Memorial Day

We all camped out in the backyard with the fireflies and forest sounds. I forget how noisy it gets back in the forest at night with frogs and owls and bugs. We had a fire and roasted marshmallows. Ben made pancakes in the morning and then we loaded up all the bikes for a family bike ride on the American Tobacco Trail. It was really hot on Memorial Day but the breeze while biking helped, as well as the shady trail. The girls were troopers and we managed to ride 10 miles which is a lot for their little legs. The promise of ice cream at the end helped move them along. The boys hung out in the bike trailer and fought for the last few miles. We stopped at Goodberry's on the way home for yummy frozen custard. We broke out the slip 'n slide when we got home and then grilled veggies from our farmer's market trip for dinner and had a yummy strawberry cobbler for dessert.

saturday happenings.

I started the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend with a longer early morning run. I ended my run at a playground where Ben was hanging out with the kids. Playgrounds at 8 a.m. are the best because you get them to yourselves! After playing for a bit, we all ran part of the trail together (the girls were on their scooters) to another playground not too far away and played for awhile and Ben did the longer return run back to where I had parked. We have fun figuring out all the trail systems and how we can arrange and coordinate different runs and meet at different parks.

During the afternoon I took Oliver and Elsa to the State Farmer's Market. It was crazy busy but we fought our way through and picked up some yummy veggies to grill the next day. We made a stop at the grocery store and it was fun to hang out with just Oliver and Elsa, a combination I don't usually get to myself.

Simon loves to help out and I learned that he's actually really good at shucking corn.

If the kids are playing in the driveway when Ben or I get home, they insist on climbing in and "driving" down the driveway.

raleigh rose garden

I took the boys to the Raleigh Rose Garden one morning to see if the roses were in bloom. And they most definitely were. It smelled so good. Simon was only interested in shaking the roses to make the petals fall off and Oliver just wanted to go to a playground, so we didn't stay too long. We headed to Lake Crabtree County Park for a picnic and Oliver got his playground fix. The boys had fun throwing rocks in the water and watching a man fly a giant kite.