Jamie and I just recently started a new workout regimen called Insanity. We had been wanting to start something up again and although we enjoyed P90X when we did it a year and a half ago we just don’t have 1.5 hours each night to commit to it anymore so we choose to give Insanity a whirl. We’ll see where it takes us and if I remember I will let you know that I think of insanity (after completing it), although right now I would say that it’s hard as heck but I am enjoying it. One aspect of the beach body programs that I really enjoy is the way they encourage you to track your progress and while I am sure as heck not going to post “before” photos of myself up here I will show you a few of Jay. He was up while we were taking our photos and wanted in on the action. These photos make me crack up every time I see them, kiddo’s got some serious muscle action going on ;)
Jamie let him “take” the photos of us (I was using the big camera and Jay had Jamie’s phone), he was so tickled that he got to use the camera to take photos.
Jay is turning into quite the little fish and while he isn’t really swimming on his own I wouldn’t doubt if he was by the end of the summer. Jay loves to…
-jump off the side of the pool to people
-do “penguin” dives from the spa into the pool (it’s a little dive on his belly)
-stiff stiff (where Jamie, in the pool, holds his ankles and lifts Jay over his head until he drops him and Jay makes a huge splash)
-fly in the pool (think this but imagine a water landing)
-jump into the deep end while people are holding him (tandem jump)
-swim from person to person, which he can do if the people are about 6 feet apart
-hang from the edge of the pool by his arms and go all of the way around
-do “cannon-bobs” (a cannonball backflip launched by Jamie)
-take submarine rides (swimming underwater while riding piggy back on someone)
-have splashing wars with his brother (which makes Charlie laugh and squeal with delight)
However, my favorite part of it all is probably the super cute “ARRRRE you READY!!!” announcement every time he does a trick, especially if it is accompanied with the fist pump. Honestly, he is so fearless in the pool that it is a little unnerving. So in an effort to prevent him from just leaping in without anyone knowing we make him ask before he does anything if the person he is going to jump/ swim/ dive to is ready.
All of it is precious and makes my heart full when I watch him enjoying every minute. Fortunately for us we have a great pool within walking distance of the house- thanks Mimi and Pepere for making sure the admittance fee is reasonable ;)
I know that we will have plenty more underwater photos before the summer is through but here are a few that we took a couple weekends ago that I really like. Enjoy!
this one isn’t actually underwater but Charlie is watching Jay swim and jump
stiff stiff - Jay has gotten stronger and Jamie can hold his ankes instead of his knees now which is harder
I LOVE this next one- they are like two peas in a pod, even their hair matches :)
"cannon-bob" pre-flight
"cannon-bob" landing
We did take some video too… although I am surely not together enough to get that up for you. Maybe I can get that up soon- subtle hint to my video guy ;)
Aside from the 90 degree weather, another sure fire sign that summer is upon us is watermelon. I ate so much of it the summer I was pregnant with Jay that I haven’t wanted much of it the last two summers however I seem to have finally gotten my taste for it back.I have grabbed some the last few times that I was at publix and we even scored a huge one for just $3 when we were at the blackberry patch (yay!!) so we have been enjoying it out in the front after supper. I mean what could be a better end to the day then a super sticky kiddo covered in watermelon juice?
Over the weekend we packed up the boys and headed to Pappy’s Patch, the place where we have picked strawberries this year and last, to take advantage of their last picking weekend. The strawberries were few and far between (the season is way past); however, our mission was blueberries. Sadly, not long after we arrived we realized that the blueberries were also pretty picked over. We did our best to get what we could, and we did get some delicious blueberries, but we were a little disappointed with our pickings. That was until a group of ladies suggested we check out the pick your own blackberry farm just down the road. I was sold at the word black… so we packed up the boys and headed off.
Man am I SO glad that we did!! The berries were/are delicious, they were super easy to pick (the bushes were thornless- AMAZING) and I found it much easier to do with Jay than strawberry or blueberry picking. The way the blackberry bushes grow make it easy for little ones to pick and the farm was set apart from the parking lot so I felt better about Jay just running around on his own.
We have been eating the berries by the handfuls every day since picking them but still have a whole bunch left so I am looking at either of these two recipes… probably both and if we still have some leftover then maybe some jam- we’ll see!
We have a new wooden sign in the kitchen that says- I Scream, You Scream and it has a big ice cream cone on it. My Little Bird likes to point at it and say “I scream, you ice scream”, makes me smile…
The other day, Jamie was working from home and Jay had been especially good during the day so we had an early supper, packed up the car and treated Jay to his first ice cream cone! If you know anything about us, you know that we (maybe mostly me, but it’s rubbing off on Jay too) have a thing for ice cream. If you take a look in our freezer at any given time you can find at least 4-5 different flavors- it’s our own personal Baskin Robins ;) So a trip to get an ice cream as a family was a very fitting treat.
At the end of it all Jay was a super sticky mess- a head-to-toe mess of melted ice cream. But I am pretty sure he loved every single bite of his super huge “banilla” cone (btw- we ordered him a small cone, I would hate to see what the medium or large looks like). And as for this Mamma, the ice cream was yummy but spending a quiet evening just the four of us was more of a treat than I could ever ask for. Lately, the days and evenings have been kind of crazy, with Jamie’s insane work hours and everything that comes along with having two boys under 2.5 years old, so these moments have been rare but oh so sweet when they happen… Can’t wait to do it again ;)
Most of our Sunday was spent cleaning up from the shrimp boil on Saturday (many thanks to all who stuck around Saturday to help pick up; many hands made light work). However, when the majority of the cleaning and packing up was done Jamie headed over to help his Dad build a trellis for a new bougainvillaea plant they added during his parents re-landscaping project. I stayed back while the boys napped but joined him after they woke up. Charlie got to take his first turn in the porch swing, or any swing for that matter, and both boys along with me, Jamie and Mimi took a dip in the pool- which was also Charlie’s first swim. It’s still a little bit chilly, Jay’s teeth start chattering pretty soon after getting wet, but it didn’t stop either of them from enjoying the water. Charlie splashed and giggled the whole time and Jay went non-stop regardless of the shivering. The swimming from last year is starting to come back to Jay and right now he adores jumping in and taking submarine rides on Daddy’s back. I am pretty sure by the end of the summer we will have made a full blown fish out of him… gills here we come!
A few days ago Jamie told me that last night (Wednesday) I needed to be dressed up and ready to go at 6pm; he had arranged for his parents to watch the boys and he was taking me out! Sweet thoughtful husband right? He gave no reason other than he wanted a night out with me and I was thrilled. Honestly, I looked forward to it for the few days that I knew about it and Wednesday afternoon drug on… I just wanted him to get home so we could be on our way :)
Wednesday after work he arrived home, Mimi took over the boys and we headed out. He told me we were going downtown to a burger restaurant, Pine Twenty Two, and that we were going to ride the downtown bus and make a night of it. Super- fun! Pine Twenty Two is a new (ish) restaurant that serves 100% natural, hormone free burgers with all kinds of delicious toppings- gruyere cheese, chipotles aioli sauce, fried eggs, sautéed mushrooms, and charred onions just to name a few. When we were waiting to place the order Jamie nonchalantly pulled out two tickets to the Lion King on Broadway (yes you read that correctly) and said hope we will make it in time! I was super surprised and thrilled! We grabbed our burgers to-go, the sweet guy who took our order grabbed them as soon as they came out and brought them right to us (he actually skipped out to us but that is a whole other story)- and we ended up eating outside of the Bob Carr theater by the fountains. The show was fantastic! I am by no means a writer and would do the show no justice if I tried but know that the music and the costumes are EVERYTHING they are said to be and that you should go if you ever get a chance.
All and all it was a fantastic night- dinner was delicious (really you should try it sometime if you are local), the show was AMAZING, and time out with my sweet husband was the icing on the cake. Not sure how I got so lucky but I sure snagged one of the best!
I happened to have my camera with me and grabbed a few before we headed back to the theater, supper in hand.
I am not sure how many years now the annual Shrimp Boil has been going on… I would venture a guess that Jamie has been hosting it with his Dad for a good 10 years and then George probably hosted it on his own prior to that for another 10. This is my fourth year of joining the festivities and I must say I look forward to it EVERY year! I mean what is not to like- good food, good drink and good people. What more could you ask for on a sunny Saturday afternoon?
Since having the kiddos I find myself not as “free” to shoot as much of these events as I would like (putting sleeping babies down, getting not sleeping big brothers up, etc can really eat up some time). However, I did manage to grab a few photos of the day… although none of the pouring and unfortunately very few of anyone other than family… Either way, documented or not, there were family, many great friends and a wonderful assortment of colleagues that joined us in bellying up to the table. Thanks to all that came, it was great seeing you, and for those of you who couldn’t make it- you were missed but there is always next year ;)
pretty flowers compliments of Publix… I really do love me a mason jar ;)
I was trying to get a photo of me and Jay but he was way too distracted with all of the people in the backyard to smile… not even tickling really worked
Charlie hanging on the blanket
enjoying some delicious corn- purchasing it fresh was definitely the way to go!
Aunt Jamie- silly girl
Uncle Mark
Josh- by the way Jay adores him and rightfully so… he is wonderful to him, they are ‘briends’
three cheers for the chef
more cheers for more chefs…
grub
YUM
enjoying the shade
couldn’t resist posting this one of little miss Avery- check out those baby blues!!
About a month ago Jamie tackled a large project from our to-do list- moving the second (and last) of our raised gardens. We put in the garden a while back, originally placing it on the North side of our backyard, and while things grew there and did moderately well it was apparent that in order for it to thrive it needed to be moved so it could get more sun light.
He was able to wrangle some “help” to move it; although, our help mostly enjoyed wheel barrow rides and relocating the dirt that was being put back into the garden rather than anything actually productive. I guess you get what you pay for ;) It was no small feat but it is done now and we are so happy that we moved it- things are starting to look wonderful! Our black thumbs are getting greener and we are learning as we go… looking forward to enjoying some of our bounty soon ;)
We had a super weekend- lots of great family time, lots of things accomplished and checked off of our list, lots and lots of fun!
Jay has been wearing the Superman Cape that my Dad gave him pretty frequently these days (it’s fantastic and I LOVE that he asks to wears it out in public- it usually gets a lot of smiles from strangers too). On Saturday he wore it to lunch at Hot Dog Heaven. He had a great time flying with Daddy after lunch and I was lucky to capture a few of these gems.
*Note… if you are faint at heart you may not want to scroll down too far for there is most definitely children “flying” the air ;)
And just so Charlie didn’t feel left out, he got to fly too!
Both boys LOVE this by the way and none of the photos were Photoshopped ;)
the perreault family 