270 Love Thursday - Hearts of Gold

I forgot to ask Mom what these flowers are called, but I found this week's Love Thursday shot on my Mom's carport. The buds are perfect little hearts, filled with gold (awwwww). My trip to Atlanta was filled with love, and with many images of love. I am well stocked for the next few weeks with more being added all the time. Remember to look around you daily, there are little reminders of love everywhere, and they don't even have to be heart-shaped (anything chocolate usually works). Do you have a picture to share, or a story, or a favorite song? I would love to hear about it, and so would Chookooloonks! Check out the other Love Thursday participants in the comments section.

edited to add : Mom says this is an Angel Wing Begonia :)

261 Little Teaser

I have been out of town for the past few weeks. First I spent a few days with the in-laws, and then we went on to my family in Atlanta. I am still playing catch up on pictures and such, but here is a little teaser of what I will be sharing in the next few days.

That doesn't even cover the whole two weeks ... but I did say it was a teaser.

238 Sunday Series #2

This week I wanted to try cropping a single shot in different ways. Truth be told, it was a busy week with birthday festivities, but I wanted to make sure I got my new Sunday Series up. Please feel free to play along. If you do, leave a comment with a link! If you don't ... leave a comment anyway. I must admit, I LOVE COMMENTS!

237 SOOC Saturday - Katie's Flowers

Katie wanted flowers for her birthday table. To be precise, she wanted red roses, but there were no red roses at Sam's when we picked up her cake. She deigned to settle for Gerbera Daisies. I think she is happier with them anyway. She keeps telling me which one is her "FAVORITE" because it is open all the way. She has also mentioned that she might like to hold them as a bouquet when she comes down the stairs for her birthday party tomorrow. You know, since she is getting all dressed up in a Hannah t-shirt (new for the occasion of course) and a pair of capris. I think all the wedding pictures I have been working on have rubbed off on her.

Check out SOOC Saturday with Melody at Slurping Life!

227 This Morning in the Garden

I went to check on my peony this morning and found a sad spectacle. Half of its petals were brown. It was droopy. My peony is soon to be no more ... but it still smells like heaven! I was leaning in to take a few shots of it when this rude guy got into the picture. I was just a few inches away, and I stood VERY still so he wouldn't notice me. Like he even cared. He was intent on the flower and I never registered at all. The irises are still blooming. They are so heavy that all the stalks are laying on the ground, but the flowers are growing up. But even the lilies fade daily. I might be the only one to think so, but even this has beauty!! Connor joined me outside, of course. He spent a little while with the flowers (he loves to sniff them, though it usually looks like he is trying to eat them), and then he took a ride in his little red car. At least we have a few years to teach him about keeping his head INSIDE the car at all times.

** he is actually leaning out to "pull weeds"**

We tossed the foam football around. Well, he threw it at me as hard as possible, and I rolled it back to him. He was getting tired of watching us play football with Katie anyway. She never wants to let him have the ball. Summer vacation is going to be fun with the constant WHINING and CRYING! I am sure the kids will be miserable, too.

I hope Connor isn't allergic to the flowers :) Kidding, we turned the AC on a few days ago and he has been snotty ever since. I might need to shift his bed or buy him a ski mask. Doesn't seem to bother him a bit, except when I try to clean the boogies off. I know you are all disappointed that I could not catch him with an actual snot bubble, but you will just have to make due with full stoppage.

222 Carrie, Carrie, Quite Contrary...

how does my garden grow?

Thankfully with very little help from me. I plan on adding to it, but for now these blooms are making me happy.

My peony finally opened!

220 When April Showers Overlap Into May

All my pretty flowers get wet.

And knowing that the summer drought is not that far away, I took advantage of the rain.
My peony will be blooming any day now!! It will be the first time and I am SO excited. It is another one of the offspring of my granddaddy's plants!

The rocks that Connor had sprinkled all over the deck are even prettier.

I think of this one as the two "vanilla" parents who raised a rockstar. Playtime moves inside. I could FINALLY see the floor of Katie's room, and then she HAD to have her tent put up. At least it amused her and Connor and for a little while. Until Connor realized he could pick it up :)

Wherever you are, I hope the sun is shining. If it is not shining outside then I pray it is shining in your heart. Yeah, I went there.

208 In Mimi's Garden

We took a day trip down to see Chip's family in Cleveland, MS. It rained off and on the whole way down, the dark clouds closely followed by white fluffy ones and blue skies. I still love that you can see the rain falling in far off clouds. The slight grey shadow it creates underneath.
The moment I stepped out of the car I knew I was going to be taking A LOT of pictures. These beauties were the first things I saw!And then I took advantage of everything that would sit still. Which did NOT include the flowers! The wind was quite brisk and the flowers were waving wildly. And there is a feeling of peace and timelessness in Mimi's yard. The wind chimes sound softly.
And this patio set is straight out of the 50's or 60's. It came with the house. As I said, the wind was strong, and the flowers were swaying a good bit, but that didn't stop me from taking pictures ...

Katie couldn't wait to see her cousins. Tori was sick and was only able to stop in for a few minutes. Michael and Scott were there most of the time, and Will showed up a little later. They found a football to throw around, so Katie and Connor made a nuisnce of themselves trying to play along. Michael is a Dad, so I expect him to be patient with the kids, but Scott is just 14. Most boys his age try their best to ignore small children, but Scott is WONDERFUL with them! If they annoyed him trying to worm in on the football tossing then it didn't show. Katie had SO much fun with her cousins. She can't wait to see them at her birthday party next month!

Katie also took control of my camera for a little while. I love when she takes pictures! It is fun to see what she finds the most interesting, and to see how she improves in framing a shot. I did not retouch any of these, although there are a couple pretty good shots I might go back and clean up a little. Katie still has a bit of a problem getting the whole subject into her shot. She did pretty good until she asked me to stand by the tree. Then I ended up with a couple shots of my legs. She still tends to be happy as long as she gets at least part of what she wanted into her shot. I think she is doing great, and I am less tentative about trusting her with my camera.

And we got to see my Great Niece Presley. She started walking the night before and she showed off her new skills for us!
Connor was hilarious to watch playing football. He would just run back and forth, trying to be wherever the ball was. Every once in a while he would get handed the football, and he would walk it to the next person, or more often than not, SPIKE it like he had made a touchdown. Of course the instant the ball was taken away form him he would scream and cry. That part was not as funny.Connor also discovered Pop Pop's John Deere. What boy can resist a ride-on lawnmower??
We finished the evening off with a fish fry. The guys all sat outside and fried up a huge amount of crappie that Tanya's father had caught. It was the first time I had ever eaten crappie, and it was delicious!! Much better than the traditional fried catfish. And of course there were fries and hushpuppies. Oh, and Mimi made coleslaw that was so yummy! And to finish it all off ... PECAN PIE! Yum! Yum! and YUM!