Anniversary date.

To celebrate our 12 year anniversary, Ben surprised me with a date during the day. We dropped the boys off at a friend's house and headed to the NC Museum of Art. Ben had originally planned a bike ride from there to a lunch spot but it was pouring rain. So we walked around the museum instead, at a nice leisurely pace, something that is hard to do with kids. We also had the place to ourselves which was fun. We went to a new restaurant in Raleigh for lunch, P.G. Werth's and the food was delicious. We made one final stop at the Yellow Dog Bread Company for a treat. They had the most delicious pecan sticky buns. Art museum plus yummy food made for the perfect date.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

I took the girls to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Raleigh Rose Garden one evening. It was the most beautiful, perfect setting for the play. It's such a fun play and this was a fantastic production and exciting to be so close to the actors. The girls loved that it involved fairies and that there were some kids in the play. I was surprised how well they followed the story line. We brought a picnic dinner and ate and wandered around the roses while we waited for the play to start. It smelled so good. I loved watching the sun set and the fireflies come out. After the play we stopped by Insomnia Cookies for one of their awesome s'more cookies.

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.

Lake Wheeler

Ben was out of town for a full week and I needed a break from the usual dinner time craziness at home so when the girls got home from school we headed to Lake Wheeler for a picnic. The kids had fun throwing rocks in the water and coming up with crazy games on the playground. I just loved being outside and watching them have fun (and not having to prepare, eat, and clean up dinner amidst total chaos).