Spring break!

The kids are on Spring Break this week, and while Raymond and I are still working we are finding time to do some fun things as well. Monday, Raymond took the kids to see a mid-day concert at the Savannah Music Festival and Tuesday we spent the morning picking strawberries.

We picked a LOT of strawberries! Last night, in addition to eating a ton of just plain old strawberries we also enjoyed homemade strawberry malted milkshakes with dinner. There are plans in the works for strawberry shortcakes, chocolate strawberry crepes, homemade strawberry jam, and perhaps another visit to the strawberry fields before the season is over!

Our lovely looooong weekend

Fletcher’s birthday on Saturday rolled slowly into a long, holiday weekend. The weather has been spectacular, so we took full advantage with a long park visit on Sunday and an outing to Fort Pulaski (followed, of course, by lunch at the Crab Shack and ice cream at the Sugar Shack!) on Sunday. Book-ending  our outings has been much playing of The Game of Life zAPPed, a birthday gift from Lola and a huge hit with everyone.

The four day weekend has me dreaming once again of spring break and then summer, with those long lazy days where we have nothing to do but play!

Snow & Sand: just another fabulous weekend in Savannah

January in Savannah is always a surprise; and often a reminder of why we tolerate the heat of summer. This weekend’s weather could not have been more glorious: bright blue skies and temperatures climbing into the 80s. The boys spent the weekend camping with the Cub Scouts, leaving me to enjoy a weekend with my best girl.

We started Saturday with piano and guitar lessons, and then there was a surprise blizzard in Tiedeman Park! A neighborhood church brought in 4 truckloads of ice, which were fed into a chipper to create a mini snow storm. The kids loved it. There’s nothing like playing in the snow in shorts and t-shirts!

Sunday, after a long and leisurely brunch with friends, we headed to Tybee for a little sun and sand. Snow one day, beach the next. I love this place.

Get the Dirt on Dirt

I’ve been saying for years that nothing makes me happier than dirty toes.

(Did you feel that shudder? That was my mother cringing.) But it’s true – as far as I can tell really dirty children have been having a really good time. Happy children. Barefoot in the backyard climbing trees children.

According to a new report out by the National Wildlife Federation, there really is something to the dirty = happy equation. Studies have shown that simply having contact with dirt, whether it’s through gardening, digging holes, or making pies out of mud, can significantly improve a child’s mood and reduce their anxiety and stress.

What’s more, dirty children also means healthy children. Many kids who live in an ultraclean environment have a greater chance of suffering from allergies, asthma, and other autoimmune diseases that we would otherwise be protected from through the simple pleasure of playing with some nice common dirt.

No need to take my word for it – you can download the full study here.
So what are you waiting for? Go dig in the dirt! It’s good for you!

(And don’t worry, Mom. They’ve had a bath now.)

Sunshine and strawberries

Today was a beautiful day – warm and sunshiny and perfectly perfect for picking strawberries with my favorite girl and her classmates.

In addition to all the yummy berries we picked, we also got to watch the famous Ottawa Farms pig races! Lola Gray and I just can’t get enough of those piggies!

Finally FALL!

I always struggle a bit this time of year. I love living in Savannah, but I do miss the crisp fall air and changing colors of Virginia. We always say we are going to take a trip north in the Fall, but it is such a busy time of year it never seems to happen. Fortunately, we are are blessed every now and then with weather cool enough to seem down right fall-ish, and this weekend was one of those magical occasions. Not quite sweater weather, but as close as we dare to hope for!

We took full advantage of  October’s bright blue weather and spent Saturday afternoon at Ottawa Farms. With a huge corn maze, corn crib, and corn canon not to mention hay rides, a cow ‘train’ and pig races, it was a fantastic day.

Just another Friday night . . .

I really, really love nights like tonight . . .

Come to think of it, last night was pretty awesome too . . .

while they were away . . .

It was a long and somewhat lonely week for me while my loves were in Alabama. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the uninterrupted time to read and my house hasn’t been so clean in a long time . . . but I missed them.

They, however, were having a marvelous time in Alabama meeting the lovely Miss Claire (the newest addition to the Gaddy clan), fishing, geocaching, and visiting with Grandmama, Grandaddy, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. I wish I could have been there with them, but luckily Raymond took beautiful photos to share the experience.

Wassaw Island

Even though we have lived here for more than 10 years now, there is a whole other life in Savannah that we have yet to really experience. A life on the water, bound by tides and an intimate knowledge of salt creeks, rivers and marshes. We got a taste of that life today when good friends took us boating to Wassaw Island, a coastal barrier island designated as a National Wildlife Refuge. Accessible only by boat, Wassaw is one of many barrier islands I have longed to visit and it did not disappoint. We saw dolphins by the dozens (including two that were jumping straight into the air, completely out of the water – the type of acrobatics I thought you could only experience at Sea World!), found star fish and crabs and jelly fish galore, watched a small shark splashing wildly on the edge of a tidal creek, and found tracks from a bird with feet bigger than Fletcher’s! It was a magical day, made all the more so for being able to share it with friends.

Ku plink, ku plank, ku plunk

Just like Little Sal and her mother (and the bear cub and his mother) the kids and I picked blueberries yesterday. And just like Little Sal, Fletcher & Lola ate waaaaay more blueberries than actually made it into their pails! We still managed to come home with 4 quarts of delicious, sweet, plump berries, though most of those have already been eaten! I’m hoping to make another trip to the blueberry bushes soon so maybe we can freeze some berries for the winter.