while visiting doylestown this week,  dave, phoebe and jackson took a little trip to visit with grandma’s aunt meb and her family! we had a blast with nancy, bob, kate, mark, and the kids! and of course great aunt meb, who is dave’s late grandfather, charles babcock’s little sister. she is such a fun lady and we love visiting with her whenever we get the chance.

aunt meb checks out little phoebe kate’s technique on eating cookies.

phoebe was all smiles the whole night, except when daddy tried to get her to eat her dinner.

the kids were busy, busy, busy all night long. of course, everyone had to initially get over their shyness!

the whole group! we had a blast, thanks again!

we brought together many of jackson’s biggest loves — train rides, the circus, animals, bright colors, and his best friends — to celebrate his 4th birthday. the centerpiece of the party was a colorful cupcake tower, featuring the birthday boy on top, clowns, and of course, lots of sprinkles! (props go out to martha stewart’s cupcakes book for the yummy recipes!)

but we’re getting ahead of ourselves… we didn’t eat the cupcakes until the very end of the party!

we started festivities at the walkersville southern railroad.

jackson got to explore the engine, and then, once we were all aboard the birthday caboose …

the real fun began!

jackson was joined by his buddies jillian, aidan, lucas, garrett, collin, cayman, and zach, as well as cousins sarah and josh. and of course, little sister phoebe, whose birthday is just a few weeks away!

the kids got crafty with some markers, decorating wooden trains or stars…

games included an elephant ring toss and “stick the nose on the clown,” during which all the kids figured out how to cheat by peeking through the bottom of the admittedly cheap paper “blindfold”!!

circus-theme tattoos included elephants, seals, lions, clowns, or the ringmaster!

guests snacked on popcorn, hot dogs, twizzlers, juice boxes, and lemonade!

aunt lynnie got caught up in all the fun!

the 90-minute ride went by really fast. the views were beautiful, and the trees provided lots of cool shade from the hot sun.

some of the best views came from the upper level seats on the caboose!

the kids spent most of the trip hanging out up there together, climbing up and down the slightly precarious ladders!

molly and dave also got in on the fun!

once our ride was over, we checked out the model trains next door, then headed to casa spence for more partying!

there’s those delish cupcakes again!

pool time!

those monocacy valley montessori kids just can’t get enough of mulch!

jackson’s always a bit timid when it comes time to sing the happy birthday song. we had to literally pull him out from under the table to blow out the candles!

phoebe had such a great time at her brother’s party, she said she’s really looking forward to her first on august 1st!

(special thanks go out to our “second photographer” tom fedor for several of the shots above!)

a few days before we left for christmas vacation, a massive winter storm dumped almost 2 feet of snow on frederick! and pennsylvania only got a fraction of that amount. what? are we in opposite world?? needless to say, all the boys in the spence household were super excited to run outside and play. so, brooks, jackson and dave all put on their sweaters and boots and went for it!

this was just the beginning! so much snow, and all jackson had to wear was his rain boots. thank goodness that aunt beth came through a few days later with some snow boot hand-me-downs!

brooks likes to dig his nose deep into the snow and bound around, but he’s one of the first who wants to go back inside and get warm!

we don’t get snow like this very often, so we were actually happy to see it all over our patio! the best moment came the next morning when, without prompting, our neighbor came over with his snowblower and dug out our driveway! hurrah!

phoebe seemed unimpressed with her second-ever snow experience. just give her a few years!

jackson was all smiles later, after getting some warm clothes and lunch!

this past week we finally got around to picking through the last of our garden plants from this summer, and discovered a wonderful bounty… a bunch of green tomatoes!! my first thought was toss, but then marcia suggested fried green tomatoes. yum! to the double yum!
so the other night, i made them. yay! check it out! oh and them had some of the leftovers with overeasy egss this am. oh heaven!!

yay! jackson and dad are having fun watching the worker men and dumper trucks put in a new road along our corner today!! good thing we got our errands done early today!!

as we entered the tent for cole bros. circus last monday, jackson was truly in awe. he’d been to circuses before, but not in his own town! and besides, the circus is always awe-inspiring to a 2-year-old.

jackson kept asking about riding on the horses, and i was doubtful whether he’d actually go through with it. but, we paid our 5 bucks, and sure enough, he loved his first pony ride! we went around and around and around, with jackson clutching the saddle tighter and tighter.

some of our favorite parts of the show! for days after the show, jackson talked about the elephants visiting us at our house. according to him, they helped us garden, they slept in our bedrooms, and mommy had to kiss them goodnight every night!

hurrah for the great show! we want to see it again! if you’d like to see more photos of our circus trip, click here.

for the last several years, dave has been bringing home gorgeous photos from weddings he’s shot on the eastern shore of maryland, and we’ve been saying how fun it would be to visit there as a family someday. well, someday was this past weekend! (click on this link to see more images from our trip!)

dave, molly and jackson piled into the car on friday and headed to easton to the historic tidewater inn. we found a great deal to stay at the hotel where dave had shot a wedding last year, and it was just minutes away from the wedding he shot saturday at the oaks in st. michaels. (check out his awesome images from the day on amy raab photography’s blog listed under “meghan and jeff.”)

the eastern shore is known for boating and beautiful, small, historic towns with lots of character and fun shopping and dining. on saturday, while dave was at the wedding, jackson and i visited the chesapeake bay maritime museum grounds in st. michaels, where they were hosting bay day. we climbed aboard lots of model ships and watched boats out on the water, petted some turtles and just generally had a blast.

the peekaboo game took on a new twist as jackson discovered port holes!

our cozy hotel room had two small beds with lots of comfy white down pillows and duvets! jackson loved jumping on his own bed and curling up with the new ball he found at a cool toy store in downtown easton.

it was such a lovely weekend, weather-wise, that we ate our dinner outside friday night at the lovely scossa restaurant in downtown easton. jackson enjoyed a vanilla gelato for dessert while dave and molly savored some cappuccinos.

we started easter with some good, old-fashioned egg dyeing. we hit a few snags early on. first, our eggs are always delivered from our local dairy. this week we ordered an extra dozen, forgetting that they are brown! after a trip to the store for 6 nice, white eggs, we thought we were ready to go. but then we realized you need vinegar to mix the colors, and we only had a splash of white wine vinegar! luckily, we have a ton of the red wine kind! we made the best of it and the eggs turned out stellar. nice job, jackson and dave! (check out all our easter-related photos at this link.)

jackson was very proud of his colored eggs. out of the blue, while decorating them, he looked up and said with a very serious expression, “these look like beautiful!” he also “visited” his eggs almost every day in the fridge leading up to the weekend. when it was time to get in the car to head to nana and pop pop’s house, jackson said excitedly, “mama, we have to get the easters from the fridge!”

this year jackson was able to hunt for eggs without a cast on his leg! and he was a pro. he knew exactly what to do without much coaching and quickly found his 15 eggs. the treats inside were a bonus — he would’ve been happy with the plastic eggs alone! (thanks to aunt jill and aunt lynne for putting it all together! great prizes as always.)

on sunday, we put on our easter finest and headed to saint john bosco church. mommy brought the wrong shoes — but don’t look at his feet! concentrate on the mega-cute jacket and pants that aunt lynne helped us pick out!

we wrapped up our easter visit to conyngham with a visit from the cousins of connecticut. jackson was more happy than he lets on in this picture to get a hug from eva! he really loved meeting his baby cousins, brody and clare, for the first time too!

after a great storyhour at thorpewood, with our friends tom and jillian, jackson and i decided to have a little bite to eat. we headed down to place molly and i tried to visit a few years ago. back then we made the unfortunate mistake of going to the wrong place. located in the foothills of the catoctin mountains, the little town of mountaindale is spread out along a road of the same name. the thing is, this little place has two general stores. and the both are called mountaindale general store! molly and i went to the “first” one, but a little bit more down the road brings you to the real deal. they do authentic texas pit bbq, and oh how good it was! tender and lean. nice sauce and crispy slaw to go with the beef. we even got some extra to take home to molly. so, if you are ever travelling down highway 15 in western maryland, take a little detour to mountaindale. it will be worth your while!

it’s been a while since our return from our great outer banks vacation, and lots has happened since then. but we collected some great photos and some great memories on the trip, which we still wanted to share here!

for the first time this year, we were able to stay the entire week for the spence group vacation. we arrived at tom and karen’s house in virginia on friday night after a long trip, then headed out with the group saturday morning to get an early start to duck. traffic was crazy, as usual, but we finally got there!

thanks to lindsay, we got the prime room in our house — the master suite! and we needed it! we brought a ton of stuff for the three of us. the best part of the room was that it overlooked the pool. every morning, jackson would wake up and run over to the windows and say “pool! jackson, suit on?”

and that’s pretty much what we did every day — swimming in the pool, swimming at the beach, play in the sand, lunch, naptime, then dinner with various family members.

one day, dave and molly went hang-gliding off the dunes near nags head. actually, molly went gliding while dave took photos of the group. what a crazy time that was — it took the entire day up to learn how to do it, then trek out to the dunes, then give everyone his or her turn at it. molly was super nervous, but she managed five pretty consistent, decent flights! it was definitely a day to remember. (see photos above)

another day, dave, molly and jackson traveled down to the north carolina aquarium in manteo. what a great little place! jackson really enjoyed watching all the different kinds of turtles swimming around. so, we bought a small stuffed one to take home with us. (we named him obie — for outer banks!)

the best part of the vacation was getting to spend lots of time with matt and naomi and all the other spence relatives. jackson loved being the center of attention for the week and hanging out with everyone. each night before he went to bed, he would go around to every family member and say “goodnight, (name), jackson taking sleep!” and give them a hug and kiss. too cute!

thanks to all for the great vacation. can’t wait to do it again.

it’s been quite a while since we’ve blogged, and we’re sorry for our online absence! we’ve just been having too much fun since it’s turned to summertime!

jackson, dave and brooks have been very busy out in the backyard, digging like crazy to make us a new patio. since late may, they’ve been out there almost every day, pulling up the old bricks and prepping the area.

jackson is always such a big helper, using his shovel to fill up the back of his little yellow dump truck with dirt and yelling “digger, dumper, truck… digger, dumper, truck!”

jackson is also a great helper in the kitchen. it all started one day in may, when molly was cooling off some hardboiled eggs in a bowl near the sink. jackson pulled over his stool, grabbed one of the eggs and started smashing it against the side of the sink. he then proceeded to perfectly peel it, and the three others in the bowl! now, he can’t get enough of egg-peeling or potato-washing, every chance he gets!

and finally, we have some photos from the woodsboro carnival, to kick off frederick county’s bountiful fireman’s carnival season. yummy food, and jackson’s first ride — he didn’t want to get off!

jackson has been going to bad hair day? salon (yes, the question mark is on purpose!) with dad since, basically, he was born. and a few months back, rose was good enough to start trimming his blonde locks as he sat on daddy’s lap.

last month daddy decided that jackson was old enough to warrant his own appointment. so, jackson got the full treatment! and we’ve been getting positive feedback about the new ‘do ever since!