st. philip's celebration

This weekend, Friends of St. Philip's is hosting a St. Philip's Celebration, co-sponsored by the Stokes County Historical Society, Preserve Historic Forsyth, and the Stokes County Arts Council.

We'll have a short program about the history of St. Philip's, Germanton, and Forsyth and Stokes counties followed by a walking tour. You will also have an opportunity to have any old photos of Germanton copied.

We hope everyone can come out for a morning of fellowship and education with friends and neighbors!

a good time

We visited Teddie today and enjoyed our favorite foods, our favorite toys, and one of our favorite people. As you can see, a good time was had by all.

sleep!

After a rough start to his night last night (Macon always has a bit of nighttime separation anxiety regression after an illness), Macon settled in and slept soundly all night!

macon update

Last night was marginally better than the two previous nights, but still not good. Today, however, Macon has seemed closer to his normal self. His appetite is still off, but he took a very long morning-in-to-afternoon nap and woke up in cheerful spirits.

not the best week

This week started on a high note. 

The boys and I went out for lunch and they split a chocolate chip cookie on the way home. 

But Tuesday, after his morning nap, Macon started running a temperature, but a little medicine and he was ready to explore our new lawnmower box with Jed. 

However, things have been downhill since then. As it turns out, Macon has hand, mouth, and foot disease. It's a virus, so I feel like "disease" sounds a bit alarmist, but that's what They named it. Basically, it's a chicken-pox-like bug that has filled Macon's little mouth with ulcers. As a result, his eating has been minimal and his sleeping has been nearly non-existent. Over the course of the last two nights, we've spent time in the guest room, the kitchen, the living room, and even multiple hours on the front porch with precious little time in an actual bed.

This morning, despite being slowed from sleep deprivation, I caught Macon with the tricycle... he'd even put his helmet on! 

Maybe tonight will be better...

9 p.m. update: a better night looks extremely doubtful. Eric has taken a screaming Macon out for a drive.

rainy sunday

We had a rainy Sunday, so we got out the blocks and cranked up Soul Food Sunday on WSHA. A good time was had by all.

Thanks to our female garbage collector, I'm not the only girl in the house. 

the apple

Yesterday, Jed stared eating an apple. After a few bites, he left it on one of our counter stools. Shortly, Macon captured it and headed to the blue chair. Forty five minutes later, he was covered in apple bits, but the apple was cleaned off right down to the core. Chicken legs of the world: beware. 

Oops. Almost lost it, but I caught with my shoulder. 

go courtney go!

Our friend Courtney has just launched her new dog walking service, Go Dog Go. It's not your standard walk, however, and I encourage you to check out her website. Even if you don't have a dog, you'll be ready to hit the trails after you take a look!

another day in the fridge

When I opened our refrigerator this morning, this is exactly how it looked.

Notice anything out of place? 

hint: bottom left 

time well spent

We've just returned from Germanton where Jed and Macon clocked a fair number of hours at all three of the local churches. We spent a lot of time running and playing, and Jed got to pick some strawberries while I got to catch up with Caroline (Lucy's mom). 

Jed, Macon, and Lucy attended a Friends of St. Philip's meeting on Sunday afternoon at Germanton United Methodist Church. They made full use of the church's nursery and wore their grandmothers out. 

Hide-and-seek was a big hit. 

On Monday, we spent most of the morning outside. Jed and Macon walked and ran and balanced in Grandma and Grandpa's driveway and in the church parking lot next door. 

They also made great photographer's assistants at St. Philip's. 

Before his morning nap, Macon took to his favorite activity (putting blocks together) in his favorite spot (under Grandma's sideboard in the dining room). 

Once Macon started his nap, we left him in Grandpa's capable hands while we visited Mabe's strawberry farm with Lucy. Monday was their first open day for the season so they weren't ready for pick-your-own, but they were nice enough to make an exception for two little city kids. 

 I, personally, am not too keen on strawberries, but I've had reports that these were "crazy good." 

And I finally... 

Back in 2008, after Jed's first visit to Germanton, I lamented that I did not get a picture of Jed's feet touching the red clay of Stokes County. Yesterday, I got that shot. 

where have we been?

Strawberry picking!

Look for a few more shots from grandma and grandpa's in the coming days.

happy birthday, marmie!

9 to 5

Last weekend, Jed worked his first job: feeding our neighbor's cat. He was well compensated with an awesome collection of whales and seals for the bathtub. 

another day in the sink

a wide variety of plastic food and beverage containers freshly cleaned, macaroni awaiting cheese

sand and sun

The boys have a new sandbox! Happy digging! 

hunting eggs

Our neighborhood Easter egg hunt was this morning. We ate lots of candy and ran and played. My camera was on some weird setting, so my pictures are a bit out of focus, but our neighbor's grandfather took the great pictures of her and Jed at the end of this post. 

spring break

When I realized this week was spring break for Jed, I immediately thought, "Now's my chance to go to Key West!" but I soon remembered that spring break is the opposite of a break. Therefore, instead of boarding a plane for a sandy beach, we settled for Marbles. 

We were not alone, so I'm imagining Marbles was pretty similar to Key West at this time of year: It was crowded, and I realized immediately that we'd made a bad choice in coming. I saw several unclaimed articles of clothing strewn about. I'm certain there was spit-up somewhere. Lots of people were stumbling. Some were crying. A fight broke out on a boat (Marbles has a pirate ship). A few people were sleeping in public. I saw at least one girl going wild. 

But my kids held it together pretty well, especially once they staked a claim at the train table. 

first a stop at the fire truck

and then to the trains . . . 

but at the end of the day, nothing feels as good as coming home to your spidey mask