Family Night on the Farm

Last weekend, we went to a local farm by us called Donaldson Farms. They have "Family Night" every weekend during the summer where they offer a delicious chicken & ribs dinner with fresh potato salad, homegrown corn & salad for $15. Everything but the meat is from their farm. You order at the outdoor counter, and then you either go to a picnic table or set up a blanket in the grass, and someone brings you your food. Oh and they have the best milkshakes too! Julianna stole my milkshake and finished it off.... she wouldn't give it up.

After dinner, there are a ton of kid's games, a petting zoo, a band playing, and a hayride out to the fields to tour where they grow their produce. Julianna loved the hayride and loved the giant soccer balls that she got to kick around & throw. We had such a fun family night at the farm!

There she is with my her milkshake. 

Julianna loved this big red ball! 

I didn't ask her to pose here! She just does it on her own! 

These piggies were running back & forth playing - so adorable! Julianna loved the piggies! 

They had so many baby chickens. So cute! 

I dread the day she makes the connection that these cute chickens are what she eats for dinner. Bummer. 

Running like the crazy kid she is! 

On the hay ride...

Holding onto daddy tightly! 

Milkshake! 

She loved this soccer ball! 

Getting tired at the end of family night. 

Summer is our favorite time of the year. We love doing all the outdoor things that we can with Julianna. 

We'll be going back for family night at the farm soon enough!

p.s. this is what my dog loves to do in the summer. 

She loves to lay on the cushions out on the deck bench and take in the sun. 

What do you do with your family in the summer that is fun for everyone?

Beach Vacation - Last pictures, I swear!

OK so I lied. I have a few more pictures from our Beach Vacation in Ocean City, Maryland that I wanted to post. I look at it this way. I really like taking pictures. Why not share them - or they'll sit on my laptop very lonely and un-looked-at.

In case you missed it- Part One of our vacation pictures are HERE.
Part 2 of vacation pictures are HERE.

In my last post, I threw a few of these photos of Julianna at the boat dock. I took a ton of pictures of her that morning. The lighting was nice. It was overcast and kind of cloudy so the sky had a little texture to it at least and not that flat bright white. She was being such a good little model for Mama! Some woman was watching from her balcony and told us how cute Julianna is and how nicely she poses on her own! Haha! 

We watched the geese swim up to the dock. Julianna loves them! 

I love this little girl. Such pretty eyes! (Proud Mama here!) 

Squinty girl at the beach. 

The Ocean CIty beach was very rough this day. The lifeguard warned everyone to stay right by their kids. I think they even had to rescue someone. Luckily Julianna hates the ocean - she won't go anywhere near it! 

On the boogie board. Be careful not to step off and touch the sand- Nooo! Not the evil gritty dirty sand! 

Funny Girl. 

Dinner at Fish tales. This place was not that good - but the best part was Julianna couldn't pronounce it correctly and was calling it Shit-Tales. You have to love her. 

The Sunset at Fish tales. 

I love boats in the water. So pretty at sunset. 

Our last few minutes on vacation ... of course we stopped for ice cream. Or as Julianna calls it: Ice-Skeen! 

That's all folks. Which picture do you like?

Beach Vacation - Part Two

And here I am again ... with more vacation shots. Tons of photos. But hey... enjoy.
In case you missed part one- here you go - Click HERE to see it.

And just a quick unrelated note - Remember I mentioned my 18-200mm canon lens was dropped and had a boo-boo... well, I sent it to Canon to get repaired and it's back - Looking beautiful and brandy new! I am a happy girl.

We went to Ocean City, MD for our vacation 2 weeks ago. Here is part two of the pictures ...
Which one is your favorite? I am partial to the last picture of her squatting down on the boat dock.

Daddy & Julianna hugging on a bench by the bayside. I have been trying to work on silhouettes lately. Clearly I still have a lot of practice to do! But... it's fun to play around with the shutter speed. 

This is the pool in the condo complex where we stayed in Ocean City. Loved it. 

Julianna in the water wiggling her toes. 

The Ocean City Boardwalk - It was huge and we loved it - spent 5 hours there one night just strolling around, eating Thrasher's famous french fries, dinner at Hammerheads, drinking Ice Cream milkshakes, going on the rides, shopping ... and so much more! 

The kite shop flies all of their kites during the day- Pretty Neat! 

Julianna showing me something ...probably the seagulls (or as she calls them - beach geese!) 

Looking at the beach over the wall on the boardwalk! 

Happy Girl loved the boardwalk! 

Kites & boardwalk at sunset. We lucked out with such pretty sunsets at night - we got so many pinks, blues, oranges & purples every night. 

I thought this was a Baltimore Oriole but I looked it up and it's a Barn Swallow! 

I never saw one up close- they were hanging out down by the boat docks. 

Behind the condo - I love boats and so does Julianna...

Posing for Mommy. 

She loves taking off her shoes (no sand here!) 

Squatting to pick up a flower ... she said "Oh no - boo boo!" about the flower because it fell off of the bush. 

This one of her squatting is my favorite in this batch ...

Miscellany Monday

It's Miscellany Monday.
Well, technically for me, it's kind of like Wednesday since I have off from work this Thursday & Friday. I got "MM" idea from my friend Kimberly over at "Kimberly's Korner". She does a Miscellany Monday post just about every Monday and I enjoy reading it! Anywho, here are my miscellaneous things I have for today.


1. Carnival rides. We discovered that Julianna loves to go on the rides at the amusement park or carnival. She can't get enough of them! She has been on the carrousel before but that's it. She went on the firetruck ride, the planes that go around & around, and the carousel at the boardwalk when we were on vacation. She LOVED It. After vacation, we went to a local carnival and she went on the fire truck ride there too... and went on the Dizzy Dragon (like the tilt-a-whirl) with Daddy... and the big slide with Daddy. That slide gave me 3 heart attacks watching her go down, even though she was with Daddy! It's just a mom thing I guess. We worry. A lot.

She ran out from the ride screaming "Again! Again!" 

Dizzy Dragon. She loved it! She reminds me of myself when I was a kid. I loved all the rides! 

2. Fishies! Julianna has always liked fish. We can't drive by a lake without her saying fishies. We go into the pet store and she is saying 'fishies' over and over. She is fascinated by Kathy's (her daycare provider) fish. So I knew it was just a matter of time before we got fishies. I grew up with fish and I always liked having them so why not?!
Except... we didn't expect to win them at the Carnival at 8pm last Saturday night. Daddy won her 2 fishies... and so it began. We left the carnival to make a quick trip to Petsmart for a starter tank, food, chemicals, filter, etc etc... That was Saturday night. The fishies were gonner's by Thursday morning. Bummer. Julianna said hello to them every morning and ran up to the tank saying "Fishies fishies!!".
So..... we made the trip back to Petsmart and got a nice goldfish - cross your fingers this one makes it. I think he'll do OK since he is not a 'Carnival" fish. We even got him a little cave and some trees. He seems happy. Julianna loves him. Luckily she probably doesn't know the old ones are gone and this new one took their place.

Carnival fishies in the bag. 

3. The Sand. Julianna hates the sand and the ocean. Last year she liked the beach. This year... we weren't so lucky. She hated touching the sand... refused to walk on it even with water shoes on. Then forget it, we took her by the ocean and she had a major meltdown - she was terrified of the ocean - hated it. OK good thing we went to the beach on vacation - haha! So to avoid any further meltdowns, we figured out a way to make her happy. We set up our tent with the blanket and chairs so she could sit & play in the sun or shade without touching the sand. Perfect. We sit her on a boogie board to play with her sand toys. It's not the ideal situation but it works until she likes it next year. (I dreamed of her running on the beach with me taking photos of her. Dream squashed.)

Hates the ocean. Poor thing. She doesn't know what she's missing. 

Happy Julianna - She is OK as long as she is sitting on the boogie board NOT touching any sand. 

Julianna's "Non-sand" set up on the beach. 

4. Holy Shopping Deals! I discovered these 2 amazing shopping sites recently. They are myhabit.com and zulilly.com. They have all high-end and designer stuff - clothes, purses, sunglasses, shoes, kids toys... for adults & kids of all ages... etc. for like half price or better. The catch is, the items are only available for a couple days and/or until they're sold out. They send you a daily email for what's new. I just adore their kids stuff - amazing! Check it out even if you just window shop most of the time like me! It's still just as fun.


5. Yankees. My NY Yankees are on a tear! Ok well, maybe they didn't do too well against the Oakland A's this weekend but... they are still 8 games up in first place (it might have changed by one game by the time this publishes). I am a happy camper and hope to get to another game soon. Maybe August.

That's it for now - Have a super-fabulous Miscellany Day! 

Vacation Pictures - Part Two coming up soon. In case you missed it, HERE is Vacation Part One.