Happy 17th Birthday JAMES!

Andrew's Birthday!!

We celebrated Andrew's birthday early this year because his actual birthday falls right at the beginning of Kids Camp and the kids are gone from just after breakfast until bedtime.  

We heard that the park in our neighborhood was finally finished so we brought a pizza and watermelon picnic over there to check it out.

Dinner was quick and good and we headed to the playground/sprayground.  

Up North we didn't have these spraygrounds.  If we wanted to run through water on a hot day we had to supply our own yard and sprinkler.  But here the city does it for us.  

The new park looks great!

The sprayground

Grad Party!!

Saturday dawned bright and early and we had lots of work to do to get ready for the graduation party.

We headed out to our store of choice to pick up the cake and some of the fresh fruit and rolls to put out on the buffet.

While there, the kids and I scoured the Coke bottles for our names.

We found a couple we liked.

The Grad Photos!

I mentioned earlier that our friend Jessica came out to take some pictures of the family on the graduation day.  

Although it was crowded there on campus that day, we were able to get some great shots.

Graduation Day!

Graduation Day dawned bright and early.  Finally it was here - the day James would walk across the stage at the PMAC and receive his diploma from LSU.

Graduation Prep!

We had a whirlwind week!  Lots of things to do to prepare for James' graduation from LSU.  

We had a party to plan and guests coming in from out of state.

First we made cookies to freeze . . . 

I had lots of help from lots of kids.

Peter is SIX!

Six years ago we welcomed Peter into the family!

Matthew Turns 4

We celebrated Matthew's birthday yesterday.  He turned the big Oh-Four.

He requested a Nerf cake.

Turned out pretty good! 

March Goings-On

We've been very busy this month!  Expect several posts in the next few days.

Matthew got dressed up for church a couple of weeks ago.

Party, Sunday and a Generator

We interrupt our regularly scheduled posts to bring you this . . .

We went to a friend's party last Saturday night.  

It was a s'mores party. 

Our friend is from Texas.

Cool way to serve drinks.

Faith and Gracie

This set up is out on their covered patio.  It's pretty cool.

Looks like something in a magazine.

 The s'mores table.  

Lots of different flavored marshmallows, chocolates and crackers/cookies.

Pretty much sums up the night.  

Sprite and s'mores.  

For Yumm!

Sunday morning we all went to church.

Brian and Grace

Faith and James

After lunch we got into our regular duds to mess with the generator.

With all of the sickness we had around here we were a little late in dragging it out to run it. 

After a little snafu with the carburetor leaking, which we fixed up good, she ran!!

We plugged in the hairdryer to test it out and it worked! 

We were excited!

Yeah!!  

(Yes, I wore a skirt to mess with the generator.  I'm crazy like that)

Now stay tuned for a post or two about Grace's birthday.

Fourth of July

We had a great 4th of July this year.

James came home from Illinois.  

I had hoped there would be more pictures of his time at camp, but he was pretty busy.

Jon made an American flag out of Mega Blocks

On Saturday we were invited to a friend's house for a party. 

We stopped off at the new Le Blanc's grocery store 

(don't even think you know how they pronounce that down here)

to get some watermelon's to bring.

They had kid-size carts there - look at his face, ha!

Here are some pictures from the party. 

There was food, volleyball, food, softball, food, washers (a new game I learned), food, and fireworks.  And also music.

Brian and James played ball - they ended up being on opposite teams though.  

Brian on 3rd base and James as the 3rd base man.

washers

They live out in the country so fireworks are legal (and encouraged based on the 5 or 6 fireworks stands we passed on the way there).

James, tried to look patriotic with the fireworks behind him.

Sort of worked.

Glow bracelets

Fireworks!

These were not your little back yard type fireworks.  These were huge, rivaling the display we drive to the levy to see sometimes.  

I took an awesome video of them, but my phone died during the video and it was lost somehow.  

We had a great time!