Afton Villa Gardens

Louisiana is absolutely beautiful in the spring! This past weekend we visited beautiful Afton Villa Garden, a delightful historic site near St. Francisville. Wow. Hundreds of thousands of flowers everywhere you looked. We'll forever be glad we remembered our camera.

Math Madness

The most amazing thing has occurred in our house: we love math! it all started with what we call March Math Madness, and every day this month we have raced to complete a 100 problem 0-9 math fact sheet of addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. There is a 5 minute time limit, and if you beat your previous time or score you get a treat. Daniel and I are so proud of the progress our family is making on both speed and accuracy. For example, Lucy's time on division last night was 2:53 with 100 percent accuracy. Dad still reigns as the family's fastest, but Mom is catching up.

The biggest surprise was when both Lucy and Reuben started begging last night to continue daily math madness sheets until the end of the school year! I love those kids.

Pond, Mississippi

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Mississippi is a hidden gem. Last weekend Daniel, Ruth and I jumped into a rugged 4-mile hike through the hills of Mississippi, just across the border almost due north. We hiked the Clark Creek primitive trails, crossing through creeks 6 or 7 times, passing several little waterfalls and climbing up and down steep hills a couple of hundred feet high. Daniel and I were surprised at how rugged the trails were, and we felt exhausted by the end of the hike. 

Ruth loves the outdoors. And when she wasn't sleeping she spent the rest of the hike laughing and patting daddy's hair and massaging his shoulders. 

6 months old

Ruth turned 6 months old on March 12. We held a family half-birthday party and she unwrapped her very own booster seat. She had been begging to join us at the dinner table for several months and you can see by the look on her face that she loves it!

No, she didn't eat the half-birthday pie. Her first meal was smashed bananas and rice cereal. Her eating skills were off the charts, much like her weight (20lbs 2 oz... the weight, I might add, reached before solid foods ever touched her lips). We've got a good eater.

This morning is St. Patrick's day. Our breakfast was pinterest inspired waffle rainbows on a cloud of whipped cream and a golden egg. Delish.

Panama City Beach

We spent Mardi Gras weekend with Chrissy and the lively Ron and Robyn Kannas at Panama City Beach, Florida. I'd heard many times that the Kannas condo was supreme, and they were right. We had a wonderful time playing on the beach, in the pool and hot tub.