Sounds of summer

The gentle humming of the fan...Yawn, another morning is here.

Little eyes begin to flutter open,

the pitter of patter of little feet grows louder...

Another day of summer has begun~

Squeals of delight, the kiddos slide down the slipn'slide; Big "Hello!" from tiny bodies to the neighbor; shouts of victory, another firefly has been captured;

smacking of lips and pleas for more ice cream from red, sweaty faces (another tub has been devoured);

boisterous singing, VBS songs repeated for the 100th time;

giggles, tickle monster is home...


crying at night, the fun has to end from kids who get to bed later than usual these summer evenings (the sun goes down way too late doesn't it?)... soft breaths from little angels fast asleep


*note* poor girl was so exhausted she didn't make it up the stairs to her room.

sigh ... ~ except for the song of the toad, QUIET ~ the day has come to an end.

Well, almost ;) ... conversations with my man.

Sights and smells of summer continued...

The previous owner of our home planted some beautiful flowers... hydrangeas, crate myrtles, peoni plant... It is SO refreshing to clip a few stems and create beautiful bouquets we can decorate the house with. Our peonis bloomed in the spring,
Hydrangeas in the early/late summer,

and our crate myrtle has just begun to blossom and from what I hear, will continue to bloom in to the fall.

Mya and I have enjoyed soaking in the smells and sights of the seasons ~ ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! I can't believe it has almost been a year since we moved to Virginia! The leaves will begin to change colors soon, cooler weather is just around the corner, and Virginia will be just as beautiful as ever.

Sweet stuff!

I have succeeded in growing my first tomato plant! Sweet stuff! The growing and the eating... :)

I picked up a little tomato plant at Giant a couple months ago...

Nate stuck it in the backyard and has become this massive mess of leaves, stems and tomatoes! Neither of thought it was going to grow as large as it has and weren't prepared. We did not attach the stems to a pole, lattice as we should've. It outgrew its cage a while back and now overflows into the yard and is threatening to strangle our gorgeous hydrangea bush (more on that later). :) Ah well, we are enjoying our delicious homegrown tomatoes immensely!