Carnival Tour 2009- Bean City/Steel City

Not to be confused with Kenny Chesney's tour, but fresh off the 2009 Summer tour, Grammy (read Grandma) Award winner Maggie and The Ferocious Beast are back in the Peak of Good Living just in time for the pool water to be getting close to bath water temperature. ( You would probably have to be a bit of a Kenny Chesney fan and have a television set that lands on the Nogin channel frequently for any of the previous statements to have made any sense. )

To clarify, Maggie and I spent a week in Lima visiting Grandma and GB. On their way to Pittsburgh for the Kenny concert, we hitched a ride so we could meet up with Daddy and the Pittsburgh grandparents, and also half of the Colorado Austin crowd. As usual, it went way too fast, we had way too much fun, ate way too many Kewpees (if that's even possible), and are already in withdrawal.

Grandma had a 'jumpoline' in her basement. This was all Maggie could think about for the first two days we were there. Then we couldn't stop talking about Chucky Cheese- the place, not the mouse....we were not a fan of the mouse.

We met my mom's two sisters- Aunt Cheryl and Aunt Susie, my Uncle Darrell, cousin Todd and his fiance Megan, and two of Maggie's 2nd cousins? ( I never did understand how that goes.) Garrett-2, and Jayden- 1 1/2
And let me tell you, Chucky Cheese was a good time, and the pizza was good, too! (Just remember, I am pregnant, and I have yet to meet a pizza I don't like.)

Maggie and Grandma making apple crisp.

Rockin out in the kitchen between baking.

I did mention that it was the carnival tour....we had blue sno-cones the next day!

Making noodles with Grandma, something I don't even know how to do, yet!

Practicing the flower girl bit for Uncle Joe and Aunt Erin's wedding in August. (Don't tell Ti-Ti we borrowed her crown!)

We also got to hit Lima's St. Gerard's Festival....really sorry that I don't have any pictures from that event. Maggie got to ride some fun rides and play some carnival games. The crowd made the raunchiest NASCAR crowd I've ever seen look conservative and attractive. I'm talking mullets, scary tattoos, pregnant teenage smokers, extra large folks in extra small clothes, summer teeth, you name it. Good times. Oh, and I saw Shelli O'Conner's mom- she coached my softball teams, The Blue Angels and The Red Devils. Fourth grade, I think, again, good times.

The next day we headed over to the burgh- Uncle Joe met us at Bob Evans somewhere along the way-he's gearing up for a busy summer.

Steel City Tour began on the following Saturday, with special celebrity guest 'they call her Mallo Yellow' Austin.

Wagon rides with Uncle Chris- he also specializes in 'chase', a game that is not played in Apex due to humidity and laziness.

Bathing beauties, enjoying their very special girl time with Gamma. Every night they had a bath together, Gamma and Grandfather would get them dressed up in matching mermaid nightgowns, and then Gamma would turn into 'Glamma' and pamper them with lipstick and blush, blow dry their hair, and get them smelling good with perfume.

Having a good time in the kiddie pool!

We even got to hang out with Uncle Donald- apparently they let anyone into that country club pool.

The Austin boys with their girls.

Story time with Uncle Chris

Pajama dance party

another day at the pool

Big hugs- I hate that I couldn't get a picture of their faces...

what a load!

Auntie Paige- these are for you- look, no sunglasses!!!!!

We had a great trip, glad to hear Uncle Chris and Mallory made it home safely, hopefully it won't be too long before we see the rest of the Colorado gang. Thanks to the grandparents for spoiling us rotten, yet again! We had a great visit, and we miss you all so much already.

Mother's Day

Here we are, fresh off the heels of a very nice Mother's Day weekend...breakfast in bed, an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 rerun, lunch and dinner also made by Daddy, and some really nice gifts! I must be the world's luckiest Mommy!

It's been 25 days since my last post (why does this feel like an AA meeting?) so I'm sure there are some anxious relatives and friends who are itching to see some recent pics of the magnificent Maggie, and her very quickly growing unborn sibling.

Speaking of AA meetings....

We visited a nursery on Friday- not the baby kind- plants. It's a catalog/online business that opens the property to the public once a year. It was more like a botanical garden, with waterfalls and winding paths through thousands of different species of plants and trees. It was really a nice way to spend the morning, especially with Daddy playing hooky from work!!

When you spend time with Daddy, a lot of strange and fun games get invented....Bungee Minnie?

A few weekends ago, our neighborhood pool was gearing up for the season with an open house. They had a jumpoline (bounce house) for the kids. Maggie just turned 2 in February, and she wakes up just about every other day and says "It's my birthday- my party is at the jumpoline!" We celebrate a lot of 'un'birthdays at the Austin house.

Spring Break?

The Austins had a very fun and exciting Easter weekend/Spring Break- if we can call it that, because we didn't have anything to break from, but we'll celebrate with anyone who does!!!  The Daugherty's stopped by on Good Friday on their way to the beach in SC.  (We're hoping the weather was not as ugly for them this week as it looked on the radar pretty much every day.)  We had a great sunny, warm day to play outside, hunt some eggs, color some eggs, and catch up.  Maggie thought it was Christmas- when she woke up she had three friends standing in the kitchen to greet her!  Better than Christmas for this lonely only child- (but not for long- her baby brother or sister will be joining the madness in mid-November!  I'm trying to see who's reading this blog- word is out on the street, but not everywhere, yet!!)

Uncle Donald drove down from Pittsburgh, and Ti-Ti came over, too!  I think they even had more fun than usual since there were more little friends to play with!

On Saturday afternoon, we went over to a little Easter egg hunt/mini carnival.  It was very fun, because they had a 'jumpoline'.  ( Maggie has a fabulous knack of making up words that seem like they really should exist.  Kapow=Ketchup  and a Jumpoline is any kind of blow up fun bag for kids to bounce on.)

Maggie and Uncle Donald on the jumbo slide

The fun with Uncle Donald never stops!!

Easter morning- Ti-Ti and Uncle Donald tried to help her find her basket, she eventually sniffed it out, and had all the candy eaten before naptime!  (There's a reason people go to church on Easter Sunday- to stop the kids from eating candy, if only for 1 hour!)

Ti-Ti's rocking her spring break this week- we met her at the zoo yesterday and had a great time.  It's about halfway for both of us, so it was perfect.  Willy the polar bear is still swimming in circles, the baboons must have been filming 'Primates Gone Wild', and Maggie's favorite thing was the stinking playground.  

So that's what's been happening in the 'peak of good living' lately- we're looking forward to breaking out the t-shirts and shorts this weekend, and hoping that the 70's decide to stick around for the next couple of weeks!  

Good Sunday

So, I hear it's been awhile since I've posted any pics on the blog....the only excuse that I have is that it doesn't seem like we've been taking a whole lot of them recently. We've had an exceptionally wet spring, so we've been having a lot of fun inside. Bounce houses and indoor pools don't necessarily make me want to take any pictures- just imagine all of the fun- you'll get a pretty good picture. Maybe I should be posting pictures of all of the beautiful paintings Maggie creates when we're stuck inside....

Yesterday was a beautiful day! We were outside from the start. Maggie was a really good helper, Daddy was working on some landscaping and Mommy was planting some flower pots. Her favorite part of the day was playing with the sprinkler.

Gamma and Grandpa were in town last weekend. We got to help Gamma celebrate her birthday and we had lots of fun testing out the new playground, which is almost all done, but not quite.

Playing in Daddy's pile of mud- I asked him what the proper term for mud was, since dirt is not the proper term for 'soil'. All he could come up with was 'wet soil'.

"Tree generations" ha ha ha

Cleaning? off the mud.

Helping Gamma blow out the candles.