Welcome Robbe!

Last weekend my cousin, Robbe arrived from Colorado Springs. He's in Charlotte for the next 2 weeks doing some job training, and staying with my parents.
We initiated his visit with a quick shopping trip to Costco & WalMart. Elise took to him right away, but kept calling him Curtis & we told her, "no, this is not Curtis, this is Robbe." So by the end of the 2nd day, she was talking to Robbe, "not Curtis"....oh, to get in the mind of a 2 yr old.
Saturday afternoon, Chad & Michelle invited us out on the boat - what a warm day...perfect to ride around the lake for a few hours.
Carolina Girls! Elise & Kaylie have so much fun playing together. They were showing us how to do saumersaults while we were stopped.
Robbe & Dad soaking up some sun.
Dad on skiis.
Robbe tubing. We should have taken some pictures of us the next day - we were all quite stiff & sore from hanging on the tube.

Cousins....Curt, Stacie & Robbe.

Hide & Seeks

Last week, we introduced Hide & Seek to Elise. She kept asking to "Hide & Seeks," and now she will play with any willing partner...check out the video for a little peek into an evening of fun:

A little here and there...

We continue to smile at Elise. She is constantly putting more and more sentences together & is a really focused 2 year old. She loves to work with "pay-dough" and the ice cream shoppe is always a hit...but she says she "petends" to eat the ice-cream when in fact, we've found wet play dough on many occasions...hmmm, and her mouth has traces of play dough, too.

She is enamoured with stickers and will play for seemingly hours taking them off and putting them back on. We have a wall upstairs across from our 2nd bathroom, and she made a sticker mural. Well, we thought it was cute, and tried to removed them the next day, only to discover that we will now have to repaint to repair the left over mural. We've tried to emphasize that stickers only go on paper...but her animals often join in the fun too.

Sewing Projects

I have been doing a few sewing projects this summer...a little here and there to keep my creative juices going.
Elise needed a summer duvet, and so I put together a very simple cover with really sweet stitching. My mom has these cams for her machine, and so we experimented and made this sweet pattern.
I also finally made the little bolster pillow I've had for her for many moons. It turned out pretty well, however, I did have to revert back to some math to figure the circumference of a circle so that my edges matched up.

We followed the pattern on her pillow case & I'm still debating on whether I should bring the cover down to Mud Pie and have her Monogram done in the middle of the square...I'll have to wait and see.
Then, I made another Amy Butler bag - it's a modified version of my other bag that is a clutch. There are many things I love about this pattern, but I chose a satin lining...just trying to make it a little more schwanky, and that seemed to be slightly more problematic than a normal cotton blend....oh, well. Now I know for next time.

Celebrating a Decade

On July 17th, John and I celebrated our 10th anniversary!
What a wonderful decade it has been - so many wonderful moments and I look forward to many more decades together.

We took a trip to Charleston - we just can't get enough of this great city!
Elise stayed with my parents and waved from the window with Grandma as we left Charlotte.
Of course, you can hardly visit the historic city without taking a carriage tour. Even though we've done this on nearly every visit, we never tire of the bits of history that make Charleston so unique.
Beautiful architecture, and such an old-world feel.
I sampled my first moon pie. This is a Southern treat & so we stopped by the old fashioned candy shop for an RC Cola & a traditional moon pie.
We enjoyed a day at the beach and then relaxed in the evening with a fabulous meal at The Oak Steakhouse.

Lots of good talking time, and meandering through the city. It was a beautifully warm weekend & it was our first trip away from Elise for more than 24 hours since she was born. We love her dearly, but we treasured every moment together to just relax and focus on each other.
We actually found a house that we had not yet toured - The Heyward Washington house. This was the summer home of a plantation owner. They would bring their families into the city - away from malaria & the heat of lowlands to reside in this home. The kitchens were built away from the house because there was always a risk of fire. The whole time we were touring the extra buildings and garden, we both were saying that it would be so hot to have lived in those times & having to work over a hot fire during the heat & humidity that overtakes the South in the summer! Thank you, Lord, for this century.
We stayed at the Harbour View Inn. It was a delightful, cozy Inn. Every morning we had breakfast delivered to our room. They had afternoon tea service, along with a wine & cheese bar; then each evening between 9-10pm they would serve warm cookies and milk. There were so many nice touches to make our stay so welcoming and pampered.

4th of July

On Independence Day, we celebrated America by visiting historic Brattonsville, SC. They had individuals in period dress, as well as several exhibits to view what life in the 1700 - 1800's were like. It was the first settlement in this area by Col. William Bratton - and they have what would have been the first cabin on the land as well....pretty interesting.
They even had some animals - both Dad & Elise enjoyed feeding the ram...and you'll have to get a glimpse of the video below to appreciate the "bleat" of this thing...
John, Stacie & Elise celebrating the 4th.
A little history for you buffs out there...
Mom & Dad
At this same site in Brattonsville, approximately a third of the movie, The Patriot, was filmed. (You may remember the one with Mel Gibson). During our visit, they had several readings, including the Declaration of Independence & The Star Spangled Banner.

Musketeers


In this dining room of the house, there was a scene of the movie, The Patriot, filmed. You may remember when the young boy was hiding under the dining room table from the Loyalists - this was the room where that was played out.
Have some good southern BBQ for lunch.
Elise - deep in thought...or maybe just savoring a bite of her cookie for dessert?
We cooked out for dinner back at our patio. We sang "God Bless America" as our prayer, and Curt looked at all of us and couldn't believe we knew all the words....I guess we'll need to sing it a little more often for him. We had brats, sweet corn, fresh tomatoes & basil from our garden & of course, sweet tea. For dessert: All-American Apple pie a la mode.
I made a plate of jello jigglers - in shapes of stars to show a little Patriotism, but Elise decided the whole plate was made for her (which in essence, it was) & she cleaned it out alone...and had about 4 or 5 small ears of corn.

It was a wonderful weekend. We lit sparklers in the backyard & enjoyed watching the fireworks from about 3 different angles from the comfort of our patio chairs. Of course, the big fireworks are illegal in the state of North Carolina, but when you're as close to the South Carolina border as Charlotte - there are so many brought back over the border that we had quite a grand, festive display of fireworks. Elise was a little scared of all the loud booming, and continued to jump all evening, but after several, we had her clapping at the pretty colors. It was a late night as we all (including little E) crawled into bed around 11:30pm.

GOD BLESS AMERICA - LAND THAT I LOVE, MY HOME SWEET HOME!

Summer Fun

After spending hours swimming at the pool, we had hours of fun with chalk - as you can see from our patio! This past week, John took vacation to have some father-daughter time & we loved having him home.

We each drew our feet and hands...

Then, on Thursday night we camped out in our backyard. This, my friends, is the way to camp - there's no packing involved, or planning! We even stretched an extension cord into the tent to blow up the air mattresses as well as have a little fan on all night.
Needless to say, none of us slept well - but it was still fun.


The following morning, we relaxed with coffee, blueberry pancakes and bacon...yum!

This was the prelude to our 4th of July weekend, relaxing, yet full of things we don't do on a normal schedule.