Kenny's Graduation!

We went up to Pensacola last weekend for my brother's graduation from U of West FL! My HS friend Maggie (& lots of family) met me there and we had a great weekend! Oddly enough I don't have a single picture of us together! Here's me and Grandaddy.
Summer watching the Grads file in.
Grammy and Angel baby.
Pedicure time!
"I'm so proud of Uncle Kenny!"

My Dad holding Matthew.
Her pedicure is done, now it's story time. Who knew you could accomplish so much during a graduation ceremony?!
Happy graduate! Right before the rain began to pour!
I'm so proud of my brother!
Summer wants my purse!

Baby Girl is 4!

On Saturday, May 4th Summer turned 4 years old! Grandpa Riggs gave her a princess butterfly net, and a bug observation jar. He is trying to help her be a "tom boy."
She loves them! Hugs for Grandpa Riggs.
& Grandaddy!
The kids with Grandpa.
Summer showing Grandaddy how the net works.

"Aunt Sweetie Pie" getting Summer's Barbie cake ready for decoration.
Summer's face sums up the entire decorating process!
The finished product. Sprinkles anyone?
Aunt Sweetie Pie got T Jay an adventure kit for summer's birthday. He loved the compass and the portable radio and headphones.
She can write her name!

Grad Poses

It was raining cats & dogs after Kenny's ceremony, so we didn't get any great pictures. We decided to make him pose at Aunt Sherry's so we could take pics!
Kenny & Katherine
"Show me the money!!"

Fun at Aunt Sweetie Pie"s

It was all we could do to keep Matthew from falling into this fountain! He loves to play in water!
Summer, not so much. At least at this point. She did warm up to the slip N slide after a while.
T Jay loved it!
Katelyn, my cousin was queen of the slip N slide!

Smelling the roses!
Katelyn and Summer enjoying girlie time!
Sitting in the "man chair" doing man things! (TV)
Matthew finally got new tennis shoes! I didn't realize how crunched his toes were until they were really crunched!

Disney

This is the only way to fly!!! It's an Ergo baby and it is the best baby carrier ever! It is small, simple and puts all of the baby's weight on your hips. I wore it all day and was not uncomfortable at all!
Jess thinks this is the happiest place on earth, too!
Making good use of their "line time." By the way, "fast passes" are the only way to go.

Matthew ran in circles for 20 minutes while we waited for Jess and T Jay at splash mountain. Run down the slide, around, up the ladder & down. Repeat!
Summer being silly while T. Jay is getting the bajeezies scared out of him on the Stitch ride! Seriously, if you go there with younger kids, think twice. T Jay, while I know he has a tendency to be easily frightened, was scared for at least 20 minutes after. We went to the Monster's Inc. Laugh floor to lighten the mood. He kept asking, "This is funny, right? Not scary."
T Jay and Buzz
Pretty Kool Kiddie Kats, eh?!!
Ahh the life of an 18 month old is grand. What I would have given to ride around with my feet up taking a nap! Now all he needs are some grapes and a fan!!

Turtle Fest 2008

We went to our favorite beach for their annual Turtle fest to raise money for the sea turtle rescue center. We had a fun time learning about sea turtles. This one's a little scary, though. He's got those shifty eyes.
One of the rescued Sea turtles being rehabilitated.
Enjoying an ice cold lemonade. One of the best I've had. Can't beat it on a hot day.
T Jay and his snow cone.
When Summer drinks, she never lets go of the straw. We don't share drinks with her! :)

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day to you all! I love Earth Day, so I thought I'd share a few funny stories about Earth Day:
When Jess was in pilot training in Texas, we lived a whopping mile and a half from his work. He frequently rode his bike to work because it was faster and easier. On Earth Day he went to work on his bike like he always did, but this time, as he pulled up to the bike rack, he was met by an Earth Day enthusiast who gave him a sticker and thanked him for saving the earth by riding his bike to work. He found it ironic that he was being thanked for saving a mile and a half's worth of car gas to turn around and "burn" 1,000 gallons of jet fuel! He pointed out to said Earth Day enthusiast what he would be doing that day. I am pretty sure he got to keep his sticker, though. I am sure that all other sticker recipients down at the flight line found it equally funny. It's the little things, people!

On Saturday, I asked T Jay if he knew that Earth Day was going to be on Tuesday. He looked up and me and said, "No, but Mom, everyday is Earth Day." Thank you StarFall.com!

Yesterday, I put the new gas grill together (a whole other post!) for Jess so we could have hamburgers for dinner. As many of you may know, assemble yourself items come with a lot of packaging, whether it's plastic, Styrofoam, or cardboard, it's a lot. After I unwrapped piece number 900 I stowed all of the packaging in the box. While I was working on assembly (it took forever), I started to notice that T Jay was pilfering, piece by piece, the entire contents of the box. Each time he would say something like, "Reduce, Re-use, recycle-Mom, we're re-using this" or "This should be recycled." or "Mom, I need to Reduce this." I could hear them "building" their "house" for their Barbies (we have boy ones, too), but I was so engrossed in trying to make sure that I put the grill together correctly, I didn't really concern myself with the noises. Let's just say that the "reduced" every single piece of packaging into teeny, tiny little pieces and spread it all around the family room floor!

So, enjoy Earth day! Take time to revel in it's beauty! Plant a tree or start recycling-do something good.