Up Close and Personal at Longwood Gardens

Hi Friends!

Yesterday I shared a few pictures with you from my trip to Longwood Gardens with The Son. As I said, we had a wonderful time and took LOTS of pictures with my new camera. I'd like to show you some of the close up photos I took. I'm really pleased with the things I am learning with this camera... I am sure I have lots more to learn but so far, so good... Tell me what you think...






What's that you say? You want a few closer? OK!






Lastly, I'll show you a couple I took of some Robins and a friendly squirrel these were taken with the "outdoor bird" setting and I was quite far away when I took them so I'm pretty pleased with the way they came out. I think it's pretty safe to say that Spring has officially arrived!


Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day and stay healthy!

A Longwood Gardens Date with The Son

Back when The Son was a baby and I was solely a Stay at Home Mom, we spent every minute together, playing, hanging out and visiting museums, etc. Now that he's a Big Boy, and in Kindergarten, I'm working more in and out of the home, and I realized that we haven't had any of those "special" Momma/Son moments we used to spend together.

We're fortunate that we live kind of near Longwood Gardens and that we're members there. Longwood Gardens is a wonderful place to visit, it's acres and acres of beautiful horticultural wonderment. (I just made that up) It's beautiful all year round and I know I've mentioned it at Christmas time before. If you're interested in visiting or just checking out the history, just click on my link above.

I decided that The Son and I needed to take a Momma/Son visit to The Gardens and I picked him up from school on Tuesday for us to do just that. We took LOTS and LOTS of pictures. As I told you before, I just got a new camera and I knew that taking The Son there would give me lots of opportunities to test out the new camera. It was a beautiful day so there are many pictures to share with you...

As you can tell, we had a fantastic day, we plan on going back again really soon. Thanks for stopping by my blog today and for leaving a comment of course. Tomorrow we're going to get a little more up close and personal with some of the flowers at Longwood... See you then!

A Holiday Poem Rewrite and a Recap of our Holiday...

'Twas the day before my 40th birthday when all through the house, The Son was enjoying our new Wii console with a man I call The Spouse (or The Husband if you want to be particular.)

The presents were all opened, lots of toys had been unwrapped and I felt like this was the perfect time for a little holiday recap.

On December 20th we thought, "What do you know?" as we enjoyed watching lots and lots of new fallen snow. Ziggy was thrilled,


The son was too, he laid right down and knew just what to do.

On the day after the snowstorm we knew just where to go... to Longwood Gardens, not many others were visiting because of the snow. The company that joined us enjoyed all the beauty as did The Son, our little Christmas cutie.

In lieu of presents for the Kindergarten teacher we were asked instead to buy items for a "Giving Tree" that would feature, socks and underwear and hats galore for children who didn't have many and needed some more.

While I followed directions and we picked out hats and gloves, I had had to make something for the teacher we loved, a few note cards I crafted and wrapped up real quick, my usual "go to" item when I want to play St. Nick.

The next thing I knew, it was Christmas Eve and Santa was leaving some PJ's under the tree, they weren't very Christmasy, that much was true, but The Son was excited by them and posed really cute too.

Christmas day was spent with family and friends, a busy, busy day, the kids hoped the fun would never end. The Niece, The Baby Niece and also The Son got lots of fun presents and enjoyed every one. The children we have must have been especially good this year because Santa was generous, he's such a dear.


Maxus Dragonoid, a Bakugan toy is the favorite present of my little boy, he's played with it more than any toy yet and he even played with The Niece and her Princesses set.

Another year past more memories made, hold those memories close and don't let them fade. I hope you've enjoyed my little holiday story, I'm off to enjoy this day with The Son for tomorrow I'll be FORTY!

Happy Monday to you all!

Christmas at Longwood Gardens

Last weekend the whole family took a trip to Longwood Gardens. Longwood Gardens is a wonderful place to visit. I've linked to their website if you want to see more pictures or read about the history of it. It's a well known place in this area. When we tell people the town we've moved to, they often don't recognize it but when we say, "It's right near Longwood Gardens," they know exactly where we are.

I took LOTS of pictures. Lots. Of. Pictures. The pictures don't do it justice as it was absoulutely beautiful. I was unable to get pictures of the outside lights because besides being totally frigid last weekend, it's just not really possible for my little digital camera to capture the beauty. The website has additional pictures though of the outside and you can check them out if you wish. Also, some of my photos aren't as clear or as bright as I'd like them to be. It's kind of dark in some of the areas and my flash isn't all that powerful. I still wanted to share them though because some of the decorating ideas are really unique and definitely "doable" at home.

I'll share some of my photos with you and try to keep my commentary to a minimum which many of you know, will be difficult for me.

There were lots of beautiful trees and various decorations:






There were lots of beautiful flowers and wreaths:





But the most beautiful thing of all at Longwood Gardens last weekend was...






The sweet little girl is The Niece by the way. You sure can see the family resemblance, don't you think? I hope you enjoyed my pictures. We'll be going to Longwood again next weekend. It's a great place to take visiting family.

Last but not least, I should mention that this is my 198th post! I am planning on another new post for Kimba's Christmas Open House on Tuesday which will be #199 and then... on Wednesday... I am having a giveaway for my 200th post! It will be a small giveaway of something I've handcrafted, but it will be a giveaway nonetheless. I hope you'll come back to enter.

See you Tuesday! Have a great weekend!