St. Michaels and Oxford Weekend In Photos

This past weekend, the Laurs were invited to spend the weekend with Bobbie's cousins, Gwenny and Dudley, in St. Michaels. Now when we say "invited," it's more like we took them up on their very kind invitation to "visit any time." We chose this specific weekend because we planned on attending the St. Micheals Winefest as we did two years ago, only to see on the way down that it was sold-out (and turns out was a little pricey for our tastes anyway).  Gwenny generously offered to watch Charlie while we enjoyed the town and par-took in our own Not-Buying-Wine-Fest-Tickets Bar Crawl!

We checked out boats.

Had some Orange Crushes

Killed St. Michaels Music Trivia

And we met the Famous RUSTY! Rusty is the creator of the Rusty Rocket, a shot of the bar's most hoppy beer with a splash of the hottest hot sauce you can find. The guy is a legend.

And we even found our own wine to taste

After our adventures, we headed back and got a great dinner thanks, again, to Gwenny and Dudley. We put in a good night's rest because day two would be filled with even more fun.

Pictures from Gwenny and Dudley's Place and a Fantastic Breakfast

Ferry Ride from St. Michael's to Oxford

To Oxford for some Charlie 1st(s)

1st time on a swing

You can even see video:

1st time in the sand

And we finished out the day exploring Oxford via foot and stroller

All in all it was a fantastic few days, and again we we left saying the following:
"why don't we come here more often"
"what jobs to do these people have that allow them to live here just on the weekends"
and of course,
"we've got a pretty sweet life"

Charlie's 1st Arts and Crafts Project

With Bobbie's birthday on April 1st, it gave me the chance to try and give her something that Charlie could put his own personal stamp on. The idea was to give Bobbie and nice little note the Charlie could sign in some kind of way.

My first thought, FINGER PAINTS! I thought finger paints would be pretty easy to find, but trips to Big Lots, Target and Toys R Us all came up empty. Michael's was the savior, where I was able to find these guys:

These seemed like what I was looking for: bright and most of all washable.So I took them home, waited for Bobbie to get out of the house, stripped the kid down and got down to business. Check the video:

Considering all of the paint remained in the small radius of just the high chair, I would chalk this us as a success.

Happy Birthday, Mom, you didn't come home to a huge mess.

3 Week Round Up and Charlie's First Easter Egg Hunt

It's been a very busy few weeks at House on Strathmore.  A few recent happenings, which still aren't an excuse for not blogging, include:

• John returned from attending the SXSW music and interactive festival in one piece (which is saying something)!
• Charlie and I went to Atlanta to visit our friend Hara
• A cruise for Aunt Kitty's 60th birthday with the O'Connells and friends. You can check out some pictures here! 
• My 30th birthday (a blog post is coming about Charlie's first experience making a card)
• Charlie's first ear infection (a double one)
• A complete obsession with the "50 shades" series, which actually is probably to blame for the lack of blogging--the 3rd and final book was finished last night!  If you haven't read the books ladies, you should--they are so addicting, romantic, and super intoxicating! 
• Orioles Opening Day, which John attended but Charlie was very enthusiastic about his support for the home team! Here's a great picture of him cheering on the O's (remotely)! 

and I guess that about sums up the past few weeks! 

So, today's Easter--Happy Easter and Happy Passover!  I must admit we didn't give today too much thought in terms of it being a "first" for Charlie, since clearly he's a little young for the Eater Bunny and all the other holiday festivities.  We started our day off by checking out the Baltimore Farmer's Market for the first time this year.  There really wasn't much going on, it's been so warm recently I guess you forget that it's still really early for any crops.  We still enjoyed ourselves and partook in some delicious mini donuts.

Mom and Charlie at the Farmers Market

We were really excited to have Granny and Pop-Pop (the O'Connell grandparents) make a trip up yesterday to bring Charlie his Easter present and we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Clementine's!

We are so lucky to have such a big and loving extended family, but that also means that finding time to see everyone can be a bit challenging.  Since Charlie's arrival we've been trying to do just one side of the family for each major holiday and have found that it results in more quality time and less stress.

Easter was spent with the Laurs which meant we were at Aunt Ann and Uncle Nelson's house.  I'd estimate there were about 60 people there and lots of kiddos.  Charlie was the youngest and everyone was really anxious to "see him in person."  John's Grandmom oversees the Easter Egg hunt which includes 3 eggs for each child and 4 special eggs which the big kids go all-out searching for, each one found is turned in for $5.  Here's some shots of Charlie finding his eggs, with a little help!

Getting some help from cousin Jenna

Charlie is totally enamored with his cousin Alana; however, sometimes Alana isn't so keen on his displays of love and affection.  Evidence:

And, finally a family shot, courtesy of cousin Maggie!