Dog Days of Summer

We are not quite to those dog days yet, but it has been so nice this past week I can already feel my summer speeding by at light speed.  Riley is growing so fast, he's starting to scoot around on his little booty, so we can't leave him alone in the living room and expect him to be good while we get dressed in the mornings.

His first official word was "kitty" - by official I mean that he looked at one of the kitties as she was trotting by, followed her with his eyes and said "kitty" to identify her.  He has been babbling "mama" and "dada" for quite some time, but kitty was an intentional effort.  Riley will be one year in a month and two days, and I can't believe how time flies!  For his birthday, we will be having a small family party the day/weekend of.  Then, together with the Kinks, we will have a joint birthday party for Lenna and Riley on July 6th, and celebrate with our friends/drink lots of good beer.

My wonderful husband, Justin, bought me a Cannon Rebel for my birthday, and below are some of the first pictures I have snapped with it.  A couple at the local park, some at the zoo, and some the very day I opened my present!  I returned the favour and bought Justin's birthday present several months early - a brand new golf bag and an iron to go with it.

My next post I can give some pictures of our newly landscaped front yard - we installed some raised flower beds this past weekend, and what a difference they make to our curb appeal!  We have already planted an Azalea on the north side of the front steps, where there is very little sun and almost all shade.  Home Depot is our destination this Memorial Day weekend to try and find some other plans that will fill our new south bed.  Also on the agenda are some tomato plans, and various herbs and vegetables.

Summer plans are still up in the air.  We are hoping to visit with the Brown family in Minnesota from August 12 - 18th, but those dates are still up in the air.  I'm going to visit my friend Kate in Minnesota from June 28th through the 30th.  At some point we want to visit the Guidas in DC, and that sounds like it will be sometime mid-July.

More to come soon, much love to you all!

HB