Fishing!

Dylan requested a fishing pole for his birthday from his Grandpa Dave, and Grandpa did not disappoint! As soon as Grandpa got out of the car Dylan was right there asking about his fishing pole. Luckily Grandpa had it in an easily accessible location and was nice enough to give the fishing pole to Dylan right away! After Grandpa got the fishing pole assembled, he showed Dylan how to cast the line and after a few tries Dylan started to get the hang of it.
On Saturday morning we headed to the pond at Anchor Park to go fishing. Dylan couldn't wait to try and catch a fish. However, we weren't so lucky, I think we needed worms, we were just using what bait came with the fishing pole. But Dylan didn't give up easily, and had a ton of fun casting the line, reeling it in and learning some fishing secrets from Grandpa!

Grandpa showing Dylan how to cast the line.

Any fish down there?

Maybe over here will be better?

What about here? No luck!

Dylan's 3rd Birthday Party - photoblogging

Starting with the Toy Story cake and it's progress, to Dylan's birthday party this morning. Here's a recap of Dylan's 3rd Birthday!

Two-Fer Tuesday

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our house to yours! Dylan has had a great weekend with Grandpa Dave visiting. Dylan also opened his Easter basket this morning. Thanks to his Grandma's for sending fun stuff for the basket too. Although his favorite part was the chocolate as you can see from the pictures!

When Grandpa/Dad visits

Whenever my dad visits we always stay busy and keep him busy. Last time he visited he put new brakes on my Jeep. When he visited a few weeks ago he asked if there was anything that we needed to get done around the house. I thought about it for a while and then remembered that I'd been wanting a couple of garden boxes to plant in this year. So we made a trip to Home Depot to get wood to build the boxes. While we were there they had a free kids workshop and they were building race cars. We took Dylan over to see what was going on, but he got freaked out for some reason and didn't want to participate. We walked a few isles over and calmed him down and started getting the wood for the garden boxes. Then the very nice lady who was checking people in for the workshop came over to talk to us. She had seen Dylan looking over at what they were building and then leave. So she came over to bring him a race car that he could build at home!
Unfortunately we had a rainy weekend and the garden boxes didn't get built until Monday, but Grandpa and Dylan had fun building the race car in the meantime.

They were also busy running around the house. Grandpa hid the ball they were playing with under his shirt and Dylan did the same thing.

When I came home from work on Monday, Dave, Dad and Dylan were putting the finishing touches on the gardening boxes and had even gotten enough dirt to fill one of the boxes (which was ALOT and all that would fit in the back of my Jeep).
Dylan and I planted spinach, 2 kinds of lettuce and snap peas. I really hope the snap peas grow, they are one of my favorites!

Are you planting a garden this year? When it warms up a little bit we will be planting tomatoes, zucchini, red peppers and jalapinos!

Florida pictures

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Two-fer Tuesday

Grandma Julie, Grandpa Dave and Dylan.

Dylan playing with his workbench he got from his Grandparents for his birthday.

Aren't dads great

My dad (Dave) and step-mom Julie made it to Knoxville around 6pm on Thursday night so they got to see Dylan before he went to bed. He was a little shy at first, but warmed up to Grandpa Dave pretty quickly. Dylan has always gotten along really well with my dad. I thought Dylan might be a little scared of him (my dad is a big guy 6'2" and we'll just say over 200 lbs.) since lately he has been scared of guys, but Dylan did really well and was just a little shy. He did see Grandpa Dave in April so I think helped that Dylan saw his Grandpa only a month ago. Dylan loves to go outside and Grandpa Dave likes being outside as well, he also brings Dylan a toy when he visits. This time it was plastic tools, something Dylan doesn't have, but we knew he would love (and he does). I must say that my step-mom Julie is good about helping my Dad figure out what is age appropriate (she has 4 grandkids from 4-9 years old). They also just spent a week in Florida with the grandkids so they were certainly in kid-mode.
It's so nice to have help with Dylan while the grandparents are here. On Fridays I work from home, so it was great to have Grandpa Dave and Grandma Julie hang out with Dylan and entertain him. Dad also found time to replace my brakes and put some much needed lubricant on Dave's brakes to stop them from squeaking. Also, Dave (as in my husband, not dad, sorry 2 Daves can get confusing!) learned how to replace brakes!
On Saturday morning we went to the Market Square Farmers Market and it did not disappoint. They had booths and booths of baked goods(but sadly no chorizo wrapped in bread), salad greens, onions, fresh strawberries, handmade items and much more. I picked up a morning glory and wild blueberry muffin from VG's Bakery and both were divine! There are also splash pads for kids to run through, which Dylan loved. There were also lots of dogs and Dylan is a big fan of dogs, so he got to pet a few of them. We walked over to Mast General Store to pick up some Granddaddy' Dave's Hot BBQ sauce for my dad, it's his favorite! And to see if they had anything good for Dylan. He needs a hat to wear outside, but they didn't have what we were looking for, so the search will continue.
Saturday afternoon I had to head over to Nashville to pick-up Carolyn and Kyle (Dave's mom and brother) from the airport so Dylan got to spend more quality time with the "Florida" Grandparents. The drive to Nashville was pretty uneventful which was good. Carolyn & Kyle's flight was on time so I got them picked up and we were back in Knoxville just before 9pm. I had put a pork shoulder in the crock pot on Saturday morning so Dave and the Florida Grandparents wouldn't have to worry about making dinner and it turned out great.
I used a recipe from Iowa Girl Eats:
1/2 c. BBQ Sauce -I used Famous Daves
Garlic powder
Pepper
Salt
Coke/Coke Zero
Onion (1, sliced)
Put the pork shoulder/butt in the crock pot and turn to low. Season the pork shoulder (or butt) with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Pour the BBQ sauce over the pork. Put the sliced onion on top of the pork and BBQ sauce. Cover the pork with Coke. Cook on low for at least 8 hours.
It's that easy! And it turned out great. You could probably cut up the meat so you don't have to use as much Coke and you could also just throw everything in the crock pot instead of layering the onion and BBQ sauce.
It was great to come home from the airport and have dinner ready for our weary travelers (and myself).
More about Carolyn and Kyle's visit later this week!