at the pumpkin patch

we got to the pumpkin patch at the very end of the season this year, going back to the pumpkin patch we found two years ago. it was evienne's first time doing any sort of activity like this, and if you don't know evienne, i just have to say this is this girl's element. apart from the fact that we asked her to give the goat the goat food which she wanted to eat and that i wouldn't let her climb into the pens with the animals or pull all the flowers off the bushes, she was in heaven. and i just kept thinking about how the last time we went, evienne was still in my tummy (we didn't even know she was a girl yet!) and wilder kept saying o-na-see-goat in the car because papa had woken him up that morning to tell him we were going to go see goats at a farm, and how he was yelling goat! when we saw the goats... i'm repeating myself again, but it's impossibly crazy to me how fast the time is going. it feels like just yesterday we were doing this with wilder (although in my memory somehow i've forgotten that he wasn't always as verbal as he is now). sometimes i can't believe that i have two kids running around, much less that evie will soon be talking as well as wilder is now. i especially can't believe that evienne is already the age wilder was when we had her. i mean how do you even cope with watching your babies grow so quickly?

also, i can't believe it's been four months since i posted anything! on the one hand, life has been so full (from visits to the er with evienne to potty training to losing the best dog in the world to selling our house and moving) to the point that i just didn't have the time and energy to even take pictures, let alone blog. and on the other hand, i needed the break to just be. i can't believe so much time has already passed, though. it's a little strange to me that i missed four months of photos of my babies and writing down our memories, but also, i think we are at a stage where we just can't be behind a camera or in front of a computer as much. and i'm okay with that. i'm just going to document and record our little lives as much as i can for as long as i can.

and i just want to say: thank you. thank you to you all who have inquired about me during this unintended yet conscious break from social media. the care and concern means so much more to me than you will know, and i appreciate every word sent my direction. thank you for being here. for caring. for laughing and weeping and praying with me. just, thank you.

strawberry fields {a micro vlog}

about a month ago we went strawberry picking at washington farms in watkinsville, georgia. i know i already blogged photos from our morning there, but we finally got around to making a little movie of it, too! it's pretty low-key and slow-paced, but i somehow really like it. i think j think it needs more action and excitement, but i'm ok with the simplicity of it. hope you enjoy! :)

memorial day strawberry picking

on memorial day we decided to go strawberry picking. at first j was like "but we've already done that," because he doesn't understand the need to do things like that every year ;) and admittedly, it was a little late in the season/day to strawberry pick, and we were all melting by the end of it. but now that we have a nice juicy basket of strawberries in the fridge (recipes please??!!!) and all these sweet photos, i'm so glad we did it! definitely something i want to do every year! i remember picking blackberries growing up every year, and i loved it! i think once the kids are old enough to actually like the picking process it will be even more fun! also, the place where we go near athens has started to have blackberry picking too, which is exciting. after hurriedly filling our basket before the kids got cranky, we shared a homemade strawberry ice cream and then took some photos in the blackberry patch....i'm not sure why. i think we were thinking it would be shaded?? i plopped evie down with our basket of strawberries and she and wilder were so content to cram strawberries in their faces they didn't even run off, as usual, so i got a few really sweet photos of them. and i LOVE the ones that j got of me with them....such great photos! :)

haha he was totally not feeling my instructions to "show me your strawberry! no look at me!" ;)

bliss. although i think i'm not the only one who realizes that ice cream is better when it's cold outside, not when it's hot and you're all thirsty and stuff. 

admiring the blackberry bushes

a bucket of strawberries for me?!?! :D 

lullwater park {micro vlog}

last week we went back to lullwater park on emory university for an afternoon picnic. even though it's sometimes work to get us all out of the house on the weekends, it's usually such a good investment because getting out of the house means that we get to focus on spending time together instead of all the chores, etc. of family life. this sunday was no exception. i spent most of nap time grocery shopping and making food for our little picnic, but then when we got there, we all had such a great time. and this weather is like, if you don't get out and enjoy me now you'll be sorry in another week! haha. seriously, i feel like spring is almost over and we are all about to hit summer heat waves, so i want to be outside as much as possible. if you live in atlanta and don't know about this park, it is truly a little gem. geese to feed, lots of clover for little kids to run around in, big ol' trees to get lost in. pretty much the perfect spot.

hope you enjoy the video!

let them eat donuts!

i basically consider donuts a rite of passage. like, have you really lived if you haven't had a good donut? i mean a good donut. not one of those other ones. well, in my book, it's just one of those things that should be on every bucket list.

i can chart my love for donuts back to my first year (second year? it's all blurring now) of college when my friend and i bought a box of those entennmann's rich dark chocolate donuts. you know the kind i'm talking about. like, whatever it's made with is probably still in my system, because those things are not real food. but when you're 18, you can eat whatever you want, and it won't make you sick. on the contrary, it was the most amazing thing i'd ever eaten. are you grossed out now? well, that's where my true love for donuts began. after college i lived in anaheim, california for a few years, where i discovered so many good donuts. and so many bad donuts! there were donuts on every corner! it was insane! actually that same friend believed they were some kind of front business because there couldn't be that many people buying all those donuts! winchel's were pretty good, i remember. especially after staying up all night!

now, donuts are like a thing. there are so many gourmet donuts everywhere! and i know i'm always drooling over the instagrammed donuts of california. it really looks like they know their donuts over there. hopefully one day i'll be back to check out these new and improved donuts.

but for now, we get our donuts at a humble little place in snellville called donut king. it only stays open till 1:30 and they make a limited amount of donuts. and i guarantee these donuts will make you sick! not because they're bad but because basically all donuts make you sick? because they're like fried sugar? but these donuts are so, so good. they remind me of the donuts i had in anaheim. the good ones, that is.

ok so what i'm really trying to talk about is how we ended up introducing evie to her first donut at donut king yesterday. having been hoodwinked by so many days of amazing weather in a row, we thought we'd go to the park again yesterday. but when we got there (is it only me who gets into the car in a garage and then only finds out upon arriving at a destination that it's waaay colder than the garage led me to believe??) i suddenly remembered that it had rained the night before and it was super windy and cold out — much colder than we had dressed for (or else i'm a lame, paranoid southerner). so i convinced wilder that we needed to leave the park to go get a treat. usually this works like a charm, but it actually took a little convincing this time.

so we packed ourselves back into the car and went to donut king. the only way to have your first donut in these parts, in my opinion. although i'm not sure if you can tell by her face, i'm pretty sure she loved her first donut! (duh.) you should have seen her grab that thing and cram it in her mouth! it reminds me of this photo i took of wilder's first donut. haha.

naturally, wilder inhaled his and tried to eat mine, too. naturally, i didn't share. ;)