Bringing friends to the lake!

I speak of the lake to people I know often, but we have never had any friends down with us.  Mostly because it is a family thing and there is usually only room for family.  However, my sister an her family weren't coming for the weekend so my parents were gracious enough to let us invite friends of ours to join us!  We had a blast-I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

Papaw threw the boys of the boat-they loved it!

Mamaw and Bear swimming

Boys skipping rocks

The pirate boys!

Derrick trying to flip Vickie and I off the tube!

Captain Matthew driving the boat!

Gina Grace

Waterfall exlporers!

Sneaky girl-not sure what she is trying :)

Boys about to take a whilr on the tube

Bill and GiGi taking a cruise

Taking pictures of Claire sleeping in her life jacket never gets old!

Laying down on the boat admiring the sky

I had more than enough sun for the day-cover me up!

2nd grader

I am pretty much in denial that I have a 2nd grader. I actually choke a little when I type in the "2"....Therefore I am not going to go on and on about it because I will full out cry like a baby about my baby not being a baby anymore. Oh wait, he's always my baby. And I will continue to treat him as such forever. Yes, that means kissing and hugging in public. And when he wipes off my kiss, I will be quick to plant another one on him, even if it means tackling him to do it. Is that going overboard?


This year our township got rid of bussing because of a failed referendum/financial reasons. Although it seems ridiculous, I side w/ the township on this and think they did the right thing. They chose to use the money they have to save teacher's jobs so that the classroom size will not be out of control and to also save specials classes (music, gym, art, etc.) Taylor has never ridden the bus anyway (I am too overprotective to let him) and have thankfully been able to take him myself. The reason for mentioning it though is that the traffic now to drop him off and pick him up is quite substantial. But the school has done a GREAT job getting procedures that work together and it is actually working out quite well. Plus, I carpool, so that helps too-I only take him and pick him up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am so not sure where I was going with this.......it has something to do with 2nd grade surely right? Or it could be that small problem I have with wordiness.....


Here's hoping for a sensational second grade year!

We do a cake the day before school starts and say a special prayer the night before the new school year.

I gave up trying to make him dress "nice" the first day a school. He detests collared shirts, which I would totally put him in, so I figured 2nd grade is the year to give him control over something; we'll start with the shirt on the first day of school :)

My loves

Taylor and one of his BFF's Matthew! His mom and I are friends so we rode together the first day so we could be miserable in traffic together and have someone to talk to about it :)

Matt Morrison (I mean NKOTB) concert

So back in the day (7th-8th grade?) I was OBSESSED with NKOTB (New Kids on the Block for those of you foolish enough to not know :)).  Me and my friends would work at it until we had the dances memorized, we would watch videos and pause it on their butts (oh yes, we were that immature) and I swore I was going to marry Joey.  I mean why not?  Why wouldn't he be interested in some average (okay, shorter than average) girl from Indianapolis.  It made total sense :)

So, fast forward 20+ years and they are on a reunion tour with Backstreet Boys (whom I really never got into, but the friends I went with did).  How lucky am I to still be friends with the same girls that obsessed over them with me back in the 90's?  (minus Jeni; we picked her up in high school, but STILL, that is 18 years later!)

To our wonderful surprise, the opening act was Matt Morrison (Mr. Schu from Glee).  HE WAS AMAZING!  He can sing, he can dance, and my is he pretty to look at! :) Ahhh....all in all it was a great, fun, fabulous night with some of the best friends a girl could ask for!

 YUMMY

THE GIRLS, they got the "Right Stuff"

 ON OUR WAY "Step by Step"

The boys.....Joey....ah....okay, back to my 33 year old self-it was a fun trip down memory lane, but I am not really obsessed anymore :)

We HEART Vacation!

We recently vacationed in St. George Island, FL. This is our 4th time there and we went with my in-laws. We rented a house across the street from the beach with unobstructed views of the ocean. There is just something so peaceful and therapeutic about the beach. We had a relaxing week of riding bikes, eating ice cream, going to the beach and swimming in the pool at the house. The 15 hour car ride with 4 adults, 3 whiney kids and 3 dogs was not as relaxing, as you can imagine! Click to see All Florida Pictures

Below are a few highligts of pics.

Yes, the whole car ride was this happy (haaaa!)

View from the balcony of the house

Claire LOVED walking the dogs

In town at Apalachicola

Grandpa and Taylor chest bumping after winning Sorry

My baby boys showing me some love

Alligator built and colored by Taylor, daddy, Gma and Gpa

My baby girl

At the park waiting for the movie to start

Taylor caught a SHARK!!! (and it is still in my freezer at home...WHY???)

Our family of five!

Grandpa, Grandma, kids and dogs

Cheese

Swimming in the pool at the house was refreshing after being at the beach!

Life doesn't get any better than seeing these 3 beautiful faces everyday!

So much to blog about, so little time.....

I feel like I am SLACKING on my posts lately...oh wait, I have been. Summer has  just been so full of fun and activities that time is lacking.  What will I post about next?

• Vacation to Florida?
• NKOTB concert with my girls?
• Weekend at the lake?
• School starting soon?
• My new job?
• The upcoming football/fall baseball season that includes 4 practices in one week? (WHAT WERE WE THINKING?)

Oh I know, it's all so exciting and I know my readers will all be on pins and needles to see what is next!!!

Go America! It's Your Birthday!

We had a super fun 4th of July weekend! We are usually at the lake (Dale Hollow) for the weekend but my stepdad's family had a reunion here in town so we couldn't go this year.  Instead we packed the weekend full of events with family and friends! 

Friday we took our kids to gamble for the first time.  What a memorable moment......when we first let our kids bet on horses.  Before you freak out, we just let the oldest (7 years old) bet....that's better right?

Saturday we had a cookout at my house with a friend we haven't seen in A REALLY LONG TIME...years..decades....okay not decades, but years.  It was actually a group that brought Todd and I together, and how we met.  If I remember that at the time, I could have made a toast.  Okay, not really.

Sunday we went to Benny's 5th birthday party at a splash park.  The boys had a great time-they played a really fun alien game that Ben's family (Aunt, Uncle and Grandpa) dressed up as aliens.  AWESOME. Then friends of ours invited us to their culd-e-sac party.  Food, drinks, fireworks (LOTS of fireworks), friends.  Can't beat it!

Monday (the 4th) we went to the local minor league baseball game that ended in fireworks.  We went with a couple of friends and their families and camped out on the lawn. The kids played, the adults talked and enjoyed ice cold draft beer and we may have watched the game.  Wait, there was a game?

All around, the weekend rocked!  However, it took me days to get over so much activity...does that mean I am getting old? 

Don't you wish YOUR husband had this AWESOME outfit?  It was even better when he was bending over to put the pools together in the yard.  W-O-W

I wish Emily had made it into this picture a littele better, but here we are hanging together after seriously 6 years of seeing Ben. Good times.

Oh ya, I made Gigi and Claire matching dresses for 4th of July. 

Claire was cheering for the fireworks, it was great!

Ya, they weren't messing around when it came to fireworks.  They were there to play.

Another shot of Bear and her cute dress. Wonder who made that??

My babes at the game!

Marc & Dawn

Mark & Matt

Dee & MaKayla

F bomb on the playground!!!

I am not sure if this is one for the "baby book" but my 7-year-old learned the "F" word this week.  It would have happened sooner or later.  You can't keep them from learning that information, I was just hoping that once he had the information, he would make good choices with it.  But no, not so much. 

Tay was at the playground with friends and there was a 4th grader with him.  He saw the word on the slide and told Taylor to say it.  So, Taylor read what it said but didn't know it was a real word, so was confused.  Then the boy said "aww, you said a bad word".  So, Taylor tells me later that he learned a bad word today and can he whisper it in my ear.  So, I let him.  Trust me people, hearing the innocent voice of your 7-year-old say that "F" word in your ear is not pleasant.  It made me cringe.  I proceeded to calmly tell him that is a bad word, it is not to be said and I don't ever want to hear him say it again.  He says "I didn't even know that was a word.  Do normal people like you and daddy say that word?"  Ahem. No.  I've never said that word.  Ever.  Ahem.  Or something like that.......Which is the truth, I don't say that word.  Unless I am going for "extra classy".

So fast forward to today while a friend is watching the kids while I am at the Dr.  I come home to find out that Taylor decided this new naughty word was just too much for him to keep a secret.  He had to make his friend say it too.   So, he did the same thing to his friend as the older boy did to him; told him to say the "F" word and then told him it was a bad word.  My nephew, whom I am sure has heard that word more than his fair share of times, came screaming outside that this horrible word was said.  And he did not censor himself, he was screaming F...F...F...F....like somehow it is okay to say if he is tattling. It was like a dream come true that he was able to tattle on someone for saying this.....

Needless to say, Taylor got to experience the taste of soap in his mouth as I made him hold soap on his tongue for a minute.  When he was finished....he said "That was so painful!  Next time, can you please just ground me from Wii for a week?". 

No, because there won't be a next time!!!!  Next time, you get to eat the whole bottle of soap.