The Stepdaughter Formerly Known As...

My stepdaughter formerly known as Hunter has decided that she prefers to go by "Lexy" which is her middle name. Since the schools around here have two more weeks to go, and camp doesn't start until then, she decided to pass the time with a lemonade stand. We're also hoping it helps us get acquainted with some of the older neighborhood kids. Fortunately our house is the bus stop for our block.

Lexy and I had a good time putting pen to paper to figure out how much it cost to make a pitcher of lemonade (do YOU know how much a cup of sugar costs?) and then she surveyed a few adults (me and Dad) to see what price the market would bear.

So at 25 cents a cup, you can have some nice cool lemonade. Today was her grand opening and she's already made about $4.00. Xavier drank up some of the profits via his sippy cup but that's apparently the price of good help these days.

How I Spent My Spring Vacation

What a fantastic treat it was to be able to take off a week and half to go to North Carolina with my family. Xavier is quite the little car traveller. Jack needs a little more time to adjust. Poor thing just needs a break every hour or so. As a result we spent two more days in transit than originally planned. We even briefly considered turning around and going back to Texas but thankfully decided to sleep on that decision. We turned the corner that night.

I jokingly called this the Meet the (Grand)Parents tour as it was the first opportunity for Jack to meet my Dad and stepmom (Papa & MiMi) and my in-law's (Grandma & Grandpa). Of course the boys were just spoiled silly with gifts, hugs and kisses. Xavier warmed up to his Papa who fed him full of eggs, biscuits and toast for breakfast. Grandma's gift of a cement truck is still being slept with by Xavier.

My folks generously let us use their cottage in Highlands as our "home base." for the trip. The views of the mountain range in the morning and sunsets in the evening were breathtaking. We had a great hike on Whiteside Mountain. The next day we took it a little easier and did the walking trail at the Highland's nature center. I enjoyed all the labelling they have on the plants and trees. It makes me want to prepare a little more for our next trip so Xavier can learn some new words. The last day in the mountains we actually drove just across the border to SC where we found an incredible trail. It is about 72 miles long and runs from Georgia to South Carolina. Tim and I think it would make a great backpacking route once the boys are a bit older.

The biggest revelation of the this trip is that if we are going to drive to North Carolina, we need to spend much, much more time there. Next year we hope to spend a few weeks there.

Look Who's Two!

Hard to believe that I've been at this mothering thing for two years now today. Seems like yesterday that they lifted this beautiful little boy over the drape in the OR. His hands were splayed, his eyes were wide open, and his little mouth was shaped in a perfect "O." It was as if he was saying, "Now this is something COMPLETELY different!" From that first face-to-face moment, my life changed forever. I am so very blessed to have such a dear little one.

We celebrated with a small family birthday party after Dad got home from work and Xavier woke up from his nap. We had the birthday cake that Xavier and I made that morning (the kid loves to bake so I figured there was no hard and fast rule that birthday cakes HAD to be surprises). Then we opened presents.

Light up Spiderman shoes:

A kiddie laptop:

A garbage truck.

He also got a homemade felt pizza kit which I made for him by hand and a set of clay sculpting tools. But his absolute favorite part of today (if you haven't already guessed from the photos) were the two balloons I ran out and got him at the last minute. He held onto those balloons pretty much for the rest of the day. We did leave them at home when we took Xavier to the big park to play for an hour or so on the playground, and I finagled them out of his hands for bathtime but other than that, he wouldn't let them go. Simple pleasures.

Here's a video of him playing with the truck: