We Visit The Capitol!

After learning that James was LSU's youngest graduate ever, a very close friend of ours proposed a resolution for the state senate to recognize him.

So, we were invited down to the capitol last Tuesday to meet with Senator Claitor and have our first tour of the capitol building.

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.

Visitors!

We welcomed some visitors to Baton Rouge recently.  Brian's aunt and uncle visited from Minnesota by way of California, Arizona and Texas.  

They traveled a long way! 

We had a big lasagna dinner the night they arrived.

We broke out the extra table.

Haircuts at LSU

My favorite place in Baton Rouge to get the boys' hair cut is the barbershop at the LSU Student Union. 

Yes, even on game day.

We braved the crowds and traffic and found a parking spot not too far away.

Here's Jon in his before/after

Andrew and Grace were watching tv while they waited.  Grace was tired!

Andrew after.  I didn't get a before.  Jon tried to take a during shot, but it was blurry. 

The barber gave us a 2-for-1 deal so we had some cash left over for the candy machine. 

Score!!

Then we braved the sidewalks back to the car.  

Flags were flying.

Lots of tailgating going on.

It's hard to see, but there is actually a big screen tv under that white tent.  A little generator sits by the tree to run the tv I guess.  Us?  We choose to watch at home from the comfort of our couch and avoid the lines at the port-a-potties.

But what do we know??

On the way back to the car we saw some tackle dummies.

So they had to mess around with them a little bit.  

Sure beats WonderCuts!

Stay tuned for a post on Gracie!  She's 7 months old already!!

Gramma and Grampa's Visit

Wednesday was rainy - pretty much all day, so we hung around at home. 

Grace tried on some of her new clothes - so cute!

And the kids played some more games.  There was Clue and Scattergories and Cribbage too.  

And there was a minion game.  When Peter plays it sounds like the neighbor is weed whipping because it's buzzing the whole time.

By the time Thursday rolled around, we were ready for adventure!  

I checked out a museum on LSU's campus that sounded interesting. 

So we headed out.  

We parked at the Visitor's Center where I informed them of our museum plans and picked up a map.

Under the live oak trees.

Bell tower

Finally we got to the museum and paused to take a picture.

The gang in front of the Museum of Natural Science.

We turned around and saw the "closed" sign on the door to the museum.  

BUMMER! 

We may never know what's inside the Museum of Natural Science.

So what's a gang to do when the museum is closed?  

Head over to the coffee shop for beignets (and hope that they're open!)

Plate full of beignets - we got three of these for the group.

Matthew was so  happy!

Grace was there - she didn't know the yumminess she was missing.  

The table got a little messy and Andrew got a little goofy

Peter enjoyed himself too.

Beignets and hot chocolate!

We had to take a picture of Gramma with Matthew because they just met!

Thursday also happened to be Grampa's birthday so we had a little party for him.

There was cake - we didn't have enough candles.

Grampa and the boys!

 Pretty soon it was time to say goodbye.

"Thanks for Nothin'!!"

Gracie's gonna miss you guys!  She'll see you next year!

James LSU Update

Today is the last day of finals for Fall Semester at LSU.  So far James has survived exams for Biology Lab, Calculus, and Computer Science.  This afternoon he will take his Biology Lecture exam.

Grades are due sometime next week.  

I will post another update when the grades are posted.  

Then he will have a break from school until mid-January.  It will be a break for all of us as we will not have to drive to "college" twice a day.  The other kids call it college!  I'm sure James will be doing a lot of sleeping in during the next month!

He's already registered for Spring Semester.  The classes will be the same with an additional Computer Science course.  The schedule will be quite different though. We've gotten used to the schedule he's on now so we will have to do some adjusting in January.  

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

Last Friday when we went to pick up James, there was a crowd around the tiger lair.  This usually means that Mike is off his duff for the moment.  There was also a prime parking spot in the visitor's section.  And, guess what?  Everyone was dressed - including shoes!!  I parked quickly, paid for the spot and we crossed the road to get a look.

None of this for us that day.  

We saw things like this:

And this:

I tried to get some pictures of the kids with Mike as he passed by.

I had limited success at this.

I took a short video though: 

Celebrating LSU's win against Alabama's Crimson Tide last weekend too!  

We're #1