A Few Random Pictures

The perfect Saturday morning -- Natalie slept until almost 8:00! For those of you who know her usual sleeping habits (she is a great sleeper, but is usually an early riser), you know that this is near miraculous, and even luckier for us that it fell on a Saturday! Brad and Natalie then headed to Terhune Orchards (maybe 3-5 minutes from our house) to pick up some of their famous apple cider donuts. Yum!


It was exciting to have Baylor in the March Madness mix! Brad pulled out his Baylor hat yesterday and Natalie decided she needed to wear her hat too. I was in the kitchen for most of the game but I could hear Brad saying things like "Go Bears!," "Come on!," and "Awesome!" He had an echo every single time. It is so funny to hear Natalie's tiny little voice yelling "Awesome!"


A bunny showed up in our backyard this morning. Natalie loved it and kept checking out the window for it the rest of the day.

Madeline's Visit

We had a great time while Madeline was in town! Brad was on Spring Break too, so we were able to all do stuff together. Here are some highlights...or, at least what we were doing while the camera was out :)

We spent the first day of her visit at the Philadelphia Zoo. The weather was perfect and it was so fun!

Natalie loved all the statues around the zoo. She also posed with a snake and petted a cast iron turtle. I didn't have the heart to tell her it was fake.

Thanks, Princeton University for sponsoring the tiger exhibit! The tiger was up and about, and walked right past us. So cool for it to be so close! It was one of my favorites of the day.

Natalie loved having Madeline around!

Flamingos were another favorite. Notice how some of them are sleeping standing on one leg and one is even kneeling to take a nap. How uncomfy!

The penguins were out and very active, which Natalie loved!





There are peacocks out and wandering the paths. They are so beautiful!

On day two we went into downtown Princeton and walked around campus. Natalie managed to convince Daddy to buy her a Princeton hat. How could you resist that face?

For the first time this year, the weather was nice enough to play outside! Until now our backyard has gone pretty much unused.

We went to the Philadelphia Insectarium. The website made it look more impressive than it really was, but Natalie still had fun checking out the critters. We managed to convince her to stick her face through the hole for a photo op.

Brad had to go back to school on Madeline's last day (Monday), so the girls hung around the house until it was time to head to the airport. Natalie decided it was dress up time...using Mr. Potato Head accessories!

Lily got in on the action too!

We can't wait for our next visitor(s) to come!

Silence from the Garden State Smiths...

Sorry for the lack of new blog posts. I survived 6 nights by myself while Brad and Natalie were in Houston. Obviously, nothing exciting happened then. When they came home on Tuesday, they brought my sister with them! We are out and about doing lots of fun stuff. We are loving this weather in the upper-60s, and we're even supposed to get up in the 70s tomorrow! A nice change from the huge rainstorm this past weekend. New posts should be coming soon!

Hello, 50s!

Yesterday was the first day this year that the temperature got up into the 50s. And you know what that means...time to go to the park! It was a little breezy but really not bad. Definitely good enough to cure a case of cabin fever.

Even at 55 degrees, the lake at the park was still frozen over! Wonder how long that will last.

Garden State Discovery Museum

Yesterday we headed down to Cherry Hill with some friends (Kandace and her two youngest kids, Hosanna and Judah) to the Garden State Discovery Museum. What a fun place it is! Natalie had an absolute blast.

Right when you walk in there is a walk-on piano. Natalie thought it was great...and it reminded me of Big!

This was so cute. The horse's mouth opens to a PVC pipe that drops down to a bucket on the ground, so when you "feed" the horse a carrot it falls into the bucket and you can do it again.

Natalie was thrilled to see a ball pit.

The barrel was blowing up air so the ball floated. Natalie was skeptical at first...

...but then realized it was fun! She loved letting it blow her hair around.

The stand-in bubble contraption was cool, but both the girls wanted to reach out and touch the bubble as soon as it formed. Not so conducive for keeping a bubble in tact!

The bubble wands were an easier concept. Natalie actually managed to make a couple big ones!


They have a wall that is like a giant Lite Brite. Holes with light bulbs behind them, and clear colored pegs to put in the holes. Fun!


The black light room. It has white walls and they have several flashlight pens that you can use to color on the wall. The doodles stay on the wall for 30 seconds or so, so I was able to write Natalie's name and snap a shot before it disappeared.

Mini golf! Natalie had a hard time leaving this area.

Our last stop was the news desk. Do I see a future in broadcast journalism?

We headed back home and all 3 kids were asleep in the car in no time. A sure sign that a good time was had by all. The museum is about 45 minutes from our house, but definitely worth the drive a couple times a year. There is so much to do, we didn't even really cover it all!

Spring...Where Are You?

A couple of days ago I bought season passes to Sesame Place for Natalie and me. I can't wait for the weather to warm up so we can spend our days hanging with Big Bird, Elmo, and the rest of the Sesame gang. Natalie is going to love it! Several of our friends got passes too, so that will make it even more fun.

Even though there are some flurries coming down right now, we are starting to get hints of "warmer" weather -- the past couple of days the temp has gotten up to the mid-40s, so we got to go out without jackets! Temperatures here are so different from Houston. I guess because Houston is so humid? 45 degrees here does not feel anywhere near as cold as 45 degrees in Houston.

Go away, winter!

A Year of Pies -- Month 9

I just barely squeaked by on Brad's February pie...made it on the 28th! Definitely not my most beautiful pie to date, but this mixed berry pie with crumb topping was pretty tasty, especially with vanilla ice cream. It is tough to come up with fruit pie options during the winter in New Jersey...nothing is in season. It's hard to believe the year of pies is almost over...only three more!