice to spend the day outside. One of my favorite things to do when I was growing up was to help Mom plant her flowers. I look forward to Maggie helping me someday! I can't get enough of this beautiful weather. I am really loving our porch this week! I could just sit out there and listen to the birds all day. It would be better if there weren't noisy cars driving by 24/7.

Daddy's Graduation, Mother's Day

Hooray for Daddy! Brian is done with school, and has TWO degrees to show for it! We are so proud of him. He is now taking trombone lessons from Mr. Stewart at Indiana University, and is sending out his impressive resume to several job leads in the Packaging industry. I know it won't be long before someone snatches him up!

What did I get for my first Mothers' Day? I got to hear my little girl laugh for the first time! I wish I could bottle that sound up and store it for a rainy day. There's nothing better for lifting your mood than hearing those giggles! Apparently Roger and Brooke's dogs are hilarious. Maggie thinks so, anyway. I haven't caught her laughing on film yet (it is a rare occurrence when it's just the two of us...I guess I'm not that funny) but when I do, I will be sure to share it!

I plan to plant flowers today. I have to pull weeds first, so we'll see. Mom brought me some perennial seeds, black-eyed susans and coreopsis, that I will start in some pots, and I bought a flat of annuals on Friday that need planted. Hopefully Penny won't destroy the flowers in the back yard. We'll see.

More fun toys!!!

I put Maggie's highchair together this week. She felt like such a big girl when she sat in it for the first time!!! We also put together the rain forest bouncy seat thing we got from Jaime. She LOVES it. Here are some videos and pictures of little miss Maggie enjoying her life!!!