Where is spring? No, seriously.

It's been cold.  Like, it's May, and it's been in the 40's at night, and Sunday's high was 59, and rain, pouring rain, and more rain.  This weather is down-right winter-like, in the Carolinas, for me.  I'm not alone when I say bring on the heat, humidity, and sunshine.  Yes.  All of it.  The rain has been unbelievable.  The lakes in the Catawba chain are at 100% of the pond levels, and to relieve some of the flooding (and cause other flooding) each lake has been releasing water down to the next lake, and so on.  It's, by far, the highest I've ever seen it.  Muddy.  Nasty.  On top of it, there was a 200,000+ gallon raw sewage spill into Lake Wylie, over the past week.  It's being blamed on a combination of old water treatment equipment, and the flooding.  Makes you want to dive in, right?

This was on Monday evening, after a TON of rain over the weekend.  Usually the beach extends about 10 more feet in front of these tables.  At this point, the water is "clean-looking."

This was Tuesday evening (no additional rain).  This was from the Lake Norman and Mountain Island Lake's dams being released.  Those picnic tables we were sitting on, just the night before, almost under water!

ALL sorts of debris floating...tree trunks, limbs, basketball (yep, I saw it), and this grass , evidently, from someone's yard!  Note the "YooHoo" color of the water.  Bleh!

And this was on Thursday evening.  Everything has migrated to our beach, or what's left of it.  The water is down about 2.5 feet since Tuesday.

But, enough about the weather.  Today is SUNNY and WARM!  The high is going to be 83!  Wooo-hooo!  Maybe, if the water clears up, we can even get on the lake.  Our pool has been open for a few weeks now, and we'd like to enjoy it.  Keep it up, Mother Nature!

So, this past week, or so, was the first time in a LOOOONG while that we haven't had "plans."  We did, however, manage to make some.  Here's the fun we've been having...(clearly ignoring the weather).

The kids and I took a walk, one afternoon, at Anne Springs Greenway

This is Payton's new friend, Sienna.  She's 5 1/2, and a neighbor.  She's a nice little girl, but comes over EVERY afternoon.  She'll walk in the house, try to take Payton to her house, and just kind of hovers around our house until she sees signs of life.  Time to set some ground rules with Payton, as she wandered off our porch and to Sienna's the other night, without permission.

Griffin's first "wish"

FUN! at the Whitewater Center

Griffin kept grabbing rocks, and throwing them in the water.  Over, and over, and over.  I bet he could have done that all night (and voiced his disapproval when it was time to continue our walk!)

Griffin watching the band, Seven Handle Circus

Payton (3) & Madi (4)...silly girls.

We had some friends heading out to the Piedmont Row "Alive After 5," Friday evening.  We knew the kids would enjoy the band, and it was a decent night, weather-wise, so we went.  Everyone had a blast! Payton befriended some older girls, and she danced with them the whole time.  Griffin was mastering his new trick, "jumping."  He had the attention of ALL the women around him.  Seriously.  No one was watching the band.  I was scared to death that he was going to bust a tooth out.  He was jumping on and off the curbs, over and over.  At one point, "security" pulled him off the steps that go up to the stage.  That's my boy!

Payton LOVES to hang out with older kids

Bye, bye, baby!  He's such a little boy now!

With plans clashing so often, we rarely get to see the Boughmans.  FINALLY it worked out that we could get together.  The girls picked up right where they left off, and Camryn and Griffin were like a little couple.

Little two-timer!

He is such a little gentleman!

We're hoping for warm, dry weather so we can actually get these things out on the lake!

Can't wait until they can really take over the kitchen...but can you imagine the mess?

Camryn's story time, bombarded by the Kugler kids :)

Movie time for the kids!  They watched Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax"

Dora and Diego joined them...

And they all enjoyed popcorn too!

Mommy and Daddy, and Auntie Cheryl, and Uncle Jeremy enjoyed the fire on the chilly evening.

What do you do on a rainy day?  We're getting creative...the kids (including Daddy!) enjoyed using ALL the blocks to build towers.  The kids were very patient in letting Daddy build them, then they'd knock them down, only to start again.  I'm not sure who had more fun!

I know the kids are young, but I want to expose them to many different sports, to see where they excel, and what they like.  Payton had been asking to go hit the ball, so one evening, we took the t-ball stand outside.  She hit the ball hard, just like Mommy!  Daddy taught her to hit leftie, also like Mommy.  Griffin did a great job also, and always wanted to put the ball back on the tee by himself.

Then this happened....(maybe having her pee in the middle of the Anne Springs Parkway last week wasn't such a good idea?  Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go!)

The kid's Mother's Morning Out, at Sardis, hosted a Mother's Day breakfast on Wednesday.  When we arrived, EVERYONE was standing outside.  Just when I got out of the car, we heard (and saw) the firetruck rushing in.  Griffin kicked his legs and started yelling "woooooo-woooooo" and couldn't wait to get out of the car.  That was definitely the highlight for the kids...seeing the truck AND the "real" firemen.  It was a false alarm...perhaps too much steam from cooking the eggs that set off the smoke detector?  I'm not sure, but the breakfast was really nice, and all the moms appreciated it.  Payton made me a really cool pen/pencil holder with her picture on it.  She was SO secretive about it, and was excited to show me the "surprise."  We hung out in Payton's classroom for a while, before I took Griffin to his room. He blended in perfectly, and LOVED playing with the train table.  I SO wish we had a bigger house so we could get one for him.  He is OBSESSED with trains, for the moment.

And lastly, there's her ballet class.  We FINALLY have the recital next weekend, and the rehearsal this Saturday. It's a full dress rehearsal.  On Wednesday, her instructor received a call that her son hit his head and she had to rush off.  (We hope he's okay!)  The girls didn't get a chance to practice their dance, so the rehearsal will be necessary, for sure!  They know their dance pretty well, and we're looking forward to seeing them perform on the big stage!  Payton can't wait to wear make-up and receive flowers at the end.  Too cute.  As for the fall, I think we may try both kids in soccer, and possibly put Payton in gymnastics after that's done.  I don't see her being anything graceful, since she takes after her mom.  I mean, look:

I'll leave you with this shot from Freedom Park yesterday.  It was FINALLY seasonably nice outside.  I still see some highs in the 60's/lows in the lower 40's in our forecast, and rain tomorrow.  Hoping Mother Nature has some mercy on Sunday, for all the mothers out there...and maybe we can even get the boat cleaned up :)  Happy Mother's Day to all of you Moms!!

At least all the rain has made it really nice and green outside!