So today is Mother's Day, a very happy day indeed! We decided to do things a little differently this year and had a very casual day. I was given my gifts in bed this morning and then Shawn cooked a delicious breakfast of pancakes and bacon. After the weather cleared up, we decided to head to the Berry Farm to pick strawberries and have lunch. The following pictures tell the story:
Once we arrived at the farm, we took a hayride out to the fields. Laura had a great time looking at all the animals and strawberries as we passed.
She became an expert picker very quickly. She also quickly realized it was way more fun to eat the strawberries than to pick them! 
Occasionally, though, Laura's mouth got ahead of her brain and she ended up eating one that wasn't ripe or over-ripe. She usually just spit it out and picked up a new strawberry to munch on!
She's still eating...and notice that her basket is totally empty! Right before we got on the wagon to ride back to the farm, she had 3 berries in her basket, but they were all gone by the time the ride was over!
Can you tell she loves strawberries!
After the strawberry picking, we walked around the farm looking at bunnies, goats, chickens, turkeys, cows, and every other animal you can think of. Laura also bounced in an inflatable and played in a large trough filled with shelled corn. We had a delicious BBQ lunch and finished it off by sharing a strawberry milkshake three ways. It was a fabulous Mother's Day!
One fairly warm morning recently we were babysitting Laura's favorite friends Miriam and Nora (or Me-um and No-wa as Laura calls them,) The girls really wanted to play outside, so we put on their coats and out we went. I'm not sure who had more fun playing football, Shawn or the girls!
Once chasing the football got tiring, the girls had a great time on the swings. Laura and Miriam couldn't decide what swing they liked best. Often they were both riding on the see-saw, bumping heads and giggling a lot! It is so much fun to see Laura grow up and make friends. She loves playing with her little friends! 
On a really warm day last weekend, the three of us headed to Belle Isle...and island almost in Downtown Richmond. You get to walk over the James River on a huge pedestrian bridge to get there. There are walking and bike trails around the island and an area of rocks where you can walk out into the river. We decided to have our picnic on the rocks. Laura thought the whole thing was great fun!
Laura is just getting used to eating sandwiches the way they are supposed to be eaten. She likes to deconstruct the sandwich and eat it one food type at a time (for example, the bread first, and then the meat, and then the cheese). She's even done this with peanut butter and jelly! What a mess! Well, she and I both had a PB&J for lunch at our pic-pic and I kept my sandwich in the bag as I was eating it (so I didn't have to touch it with my dirty hands). Laura wanted to do the same thing..."I wanna eat wike mommy! Put my sam-wich in my bag, too!" She made a much smaller mess than normal. 
Even though the mess was smaller, she was still a little sticky after eating. She and daddy ran down to the river so she could wash her hands in the water. As she was running back to me she said, "The water is told (cold)!" Then she ate a few pieces of fruit so her hands would get sticky again so she would have to go back down to the river. "I'm ticky (sticky) Mommy! I need to wash my hands o-more-gen (again)!" We had a great time and are really looking forward to spring so we can spend even more time playing around outside!
Sydney and I were able to go down some bigger hills and Laura would stand at the top and say "I go too!" Finally Shawn took her down...
and on the way back up the hill, Laura said, "I happy, Daddy!" She can just melt your heart!
Laura had a fun Christmas morning. She got lots of cool presents, including the magna-doodle lap pillow you see in the background, a miner's light (just for fun!), a Leap Frog toy, lots of books, a few games, a Barbie and tons more. But the big present was still sitting behind the tree after all the other presents were opened and Laura looked at me and said, "I wanna op-en da big pwesent! I wand my doll-houshe!" (She has been asking for a dollhouse since September).
She was sooo excited when she finally opened it and she hasn't stopped playing with it since! On the drive back home, she said to me, "Mommy, whewe my doll-houshe is?" When I said it was in the trunk, she smiled and said, "I pway wit it when we det home?"
Laura had a really nice time playing with Mema and Aunt Kelly (or Telly as Laura called her). Mema tried to teach her how to play Memory, but Laura just wanted to move the cards all around!
One of the things we ate was bacon -- and Laura loves bacon. She can eat a piece faster than most adults and then promptly says, "I want mowr bacon, peese!" We had to cut her off at about 3 pieces or she would have eaten it all!
Laura was very excited to open her first present...a big red wagon with a little baby wagon she can use for her dolls! After she opened it she said, "Fank you, Nana! Fank you Danddad!"
Laura sitting with some of her favorites. The guitar plays Dora music and every time it starts playing, Laura starts dancing and singing. The sledding disk will be a lot of fun at the next snow, but for now, Laura thinks it is a big bathtub. She wanted to go get a baby to give her a bath. And I'm opening her new Fridge Phonics in the background...a great way to learn letters!
A great picture of Granddad, Nana, and Laura. Laura was a little concerned with the cast on Nana's hand (she broke her wrist a few days ago after falling while shoveling snow). Laura didn't know what to do when she saw it...cry or run away! She eventually made peace with the cast and now she and Nana are good friends again:)
A beautiful picture of the gardens.
This area in the summer is the children's garden. I love how they light up the big veggies for the kids to see!
A family picture in the conservatory. It was so warm inside with all the tropical plants, but we were still so cold from being outside that everyone kept on all their winter coats, hats, and gloves!