As May Comes In

 Part I

We had passes to Biltmore last year and I enjoyed it so much that I told John I wanted to get them renewed for Christmas.  We went a lot in the first few months of the year.  We took John's parents, my sister Stacie with her boys and my sister-in-law Susan all separately within the space of a few weeks.  That was back in January and February when there was nothing going on in the gardens so we just went through the house.

Natalie and I have gone back a couple of times; in March and in the first week of April.  But it was early spring so there were just a few early bloomers like daffodils and forsythia.  I've been wanting to go see the tulips since they've been blooming, but as I said in my previous post, April was insane here and we just could not make it down there.

Yesterday morning, I went to see the gardens.  And they were beautiful.  I got there shortly after the gate opened, so there weren't a whole lot of people around yet.  And most of those went to the house first.

The Italian Gardens

The Walled Garden is one that they change every season.  Last spring, we saw the tulips past their peak.  Yesterday, I think it was much closer to their peak than it was then.  They were so pretty!

They have also have flowers other than tulips in the beds.

Looking into the Rose Garden.  I'll have to go back at the end of the month to see those blooming.

 Last year the girls and I saw the azaleas blooming at their peak.  I got to see it again this year.  They smell so good as you walk through them...  I love walking through the Azalea Garden this time of year.

This was the first time that I went through the gardens by myself; I didn't have to listen to any children complaining about being hot/thirsty/hungry/tired/ready to GO/are you done yet/need the bathroom/this is boring.  So I walked on some trails I'd never been on. I really enjoyed myself.

Tune in next time for still more pictures.

April Goes Out...

The month of April was INSANE at my house.  All three of the kids were involved with activities and I don't know how we made it through.  But we did.

Our Spring Break was the first week of April and the kids and I went to spend a few days at the lake with my parents.  That was nice and relaxing.

 

We came home on April 4 to this:

 Will was on his school's baseball team, but most of their games in March were cancelled due to weather.  So they extended their season two weeks.  So our April was even busier than I had expected...

I had to miss some of Will's games because Laura had practice or a game and/or Natalie had a rehearsal or a Girl Scout activity.  (I think I forgot to mention that Natalie was in a production of The Little Mermaid with the community theater so she's been having rehearsals for a few months.)

I do not know how single parents do it.  John was able to get off work early enough to pick up random kids when they all had something going on the same night.  Thank goodness...

Natalie's performances of her play were on a Friday and Saturday evening.  And I was a little relieved that both Will and Laura's games were cancelled that Friday so our weekend was slightly less hectic than originally scheduled.

The rest of these pics are in chronological order.  And I did not include photos from every game we had.

Laura's first game.  She's the right fielder.

She got hits her first two times at bat.

On third getting ready to come home.

Will and John came to Laura's game after his game was over.  He got the game ball that night due to an awesome play and was made a starting player for the rest of the season.  (As a 7th grader, he didn't get to play a whole lot the first part of the season.)

Laura hanging out with me at one of Will's games.  Natalie had rehearsal.

Natalie played one of Ariel's sisters in The Little Mermaid.

Her Kindergarten/first grade teacher came to the show and brought her flowers.

Here is her mermaid costume.

It was a crazy busy month.  Now the only things on the calendar until school is over are Natalie's Girl Scout meetings and Laura's softball games and practices.  Easy peasy!  lol

Meanwhile, Back at the end of March...

I took these photos back on March 26 and never got around to posting them.  I think we got our  two biggest snowfalls of the season at the end of October and that last one in March, so both of those were not during "winter".  Crazy.