Memorial Day Weekend Highlights

Even though I'm antsy to get out on the river as early as possible every spring, Memorial Day weekend always signals the official beginning of summer and "boating" season.  The weather cooperated this year and the hot temps definitely made it feel like summer!  I had a great long weekend in Williamsburg with family and friends...celebrating multiple birthdays, grilling out, cooling off and hanging with neighbors in the river, early morning waterskiing trips, and just enjoying a chance to relax.  It was the longest (and much needed) break that I have had from work in quite awhile.

 Celebrating Mom's birthday at Plaza Azteca

(our favorite mexican food spot)

 Can't go to Plaza without getting their guacamole dip!

 Gluten free coconut cake and homemade ice cream. 

This was my first experiment with baking a gluten free cake...it turned out pretty well, I think.  After my fill from the weekend, I'm no longer feeling cake deprived. :)

Mom's new wine glass.  It's not exactly her style but I told her that having a lid solves the problem of gnats getting into her red wine while enjoying outside! 

Dad's latest nickname is "Old MacDonald" due to all the animals/wildlife all over my parent's yard and his care for the baby ducks.  We discovered this tiny baby bunny in our back walkway over the weekend.  So cute. 

It was a very exciting (at least from the Newtons' perspective) weekend for our ducks.  My Dad's intention was to keep the ducklings protected in our yard for a few more weeks until they were mostly grown.  Unfortunately, the ducks had other plans!  Our neighbors called us late Sunday evening to let us know the ducklings had escaped and were running free in our yard.  We ran out just in time to see the last one jumping off of the dock into the canal.  We couldn't believe it!  Dad just stood there in shock...maybe experiencing some sort of empty nest syndrome. Other neighbors were just as interested in the big event and gathered in their backyard to watch the first swim for the 4 ducklings.  We were all hesitant to leave them out there for the night but knew that it was time to let them go. 

Mom was outside before 7am the next morning looking for them to make sure that they had made it through the night.  They were perched on some rocks by the water in our next door neighbors yard.  Of course, we were concerned about them not being able to get back into our yard.  We went out skiing on Monday morning and came home to find this...

The ducks were back in our yard!  We were all relieved that the babies figured out how to get up the rocks and back onto land.  Obviously, they had a wild night out swimming all evening so they slept for a good part of the day. 

Home, sweet, home.  We later found the ducks hanging out (and sleeping more) right outside the pen that they had been living in for weeks.  I suppose this means that they liked it after all. 

I feel a little silly writing so much about our ducks, but I guess you could say that we've all grown attached to them and have adopted them as our "pets".

And, of course, some fun on the river...

 What a great Memorial Day weekend!

Slick as Glass...

On the boat and waterskiing by 9:00am. Perfect skiing conditions and a beautiful morning.  My kind of Saturday and a great way to start the long weekend...

Celebrating Mom

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mom! 

I'm so glad to spend her birthday with her as well as the long weekend!

Duck Update

The ducks have been quite the neighborhood entertainment over the last 2 weeks.  Of course, I've missed most of the excitement, but I've heard that there have been many visitors and even some duck holding going on (hold at your own risk...your clothes may end up soiled if you know what I mean).  There ended up being a total of 19 ducklings.  We are still are amazed that Mama Duck Daisy could sit on this many ducks at one time.

Dad, who likes to wheel and deal, found a lady who wanted to buy 5 of the ducks.  He figured that having 19 ducklings in their yard was a bit much and that they could spare a few and he also wanted to recoup some of the money he'd spent on supplies and food for them. Somehow the lady left with 15 of them last Thursday!  I was sad at first at the thought of only 4 left (and also after hearing how crazy Daisy reacted when 15 of her babies were taken away), but I then realized that they were probably better off.  This lady wanted them for her pond way out in the county where we are sure they stand a much better chance of surviving.  Baby ducks, mallards, and geese (all of which we have around here in the canal these days) seem to have a hard time not becoming some other animals snack or dinner. 

Their little wings growing in look so funny as they keep tryinig to flap them

Cozy Crayon Caddy

One step at a time, one project at a time.  I would love to be breaking out my sewing machine more frequently and I'd also love more reasons to visit craft stores.  My creative projects these days (or the last 6 years) have been extremely limited with the exception of the aforementioned quilt that took me years to complete.  All this said, I've been itching to exercise the right side of my brain.  There's just something therapeutic about working to create something with my hands.  

I decided that this was the week to try a small little sewing project.  I got this idea from my friend, Beth (roommate in college), who has many impressive & beautiful projects she's tackled this year that I keep admiring on her blog.  I'm thankful for her inspiration and for the helpful pointers she's passed along.  Even though she does not live close, it has been fun to compare notes and share ideas over email. 

This crayon holder was super easy and took way less time than expected.  I almost spent more time picking out the fabrics, rick rack, and ribbon than making the holder itself.

     

Fun Weekend Visitors

I had the treat of spending the weekend before last with some of my dear friends.  Sarah made the trip down from NJ to spend the weekend with me and Katy joined us on Saturday for a full day in Richmond.  I'm thankful to Sarah's parents, Andy, and David who cared for all the kiddies so that we could all enjoy a fun girls weekend together. 

We often go out to find fun things to do, but we also are content just hanging out, catching up, eating, and taking pictures.  The misty/stormy weather wasn't exactly ideal for outdoor photography and our originally planned photo taking outing, but we still managed to find plenty of reasons to tote our cameras around and snap shots. 

We hit the little farmer's market within walking distance from my place earlier on Saturday.  It was a quick trip given the dreary weather and cool temperatures.  We also had homemade ice cream to make back at home so that gave us plenty of reason to get back quickly for lunch.  We shopped a little that afternoon and then made our way over to Katy's parents' house to see her younger sister before she headed off to her last Prom.  The combination of realizing that Sally was only 5 years old when we first met her and thinking of our last Prom being 13 years ago aged us a bit.  We enjoyed reminiscing about what it was like to get all dolled up in a fancy dress for Prom back in our high school days.  I'm sure we overwhelmed Sally with our 3 cameras all going off like crazy.  Sally's dress was stunning and she looked so beautiful!

After we finished playing paparazzi, we headed to Carytown for dinner.  A stormy evening made it more difficult to choose a place to eat dinner so we ended up diving into a diner to get in out of the rain.  It definitely was not my first choice (especially after the wonderful restaurant Sarah treated me to in Philly when I visited her a few months back), but it turned out to be fine (with the exception of the rain that started to splatter down on us while waiting for our food).

Sarah and I headed to Charlottesville early Sunday morning to join David, Katy & gang for church.  We then headed to their house for lunch and were joined by Becca and her newest addition, Molly Elizabeth.  Seeing as Becca had only had Molly a week before, she wasn't exactly up for our full girls weekend so it was nice to still get to spend some time all together on Sunday afternoon. 

Ainsley was quite taken with Becca's littlest

Favorite Summertime Treat

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YUM!

Thank you to Sarah for such a wonderful birthday gift.  My family thanks you, too! This ice cream maker will be well used and most enjoyed throughout the summer.   Actually, for those of you who know me well and my love for frozen cream, I will most likely enjoy this treat year round!

I look forward to experimenting with making different flavors.  So far I've made the simple vanilla & fresh strawberry ice creams.  Both were so delicous that it's hard to pick a favorite, but I may have to choose the vanilla just because the strawberry made such a mess (no ice cream should be visible when looking at the maker!).