Spring Flowers, May Showers, Summer BBQ

"If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall." -N. Stair

With Spring around the corner and summer not far away, the Tastle family has been quite busy to say the least. Meag turned 9 this year. My little girl is all grown up and while it is so fun to watch her turn into this little, precious, young lady, I miss those days of rocking her to sleep. She would still let me though which warms my heart. We celebrated her birthday, HONESTLY, like 3 weekends in a row. Why not, right! We had a fabulous & fun sleepover with all of her little girlfriends. We had a family party and a party with just mommy, daddy and Meag. So, I think her 9th birthday was a great one. Tons and tons of presents. Great food. Fun and silly pictures. Lots to look back on when she is all grown.

This year we have started what we call Roses and Thorns. Each day we talk about our "rose" for the day and our "thorn" for the day. Basically the best and the worst parts. Some responses are quite funny. Meag and I always love new traditions to start so we are constantly saying, "Ooh, let's start this and do this every year."

For some reason, I can't wait until Summer this year! Last year, we had just moved into our house so moving things, decorating things, etc. were at the top of my list. This Summer, I want to plant beautiful flowers; have a small garden in the backyard; plant some trees for shade in the back. I have never really been a summer gal as most of you know- Fall and Winter are my faves but as I have gotten older, I enjoy summers now. Maybe because we have a house and neighbors around that Meag can play with and we have a beautiful park we can walk to. Picnic tables that overlook a large, beautiful fountain. There are just a lot more things for us to do outside since we moved. As we talked about what we wanted to do for summer, the conversation went a little something like this..."Mommy, I was thinking that every night we could go on a walk and take Jack and then each Saturday, I could set up a lemonade stand with my friends, and we can swim at the pool every day. We can ask family over and you can cook those shrimp that are my favorite and we can make cakes for them. Then after the lemonade stand, we can take Jack and Chloe to the dog parks." So, needless to say, our summer will be JAMMED PACKED with fun!!!! I love how excited she gets! I want Meag to look back on her childhood at home and think about all of the fun times and memories we have and all the traditions we started just like I do.

In between the cookouts, lemonade stands and daily swims, we are fitting a trip to New York in. SOOOOO excited! We are going to visit family, go shopping, see a play and soak up NYC!

Whew, just from typing about our busy schedules, I'm exhausted! :-) Life is short and why not cram all the fun, laughter, love, and family you can into it?! I want to come in from a summer day and see my shoulders kissed by the sun and see the dirt on my hands from tending to my garden and seeing wet footprints from Meag's little wet feet from the pool and smelling the bbq that my husband is grilling. That would be a perfect summer day.

Cheers to Spring and Summer on its way!

xo-Nat